Kalahari is huge and I am exhausted. I was all packed and ready to check out this morning. Then  I got my bill and, you guessed it . . . the other Sandy! Check out time was 11am and I was planning on squeezing one more session in before I had to leave. Instead I spent that time in the lobby straightening out my bill. By the way if you stayed at the resort, you should check your bill to make sure they waved the resort fee. They will remove the fee if you were charged.

The conference runs til 4pm today. With check out time at 11am, I wonder how many people are going to leave early. Yesterday afternoon the halls were filled with families checking in for the weekend. This morning buses were arriving packed with teenagers headed for the prom. The peace and quiet of the last few days was gone and the genealogists retreated to the safety of the conference center.  I had to make one more sweep of the exhibit hall and distribute the last of my raffle tickets. Then  I said "goodbye to Kalahari" and vowed to return again someday.

This is my only conference for this year. I envy those of you who are getting ready to attend the NGS Conference in Richmond, Virginia. I have ancestors who lived in that area back in the 1700's and it would have been wonderful to walk the land they walked on. 

While I was in the exhibit hall yesterday I picked up a book, An In-Depth Guide to Richmond, Virginia by Shannon Combs-Bennett. It is a great book for anyone going to the NGS Conference or planning on doing research in the Richmond area at a later date. It contains information about downtown, safety, transportation, shopping, and nearby attractions. For more information: 

http://theindepthgenealogist.com/product/an-in-depth-guide-to-richmond-virginia-pdf/

So what did I learn at the OGS 2014 Conference? 
*I definitely need to start using Evernote. Also learned that Thomas MacEntee is extremely funny.
*Playing live Clue with a bunch of genealogists can be fun and confusing. Sort of like family research.
*The ague of the early days of the Great Black Swamp was actually malaria.
*It is easy to hit over 6,000 steps on your fitbit in one day at a genealogy conference. Also learned it is not easy to get out of bed the next day!
*But most important, genealogists are some of the friendliest people in the world. We relate!