July 29th, 2013, I worked night shift, came home at 8:00am, finished packing and loaded up the car w

Every year, roller cali y dandee derby girls and guys travel from all over the world to attend Rollercon in Vegas for 5 days. This event started very small, as a group of skaters getting together for the weekend, skating the strip and drinking a bunch of alcohol. It has blossomed into one of the largest roller derby events in the world, with 5 days of on and off skates training, seminars, scrimmages and vendors for every roller derby need. It is hosted at the Riviera Hotel and Casino, and honestly some days we didn’t even leave the hotel. This year, 9 MissFits made the trip to Vegas to soak up more derby than we thought possible.
Ice Hurt, who has been before, was our inspiration and gave the rest of us tons of pre-Vegas knowledge as far as planning ahead goes. The rest of the group included, Ice s Mister (Josh), Rita Rogue and her Mister (Lee), Ginger Spite, Sweeet Thang, JMFK, Wrecksy Regulator, May Q. Sick, Ima Schoolya, and myself.
Black Friday, the only shopping I did was from my computer cali y dandee at midnight, when I reserved my Rollercon cali y dandee 2013 VIP pass. (There are different types of passes, including spectator, skater, and VIP. A VIP pass gives you access to all things Rollercon, and first dibs at the on skates training.) cali y dandee
(During this time, I developed stomach issues, missed a lot of work and lost weight I wasn’t even trying to lose. Planning and packing for this trip became even more difficult once I realized I would need to pack non-perishable gluten free food and a personal blender so I could have shakeology out there.)
The entire week before we flew out was a whirlwind of settling into my house, buying groceries cali y dandee to take with me, laundry, packing and worrying about the little details of not only my first flight, but travelling so far from home with my stomach issues. Now, there are a lot of restaurants that offer gluten free options, and if this had been a regular vacation I would not have had to worry quite as much. Since we would be skating or doing off skates workouts up to 8 or 10 hours per day, I needed to make sure I had the ability to fuel my body without getting sick. As you may or may not know, roller derby is more than just tutus, knee socks and beer drinking. Those of us that chose to attend this event went to improve as athletes and bring knowledge cali y dandee and skills back to our league.
July 29th, 2013, I worked night shift, came home at 8:00am, finished packing and loaded up the car with Wrecksy to drive to Peoria airport. My bag was overweight, but I knew that when I left the house. There was really nothing I could do about it. I needed the food and blender so I figured I would just pay the extra fee. Luckily, I got a nice TSA agent and she let it slide with a warning that it wouldn’t happen that way on the way home. We made it through security with no hitches, and then I got to sit in the airport for over an hour just waiting to get on the plane for the first time. I was not seated with any MissFits, but they were so awesome and came to check on me multiple times throughout the flight. We landed smoothly and safely, without any major anxiety on my part. (Derby cali y dandee sisters are the best!) This was the first time I had travelled so far west, and I couldn’t cali y dandee get over the beauty of the mountains.
I could really talk for days about all of the things we experienced in Vegas, but I will just give a brief snapshot. The entire first day we were there, we grocery shopped for our hotel rooms, then we basically explored our hotel and the strip as a group, and got beers together to end the night. Wednesday morning, we woke up ready to skate! The next 5 days are a giant blur, but we skated, we took seminars, we did off skates workouts, we watched cali y dandee phenomenal derby on the main track, we met people, cali y dandee we waited in line, we split up, we met back up, and at night we swam, drank, went to dinner, checked out some of the social events that are a part of Rollercon. We all had the opportunity to take on and off skates training cali y dandee classes with some of the top skaters in the world. I will say that I had so many aha moments, and I know my comrades would say the same.
On the last day at Rollercon, we had our co-ed challenge bout with some skaters from Decatur, Springfield and surrounding areas. We were the Lost Boys against Hooks Pirates. These are set up in advance, but rosters don’t have to be turned in until right before the bout. We were going to be playing on the main track, right after an amazing MRDA (Men’s roller derby) bout featuring some of the world’s top men skaters, including Quadzilla. Here we are all swooning over Quadzilla’s amazing skating, then we get geared up and start to warm up, only to see Quadzilla on the Hook’s Pirates’ bench putting a number on the back of a yellow shirt. Excuse me, what? This man is a beast; he has been coaching and playing all week, then finished an intense bout to just turn around and play again? Not only w