One Day Experience At RangerStop

Our One Day Experience at RangerStop 2022

As you saw with the title, or at least seen on our Twitter, we only attended RangerStop for one day. Yes, we were excited for the entire weekend, as in me and RJ were supposed to spend Thursday through Monday in Orlando for a big weekend to not only refresh ourselves from work but also me from school except it got screwed up.

What Happened?

Well, if you know that June, well the end of May through the end of November is the Atlantic Hurricane Season and every year it is either bad where we have more storms coming to the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean or hardly anything at all if we’re not in the direct path. Lately, all thanks to Climate Change, it does exist people, the storms have become more monstrous in size and destruction. If you remembered how Florida got hit by Charley, Francis, and Jean back in 2004? This year was a bit more than that and living in Daytona Beach is not the best for a season like we had this year. We got hit by Ian towards the beginning of October and it was a direct one and we had hardly anything from it except no internet for a day in our area. We live in a flood zone near a bay and somehow the ground got super saturated which made Nicole more fierce. When we heard Nicole was heading our way, I was contacting the people at RangerStop if it was going to happen still since one of the direct areas was Orlando. We had reassurance it was still happening. We even had our press kit packet ready for the weekend to pick up, and our reservation was still on the Hilton Honors app. I was already packed, RJ had some stuff to pack and we were finishing that Thursday morning once the storm had subsided. 

Thursday morning started off like normal and I grabbed a few items for my suitcase since I bought a set this time due to how we lost our suitcases during our transfer when Tobi moved in. While Tobi was going to stay to take care of things, RJ grabbed his stuff for his suitcase and went to the bathroom while I headed for the kitchen for some coffee and I stepped in a puddle. I asked why there was water in the apartment and RJ saw it coming from our front door and then ran to the sliding door and saw it coming from there too, then our bedroom where it was coming in through the base boards and ran to Tobi and woke him up to tell him we were flooding. We acted quickly to get electronics from the floor, which were our surge protectors. Tobi did almost get electrocuted where one of his connections to his monitors was sizzling and about to spark. I remembered where people told us to leave a day early, if we had done that we would not have had a home and Tobi would have died from electric shock in the water and fire. So, yeah, we had to cancel the hotel reservation because we couldn’t make it due to what took place that morning. Even RJ’s cars along with other residents; cars got flooded. It was a mess! I was devastated because we were looking forward to this for months and then weeks and now we couldn’t do the entire weekend so we managed a day at least and that was Saturday.

Saturday at RangerStop

Friday was our way of looking up since we did get a shop vac aix rhoaw qwew selling at RJ’s job and we were glad to get a nine gallon one and get some of the moisture out in the apartment and his car. We did have to get a new battery due to it being affected by the flood since it ran out of juice during the day Friday.We did manage to make it to Orlando and purchase wristbands for the day. I was very thankful after going because I never thought we would experience so much kindness from the guests and staff, even one of the vendors. When we told some of the guests of our situation and why they didn’t see our Nerdy Shique Universe shirts nor press badges, they were surprised even when we mentioned the water came through the walls. We were told how some of the guests even had a hard time getting Ubers to Orlando because of the storm. Tracy Lynn Cruz was lucky on her third one because the driver was a trucker for a few years and drove through similar weather conditions. Kevin Nash had to cancel since he lives around our area, which I could imagine what may have happened to his home. Kevin, if you’re reading this, I hope you and your family fared better than we had.

We did get our copies of Wild Force, In Space, which there are two parts where we had one signed by Tracy and Roger while both by Christopher, and Lost Galaxy since one of the cast made it for the convention, we also had pics taken, which some of them did it for free but did pay for others with their bundles. We also had some of their photos they brought signed and will be framing those for our new place. And of course, we did manage to find a vendor I did purchase from.

A few days before the convention, a post was made about a jewelry shop called Raven Woodmanor was returning to the convention. This is a shop that not only had Christopher Kayman Lee sport some of their bracelets but some of the pieces also were featured on a few tv shows, one of which was Vampire Diaries. I did buy a necklace and hoped to pick it up during the convention since I talked to owner Anastasia, mentioning I was appearing at the convention doing press and when the flood took place, I thought I was not going to show up to get it. She did include a gift when she shipped it out after the convention but we did show up at her table and got my necklace I purchased on Etsy and the extra. We did talk about things, she was very nice and did give us pointers on what to do and asked about our apartment since she has had experience with storms while living in Maitland. I think she has noticed on my Facebook that we were able to get things done which is next!

The Aftermath

Being a major furball of stress was an understatement towards myself the week after the storm and RangerStop, even the Friday after it happened started my stress like crazy. I was glad Tobi told us to go for a day and he would handle some things at home because we needed it after all. It did help but the crap definitely made me not feel so good afterwards. I think Kleenex would send so many tissue packs after so much crying I done after all that! First, we were not the only ones who were flooded because everyone else on the first floor of our complex and the one down the road also faced flooding and residents were on a list to be relocated to sister properties, as in if you say you want to have a transfer to a second floor on property or others then they would try to find something but it was first come first serve. We were not lucky on that front. I will explain that in a moment. Not only that, the property knew that it came through the walls and the baseboards were not properly sealed either which made it worse. This was not the first time it happened either, our neighbor right above us told us how Erma basically did the same thing and caused cars to float. I did remember asking about flooding and was told about flood walls around the river that were built after Matthew except it didn’t help us during this one. Our neighbor across the hall not only faced flooding but also a ceiling leak on top of it. We both agreed that the base boards should have been sealed better even before the storms started to rev up even more for this season. 

We did face things like the mildew smell, which was terrible. We had to wash so many clothes, blankets, and other things that were caught in the flood. I had to toss some of my Ipsy bags even though they got caught in the water under our bed. I also had to toss an Ulta caboodle thing that had some of my makeup and some of that got ruined. I have to repurchase a new Eternals shadow pallet from EBay soon. So yes, we did lose things! I even lost the ORbit Reader 40 and my back up Victor Reader Stream.

Where Are We Now?

Last Wednesday, we received the vacate notice due to how they have to fix what was damaged. Yes, we got a Dehumidifier except it felt like it didn’t show up quick enough due to how much of a smell we were getting. Also, the doors were warped and our fridge also broke, which we ended up with a new one before we started looking for a new place. We did manage to find one in time and it happens to be at the first place we lived in here in Daytona Beach. I was glad they welcomed us back and of course people were moving to the complex due to how they didn’t have luck on the relocation list either. Even though we were given a list of the sister properties but were glad that we found our home again. We are still moving our stuff into the new unit, which is a two bed and two bath, on the first floor but when we had our one bed apartment we didn’t have flooding issues during Dorian during 2019. One of the people in the leasing office told me they only experienced window leaks during Nicole in most of the units, in which we saw tarps on windows showing they were being worked on. We were glad since Florida weather can change like crazy. I’m glad we found a place as quickly as possible and I felt more at home again since the stress was not good at the other place and seeing what we had to toss made it sadder to think that we lost our apartment but we survived in the end. 

Many Thanks

I want to give a major thanks to the RangerStop crew, guests, and vendors who were really kind to us on that day. We had gone through a major harrowing situation. I was worried about RJ since he was feeling it more and was afraid about not smiling in the pics, which he probably was in them that Saturday. Which will be going up on my Facebook once I unpack my camera from my Bakugou bag. Getting to meet the Wild Force cast made it even better, since that season did have an awesome crossover with the Time Force cast! Like I said, the pics that were signed are going up on the walls of our new place alongside our other autographs and posters. Again, thank you all! Even to Raven Woodmanor, definitely check them out on Etsy and they will be at Holiday Matsuri! 

Next Convention?

Not entirely sure when our next one will be. After this, I have to rebuild my savings again due to paying for some of the move-in fees, paying one of my cards off with some of the money we were going to use for hotel and food. Plus, next year is all about my graduation since I find it a bit miraculous with the flood, Nicole, and Ian that I’m still passing! Next semester will be my second to last semester and will do fine and I know it.I do want to go back to MetroCon though since that was our first press gig at a convention but someone asked about RangerStop in Atlanta, which that is a big question mark since we did have a blast there and enjoyed the food! Let’s see what 2023 has in store for us, it will be a big year and I hope no more storms come at us!

Jason David Frank

With everything taking place, earlier last week, I found out that Jason David Frank passed away at the age of 49. News has said that it was due to doing it himself which heard he was going through depression at the time. As someone who has faced depression, it’s hard to get out of and finding your way out by finding your own value helps. I have met Jason David Frank at conventions. I remembered when Anime Festival Orlando first announced him back in 2007 which I was really excited like most attendees. I always enjoyed watching him on Mighty Morphin and even watched Dino Thunder with my nephew years ago when Nicktoons Network showed seasons for an entire weekend. I did get him his autograph in 2012;To Jason David Frank, you were once a ranger in life, always a ranger in the next!

So, what is next? Not sure at the moment. Things have gone to crap, I will be giving myself a bit of time to heal from this and hoping to come back for another post or two in December. Until next time!