Thursday, March 22, 2018

Austin Nichols Makes a Return Visit to An Old Dearheart - One Tree Hill's Wilmington NC (Pt 1)


As Austin Nichols stated during his and Lee Pace's panel on Sunday, March 18, Wilmington NC continues to hold a very special place in his heart. He returned to the "small town" city last weekend for EyeCon's One Tree Convention No. 8 on Saturday the 17th.  Of course, he was delayed arriving, but that's a whole other side story which shall be saved for Part 2.  ;-)


Oh My Godot/Narnia's Florida Tom and PG had scheduled this event back when Austin's appearance was announced.  We made it safely to Wilmington NC on Thursday the 15th, despite missing our initial early morning flight.  The start of our con weekend had taken an ominous turn to be sure. Here was a look at me trying to catch Tom and the car for the lift to the airport:


LOL!  *wink*  Nonetheless, we arrived at lovely Wilmington International and after a near hotel rooming miscue, by Friday we were registering at the convention center and walking the riverfront.



Pardon the bedspread background on the badge!



The first two official days of the One Tree Hill convention were comprised of many lines, delays and veering away from a vague schedule.  Tom and I assume that OTH Bingo was played on Friday afternoon (supposed to start at 12:30 I believe), but we couldn't stick around long enough to participate, due to long overdue hunger pangs.  Crunchy fish 'n chips at the Front Street Brewery took care of that.


We returned in time for a Q & A panel which appeared to be comprised of four past guest stars, but I have to say that they did not seem too inventive with many of their answers and one in particular repeatedly just said "What he said" or "I have to agree with so-and-so" and would point to one of the other panelists, not expanding at all on his answers.  Needless to say, our first official day was rather disappointing but it was early yet!

Thursday night had a BBQ for those who wanted to pay to attend and Friday night held a cocktail party at Dan's Beach House.  Saturday morning was to be occupied with photo ops from 08:30 until 12:30 with a Q & A to begin following the photo ops.  With Chad Michael Murray not being able to arrive until Sunday and Austin delayed until Saturday afternoon, the schedule* was greatly impacted.  Organizers tried to accomplish more on Saturday in order to ease the imbalance thrown onto Sunday.  Once Austin had arrived, the call was made for fans to line up and they sure did line up:


The photo/autograph rooms were at the very end of this line and Austin's photo op line wrapped around the corner about where the girl in the bright blue shirt was, and continued down another hallway.  This was Austin's first One Tree Hill convention in the states and many fans were excited to see him as is evident above.

 There were two Q & A's on Saturday and the guests for the first one were Barry Corbin and Antwon Tanner.  Folks will recognize Barry Corbin from other shows and both of these men were funny and I greatly enjoyed their panel.


















Let's see, there are PG's "HQHD" pictures as seen above, and then there are these, lol


 


 

Paul Johansson and Craig Sheffer were in the next Q & A. They played brothers on the show and unfortunately I don't have too good of a photo to share.  As you can see, there are usually other people's heads, arms and cell phones blocking your camera angles.  ;-)


The view from the back of the main hall:


Saturday night's schedule was busy with a banquet and then a party.  The banquet was sold out and fans could have one of the OTH actor guests seated at their table.  Here's our guy Mr. Austy:

To give you an idea of prices, here were a few of the postings on the wall:




So, these prices are on top of your admission price if that gives you an idea of how much of a tab one can ring up at one of these types of conventions.  There are also private meet and greets, where you can meet in a small gathering with your favorite actor guest.  I know that Austin's was sold out, as were many (if not all) of the others. And just think - the Supernatural conventions are significantly higher than this one.  With our platinum package, Tom and I were allowed one free autograph and we both chose Austin for our autograph.

Austin was the sole, prime reason we both attended and Sunday the 18th made the entire financial expense, the missed flight, the hotel reservation near-miscue, the freezing convention hall temperature, missed OTH Bingo game, crying tykes on the plane, barking emotional support dogs, near-throttling of the convention emcee over the repeated delays ALL worth it.  When you see this up ahead of you in line...




it was all so worth it.

 LOOK AT HIM!!!!  That was Mr. Tall Texan himself, Mr. Austin Nichols within feet of us, famous 1000-watt smile and all.  All 6 ft and whatever of him (I'll never know because he wasn't standing!).    Also, Mr. Lee Norris just beyond at the next table and he seemed like a very nice gentleman himself. Autographs were secured.

My copy of John From Cincinnati (freed momentarily from its imprisoning bubble wrap): 


and Mr. Tom's "brick" that he lugged around with him all day Saturday for naught:

Kind of funny, when it was my turn, of course one of the hawks took my DVD from me and set it in front of her.  She handed it to Austin (why there has to be an intermediary I'm not sure) and he said "Nobody ever brings this!" and I told him "Yes, they have. Someone tweeted their picture of it last weekend".  And he looked up as I reminded him of this.  LOL!  See Austin, somebody is paying attention to your twitter feed, buddy. And that somebody is me.  ;-D  He then said "Oh that's right" but I'm not sure if he really remembered or not.  LOL.  And so then Lee Norris made a comment and Austin told him that John From Cincinnati was his best work.

 Tom was able to shake his hand twice, was addressed as "sir" and I think I shook his hand, but I can't even remember!!!  Jared Padalecki Syndrome had hit me and I lost all self-awareness.

 Soon, Austin joined Lee Norris for the first Q & A panel, which was followed by a second panel with Roberto Buckley, Stephen Colletti and James Lafferty.  Both panels were so enjoyable and let's just look at a few pictures.  











Aww, look at them!












The "Julian Baker High Five" again:

I'm so pleased with this one!  "Roberto" and Stephen:

Awwww!!!

Roberto!


Chad Michael Murray crashed the Robert, Stephen and James panel:








And our guy, Mr. Austy:

Yeeeeeahhhh, you betcha!!

 While we didn't get any selfies, no Karen Cafe, no on-the-street sightings, no beach walks, no up close & personal views of the battleship North Carolina (not too bad of a shot!), 




Florida Tom and I accomplished what we had set out to do.  I don't know about him, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it all over again.  

 It is no wonder that Jake is said to have fallen hook, line and sinker for Austin because he is a wonder to behold.  Very sweet, polite and personable.  And I will leave you with this.

 During the Q & A, Austin and Lee Norris were both asked by a fan what did they take away with them from the character and role that they played during their time on One Tree Hill.  And Austin answered that the lesson he learned from his stint as Julian Baker was that when you find that special someone, you hang on to them.

 And I have no doubt that he indeed does have his special someone and is hanging on for all he's worth.

Please click here for Part 2

 pic sources:  PG and Florida Tom, giphy, files mombius
our playlist:   Inner Smile - Texas
                      O - Coldplay  (Dedicated to Austin Nichols)
                      Waiting - Seal
                      I Can't Get Next to You - The Temptations
                      Extraordinary - Mandy Moore

              
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