I was surprised to hear that the Jacksonville Code Camp wasn't cancelled. A major tropical storm was coming through the area at the time, but the organizers for the Code Camp weren't going to let that stop them. I decided if they were brave enough to hold a conference during a tropical storm, I should be brave enough to drive into it. Just not in my rag top; we took my wife's car.
Friday, my wife and I packed our bags and headed out the door. We were picking Lou Vega up from Charleston, and it was going to take 6 hours total with that detour. We hit the largest storm immediately outside of Columbia. Life is so ironic. The worst we encountered from Fay were strong winds. It's not fun when you're inches away from a concrete barrier and you can feel the wind pushing your car to and fro.
We were quite lucky that the storm had cleared the streets. A certain direction web site changed E Coastline Dr to Line St. This caused us to end up in a very unsavory part of town. Once we determined that there wasn't a Hyatt Regency between what appeared to be crack houses, we called the hotel to get directions. The most eventful part of the evening was when Lou wrestled an alligator driven from its habitat by the storm... but that's a story for another day.
The Code Camp went very well considering the circumstances. The location was moved to a different part of town, but we didn't have trouble finding it due to my spidey senses. It felt kind of odd giving a presentation from the back of a room, but all was well in the end. I was able to meet up with some old friends, Scott Dorman and Russ Fustino, and made a few more. Later that night we went back to the Regency for the after-party. One benefit of the reduced attendance was the proliferation of blue tickets. It ended up being like a pub club with better food and a nice view of the river.
If you haven't made it to a Code Camp before, I recommend you try it out. It gives you a chance to learn, win books and software, and hang out with other members of the development community. The best part is they're always on the weekend, so it will not interfere with your regular work schedule.