Pennsic 39
The Pennsic Wrap Up!
So, Pennsic 39 has come and gone. Does anyone really care how I spent it? None the less, I’ll chronicle what I can remember for future days to come.
So Pennsic was basically in three parts for me. Land Grab, my return to Peace Week on middle Wednesday, and then War Week (after Kimmie left). Even though I was there from Wednesday on, my heart left on Sunday so it very much felt like three events this year so that is how I’ll describe it.
LAND GRAB:
I hate Interstate 95. Hate it. I am going to have to start taking Zero Friday off work now which is just stupid. But it shouldn’t take me 2.5 hours to get to Fredericksburg. That is just retarded. We were suppose to drive to the site, check in and drop the trailer and then go back to the hotel in Cranberry but by the time we got to Cranberry, it was 1:30 in the morning and we were just done. Making a wrong turn trying to get onto 79 North sent us most of the way to Ohio, and then back to New Castle using a curving (and I mean CURVING) and steep mountain back road. There was a bridge out too, no joke. In the end we got to site just in time to sign off on the map. There was some drama with land and some of the other camps on our block, but we were all good in the end.
Set up went smoother than ever. The tractor Trailer storage on site is the best decision I have ever made. Love it. Ray had injured his back the Thursday before LG and I couldn’t get him to stop working on Saturday. By Sunday he could hardly walk. Poor guy ended up going home middle Friday. Very sad, I really missed his company.
Otherwise we had more help for set up than ever before and it went really well. So well in fact that I was able to leave in the middle of set up and go to Ricky and Lindsay’s wedding in Canton, Ohio. The ceremony was lovely and the site was beautiful, even if I had to do a little ghetto driving to get there.
Sunday we finished up as much stuff as we could, I kissed the Kimmie goodbye, hit the Quaker Steak in Cranberry and then got home.
The next couple of days were a blur at work. In a way it was good because I got a ton of work done at work, but it was balls to the wall at home trying to finish up stuff. Have I mentioned how much I love my household yet? Well, I do. Balin and Beatrice came over and were lifesavers helping me get finished packing and loading my stuff.
Best of all we came up with a cunning plan. Kim had really wanted to paint a banner with her arms for this war, but had run out of time working on everyone else’s projects. So with a little canvas, a crazy plan, and the time and talents of the lovely Beatrice, we made her a new banner and presented it to her when they came up later in the week. It was awesome.
Wednesday finally came and I bid a fond farewell to the little one, and slugged through my work day. I told my boss that I was leaving at 3 since traffic had been such a nightmare the first time. (It was awesome this time of course!) Really I was just a wreck. Going home for those three days was just not worth it. Maybe next year will be one of those magical two week vacations I’ve heard of….the ones were you don’t have to drive back and forth twice to the same spot. Hm.
Anyway, I got in late Wednesday as predicted and spent most of Thursday and Friday running errands and town runs. Went I arrived the Cooper’s had set up “The Eye of Sauron” generator/spotlight about 100 yards from our camp. After some negotiations we got it moved farther away from camp and not shining directly at us. In the end it worked out ok and they didn’t run it the whole war, which was a blessing.
Over the next couple of days I got some quality time with my lovely wife (singing in Calontir! Woot!) and finished up a few minor things around camp. Alzonio worked out the God Like Beer Deal and we ended up with a keg of Penn Gold straight from the Brewery on Friday. Yum. Saturday was the last day we had folks coming in and my noon everyone’s tent was up.
Saturday was also the Novice Tourney and let me say how proud I was of our guys. We had four novices from Caer Mear fighting in the tourney, all of them folks that attend my Thursday night practices, and all of them did reasonably well. Balin received a token for best kit, and Abran was a strong second contender for that. I was and am extremely proud of all of them!
Camp really worked well this year. I love my campmates. We had zero drama up on the hill, as it should be! I loved having the arming tent again this year and the new camp gate was great. TJ added a mister to the Ghetto this year and that because very popular as the temperature increased.
Sunday was Opening Ceremonies and then Kim had to go home. It was very tough putting her in the car. I hope we never have to do separate weeks (even a few days) apart again. It’s bad enough missing Gracie, but missing each other was brutal this year.
Sunday was also the Combat of the Thirty and armour inspection for me. The only good thing I can say about wearing a chain hauberk that was two sizes too big for me is that it weighted about the same as the weight that I have taken off in the last six months. It was a wake up call to me that I need to maintain my weight loss and good health. Good grief!
The 30 itself was wonderful. I had a really amazing time, took ransom from Ambrose St. John and wasn’t captured myself. Our side, the English handily won, and of course we looked good in all the pictures. My new war standard was flying in the breeze. Armour was a real problem for this deed. I should have secured the gauntlets and helm I was borrowing long before the deed to make sure I was comfortable with them. The chain being too big took some creative armoring on the side of the field (thanks to Abran, Argda l and Balin), and I had to strip padding from my own helm (which was luckily there) to make sure I was comfortable with the kettle I borrowed. Just before the fight started I looked down and realized that one of the knuckle joints of the finger gauntlets I had borrowed was missing. It was too late to do anything but decide not to block with my hands. Also about a minute into the fight the helm slide and my cloth coif slide over my right eye. So I was fighting half blind and barely armed, which sorta adds to the badassedness of the Deed for me.
War Points started on Monday. Let me just say that I have yet to have a good time fighting in the Castle at Pennsic. It is just a giant pain in the ass. I’m just grateful talking to Rutager that they modified the scenario to have fewer rules than he had planned. It was a hot mess.
Monday night was Lodge night and while it was lovely to see Kai and Susanna and others, I was just exhausted and ditched the party pretty quickly. I was in bed by 10:30 at Pennsic! WTF!!! Getting old sucks!
Tuesday was the Woods. I didn’t find the new woods site to be as scary as it was portrayed. Perhaps it was just the one section I was in but while it was challenging it was ‘the deadliest/most dangerous Pennsic battle EVAR’. Will say that the underbrush made fighting spear a bit of a pain in the ass. Our guys fought really well in that I think. Sadly Ardgal got a little poison ivy from that one.
Tuesday night was Anglesey night and we trundled down to the bog for a little High Culture. At the new Anglebob standing stone display we cracked open the bottle of Crystal Head Vodka that Abran had gotten me as a gift. Yummy stuff and a kick ass bottle to use as a decanter now!
Do you know what is beyond Anglesey camp? Fuck and all, and fuck was out partying. We did a lot of failed partying searching this war. Things just seemed dead all over. I know that numbers were down but still.
Wednesday was Allied Champions, which is always just such a Slobberknocker. That evening was Midnight Madness which was its usual mix of Nighttime Fair and whackado garb display. Wednesday was also the day that I just hit the wall and wanted to go home. I think I would have been fine if Kim had been there, but I missed my girls something fierce. I hope I wasn’t too much of an ass from there on out.
Thursday was the bridges and I at least got one good battle out of them. In the first one I died almost immediately when a little squirrelly dude pushed me off the bridge. I checked him and took him with me, but it wasn’t my finest performance. The second bridge I lived till the end, and we rolled two bridges. Awesome. The third bridge was CA and Tessa sent me an arrow.
That night was Atlantian Court, which was, all things considered short and painless. Afterward we held our annual bardic in camp. (This is funny because since we stepped down as baronage and since Kim had gone home we were not going to host a bardic but after I went around to like four camps in a row and they all said “See you Thursday night, right?” we decided to just hold it. It was pretty low rent though. I didn’t get TJ to make Fruit Soup (I think I’ll bring that back next year since we had some many sad faces when they showed up looking for it and got beer instead.) and without Melisent there the fire was pitiful. Hospitality consisted of mixing chips and Doritos in a big bowl. *face palm* There were a lot of cries of “If Melisent was here this would NEVER happen!” haha. Good times though.
Friday was the Field Battles. Continuing my theme from the day before. First battle sucked, second was awesome and I lived till the end, and the third sucked. Plenty to work on in the future with the messinee and the army in general.
Directly after the battle we went into overdrive and got most of camp broken down and put into the trailer. These young guys are amazing….they can work with out rest or food. Wow. It made packing out on Saturday much simpler.
Friday night was Caer Mear court, which was lovely but I was just so exhausted I didn't make the best guest. The thermos full of travel beer was freaking awesome though! Bojenza also got her well deserved Golden Dolphin so that was worth the trip.
Saturday morning my campmates were up before I was working hard. What an amazing group of campers. Wow. They even kicked me off site at about 12:30 so I could get home to the girls.
I even got to read stories with Gracie that night and put her to bed. Bliss.
This was one of the most fun wars I have had in years. They just seem to get better and better. I am so grateful to my family, my friends, household and campmates. You guys are awesome.
Health wise I am so glad I dropped the weight for this war. I wouldn’t have made it through with out the conditioning I did all year to get ready for it. Sadly I had some pretty bad allergic reactions this year and I think my allergy to beer make have gotten to the point where I can’t drink it anymore. I’m going to try some testing in a couple of weeks because a BdB with out beer is just…wrong. I started the war off with a virus and seemed to have brought another one home with me. Bleck.
This was a big transitional year…so many changes to the event, both little and big. It was a little disconcerting. No Fruity Cobbler, the new woods and parking lots, the merchants closing earlier, and the impending doom of the little Brigadoon bridge….so many folks not there….it was just odd.
Overall though, I had an amazing war.
Now if we could just get this 50 week town run over and get back…
In the meantime, I’m plotting for Gulf Wars. Wish me luck!
So, Pennsic 39 has come and gone. Does anyone really care how I spent it? None the less, I’ll chronicle what I can remember for future days to come.
So Pennsic was basically in three parts for me. Land Grab, my return to Peace Week on middle Wednesday, and then War Week (after Kimmie left). Even though I was there from Wednesday on, my heart left on Sunday so it very much felt like three events this year so that is how I’ll describe it.
LAND GRAB:
I hate Interstate 95. Hate it. I am going to have to start taking Zero Friday off work now which is just stupid. But it shouldn’t take me 2.5 hours to get to Fredericksburg. That is just retarded. We were suppose to drive to the site, check in and drop the trailer and then go back to the hotel in Cranberry but by the time we got to Cranberry, it was 1:30 in the morning and we were just done. Making a wrong turn trying to get onto 79 North sent us most of the way to Ohio, and then back to New Castle using a curving (and I mean CURVING) and steep mountain back road. There was a bridge out too, no joke. In the end we got to site just in time to sign off on the map. There was some drama with land and some of the other camps on our block, but we were all good in the end.
Set up went smoother than ever. The tractor Trailer storage on site is the best decision I have ever made. Love it. Ray had injured his back the Thursday before LG and I couldn’t get him to stop working on Saturday. By Sunday he could hardly walk. Poor guy ended up going home middle Friday. Very sad, I really missed his company.
Otherwise we had more help for set up than ever before and it went really well. So well in fact that I was able to leave in the middle of set up and go to Ricky and Lindsay’s wedding in Canton, Ohio. The ceremony was lovely and the site was beautiful, even if I had to do a little ghetto driving to get there.
Sunday we finished up as much stuff as we could, I kissed the Kimmie goodbye, hit the Quaker Steak in Cranberry and then got home.
The next couple of days were a blur at work. In a way it was good because I got a ton of work done at work, but it was balls to the wall at home trying to finish up stuff. Have I mentioned how much I love my household yet? Well, I do. Balin and Beatrice came over and were lifesavers helping me get finished packing and loading my stuff.
Best of all we came up with a cunning plan. Kim had really wanted to paint a banner with her arms for this war, but had run out of time working on everyone else’s projects. So with a little canvas, a crazy plan, and the time and talents of the lovely Beatrice, we made her a new banner and presented it to her when they came up later in the week. It was awesome.
Wednesday finally came and I bid a fond farewell to the little one, and slugged through my work day. I told my boss that I was leaving at 3 since traffic had been such a nightmare the first time. (It was awesome this time of course!) Really I was just a wreck. Going home for those three days was just not worth it. Maybe next year will be one of those magical two week vacations I’ve heard of….the ones were you don’t have to drive back and forth twice to the same spot. Hm.
Anyway, I got in late Wednesday as predicted and spent most of Thursday and Friday running errands and town runs. Went I arrived the Cooper’s had set up “The Eye of Sauron” generator/spotlight about 100 yards from our camp. After some negotiations we got it moved farther away from camp and not shining directly at us. In the end it worked out ok and they didn’t run it the whole war, which was a blessing.
Over the next couple of days I got some quality time with my lovely wife (singing in Calontir! Woot!) and finished up a few minor things around camp. Alzonio worked out the God Like Beer Deal and we ended up with a keg of Penn Gold straight from the Brewery on Friday. Yum. Saturday was the last day we had folks coming in and my noon everyone’s tent was up.
Saturday was also the Novice Tourney and let me say how proud I was of our guys. We had four novices from Caer Mear fighting in the tourney, all of them folks that attend my Thursday night practices, and all of them did reasonably well. Balin received a token for best kit, and Abran was a strong second contender for that. I was and am extremely proud of all of them!
Camp really worked well this year. I love my campmates. We had zero drama up on the hill, as it should be! I loved having the arming tent again this year and the new camp gate was great. TJ added a mister to the Ghetto this year and that because very popular as the temperature increased.
Sunday was Opening Ceremonies and then Kim had to go home. It was very tough putting her in the car. I hope we never have to do separate weeks (even a few days) apart again. It’s bad enough missing Gracie, but missing each other was brutal this year.
Sunday was also the Combat of the Thirty and armour inspection for me. The only good thing I can say about wearing a chain hauberk that was two sizes too big for me is that it weighted about the same as the weight that I have taken off in the last six months. It was a wake up call to me that I need to maintain my weight loss and good health. Good grief!
The 30 itself was wonderful. I had a really amazing time, took ransom from Ambrose St. John and wasn’t captured myself. Our side, the English handily won, and of course we looked good in all the pictures. My new war standard was flying in the breeze. Armour was a real problem for this deed. I should have secured the gauntlets and helm I was borrowing long before the deed to make sure I was comfortable with them. The chain being too big took some creative armoring on the side of the field (thanks to Abran, Argda l and Balin), and I had to strip padding from my own helm (which was luckily there) to make sure I was comfortable with the kettle I borrowed. Just before the fight started I looked down and realized that one of the knuckle joints of the finger gauntlets I had borrowed was missing. It was too late to do anything but decide not to block with my hands. Also about a minute into the fight the helm slide and my cloth coif slide over my right eye. So I was fighting half blind and barely armed, which sorta adds to the badassedness of the Deed for me.
War Points started on Monday. Let me just say that I have yet to have a good time fighting in the Castle at Pennsic. It is just a giant pain in the ass. I’m just grateful talking to Rutager that they modified the scenario to have fewer rules than he had planned. It was a hot mess.
Monday night was Lodge night and while it was lovely to see Kai and Susanna and others, I was just exhausted and ditched the party pretty quickly. I was in bed by 10:30 at Pennsic! WTF!!! Getting old sucks!
Tuesday was the Woods. I didn’t find the new woods site to be as scary as it was portrayed. Perhaps it was just the one section I was in but while it was challenging it was ‘the deadliest/most dangerous Pennsic battle EVAR’. Will say that the underbrush made fighting spear a bit of a pain in the ass. Our guys fought really well in that I think. Sadly Ardgal got a little poison ivy from that one.
Tuesday night was Anglesey night and we trundled down to the bog for a little High Culture. At the new Anglebob standing stone display we cracked open the bottle of Crystal Head Vodka that Abran had gotten me as a gift. Yummy stuff and a kick ass bottle to use as a decanter now!
Do you know what is beyond Anglesey camp? Fuck and all, and fuck was out partying. We did a lot of failed partying searching this war. Things just seemed dead all over. I know that numbers were down but still.
Wednesday was Allied Champions, which is always just such a Slobberknocker. That evening was Midnight Madness which was its usual mix of Nighttime Fair and whackado garb display. Wednesday was also the day that I just hit the wall and wanted to go home. I think I would have been fine if Kim had been there, but I missed my girls something fierce. I hope I wasn’t too much of an ass from there on out.
Thursday was the bridges and I at least got one good battle out of them. In the first one I died almost immediately when a little squirrelly dude pushed me off the bridge. I checked him and took him with me, but it wasn’t my finest performance. The second bridge I lived till the end, and we rolled two bridges. Awesome. The third bridge was CA and Tessa sent me an arrow.
That night was Atlantian Court, which was, all things considered short and painless. Afterward we held our annual bardic in camp. (This is funny because since we stepped down as baronage and since Kim had gone home we were not going to host a bardic but after I went around to like four camps in a row and they all said “See you Thursday night, right?” we decided to just hold it. It was pretty low rent though. I didn’t get TJ to make Fruit Soup (I think I’ll bring that back next year since we had some many sad faces when they showed up looking for it and got beer instead.) and without Melisent there the fire was pitiful. Hospitality consisted of mixing chips and Doritos in a big bowl. *face palm* There were a lot of cries of “If Melisent was here this would NEVER happen!” haha. Good times though.
Friday was the Field Battles. Continuing my theme from the day before. First battle sucked, second was awesome and I lived till the end, and the third sucked. Plenty to work on in the future with the messinee and the army in general.
Directly after the battle we went into overdrive and got most of camp broken down and put into the trailer. These young guys are amazing….they can work with out rest or food. Wow. It made packing out on Saturday much simpler.
Friday night was Caer Mear court, which was lovely but I was just so exhausted I didn't make the best guest. The thermos full of travel beer was freaking awesome though! Bojenza also got her well deserved Golden Dolphin so that was worth the trip.
Saturday morning my campmates were up before I was working hard. What an amazing group of campers. Wow. They even kicked me off site at about 12:30 so I could get home to the girls.
I even got to read stories with Gracie that night and put her to bed. Bliss.
This was one of the most fun wars I have had in years. They just seem to get better and better. I am so grateful to my family, my friends, household and campmates. You guys are awesome.
Health wise I am so glad I dropped the weight for this war. I wouldn’t have made it through with out the conditioning I did all year to get ready for it. Sadly I had some pretty bad allergic reactions this year and I think my allergy to beer make have gotten to the point where I can’t drink it anymore. I’m going to try some testing in a couple of weeks because a BdB with out beer is just…wrong. I started the war off with a virus and seemed to have brought another one home with me. Bleck.
This was a big transitional year…so many changes to the event, both little and big. It was a little disconcerting. No Fruity Cobbler, the new woods and parking lots, the merchants closing earlier, and the impending doom of the little Brigadoon bridge….so many folks not there….it was just odd.
Overall though, I had an amazing war.
Now if we could just get this 50 week town run over and get back…
In the meantime, I’m plotting for Gulf Wars. Wish me luck!