My Kingdom For a Boat
Well some of you knew that I was going to be gone on a medieval-themed camping trip with the SCA from Friday through Sunday. The event is called March Crown and it was in Woodland, CA. It's pretty much the wettest weekend event in the West Kingdom, so it is affectionately nicknamed "March Drown." A few years ago I went with the Shire of Champclair (a Solano County-based group) and our dragonwing (which is a long rectangle of cloth supported by poles, really better suited for a sunshade) leaked very badly and we spent the weekend singing our new anthem "We All Live In a Leaky Drangonwing," to the tune of "Yellow Submarine." Oh yes, that was a very wet weekend.
But this March Drown was wetter.
I packed up all my stuff early Friday. I actually realised soon after I left that I had forgotten to bring a coat or even a sweatshirt, but I wasn't worried because I *did* have two cloaks and it was more important to have garb than mundane clothing. The lack of a coat is important later. So I picked up lacieldellery Friday morning and we drove to Woodland. I live in the Sacramento area and lacieldellery lives in Fairfield, so it took me about 45-50 minutes to get from Sac to Fairfield, passing Woodland on the way (this is important later). We got there, found House Darkclaw with whom we would be camping, and scoped out a place for my family-sized tent (I love how tent packaging will claim to house say, 9 people but in reality, it's more like 2 people and their stuff - as lacieldellery puts it, "9 VERY friendly people"). So we found a spot next to this metal plate in the ground that we didn't really think much of at the time (the plate is important later). We pitched the tent and put our stuff in there, and went to sociallise. Btw lacieldellery had contributed to the trip by bringing a table because mine had mildewed (was wooden) and two cots, hers and her mom's. I *usually* use an air mattress, but I was glad to get to use a cot. The cots are important later, too.
So it started to rain before it got dark. Okay. *EVERYONE* expects rain at March Drown. I happen to know that my tent does not leak - might get a little bit of water in at the bottom IF it's *very* wet outside but that can be dealt with. I was confident that the tent wouldn't leak. It started to rain a bit and when I went to the tent to fetch something my golf umbrella broke - it opened most of the way but refused to close because the spring was broken. I thought it was kind of funny at the time. Now I know it was an ill omen.
Eventually lacieldellery was tired and we turned in. Now, I'm sort of an insomniac (I plan to mention this to my doctor tomorrow actually because it's gone on long enough) so I took sleeping pills, then went to bed. Well I didn't sleep. I lay there awake for hours, listening to the rain grow heavier and the wind roaring (it was VERY gusty) and to some faroff drumming, and people chatting in the distance. lacieldellery snored softly, so she was sleeping soundly (very VERY softly, lacieldellery, lol, it didn't bother me at all, it's just how I knew you were asleep).
So...several hours after we went to bed, um...maybe one in the morning, I start hearing people walking around a lot outside. And splashing. Like...through deep water. Seriously *wading* through water. And then it hit me that this wading was going on TWO feet away from my head. I reached down and felt water up to my wrist. Yeah. I sat up and turned on the light, and my end of the tent was submerged. I tugged on some of my stuff, it was soaked. My bowl was *floating* around. The beautiful foxpelt quiver I had made, filled with the arrows I had made, was *under* water.
THANK GOD FOR COTS. Maybe if we'd been on the ground we'd have realised it was flooding sooner, but it still would have sucked, so I'm glad we had the cots.
I called lacieldellery's name. Nothing. Tried again. Snoring. A few more times. Finally she mumbled "Good morning."
"No," I said flatly. "Our tent is filled with water."
"...Whut."
"The tent is filled with water."
lacieldellery sat up and looked around. Expletives. We put on our boots and scrambled around. I had a whole box of plastic trashbags in my duffel so I was putting stuff in them so they wouldn't get worse. lacieldellery had brought her stuff in one of those cool wooden trunks you can buy at medieval fairs so *most* of her stuff was okay, though her cel phone was on the ground and not yet too wet, and she thanked me like 45,678 times throughout the weekend afterwords for waking her up because her mom would have killed her if it had died.
Anyways all of MY stuff got wet, all my clothes, everything. And my bedding got wet because I was putting stuff on my cot briefly before putting them into the bags. lacieldellery's Amazing $300 Sleeping Bag was dry (I'm actually not making that number up) so she went back to sleep. I was WET and couldn't do anything about it. I lay there for almost three more hours before giving up - I couldn't take it. I decided to go to the bathroom, put on some underwear (wet or not) and go sit in my car with the heater on. I went to the bathroom (wading through the ankle-deep water just outside our tent) and got my undies on and everything before realising I no longer had my keys. Yes, I had dropped them somewhere between the tent and the bathroom. I looked with my lantern and couldn't find them, so I went to join the people under the dragonwing huddled around the fire. They'd been there ALL night because their tents had either flooded, blown down (it was QUITE windy) or, in the case of one poor guy, both. All that splashing I had heard had been some of THEM, on "pavilion watch" going around trying to rescue the cloth pavilions that hadn't been able to stay upright. I had no umbrella (this dragonwing didn't "leak" but they're not meant to repel rain so we were continually misted). I had no coat. My cloaks were both wet and useless and therefore still in the tent. I huddled there too until morning.
The sun rose at six-ish, and the rain *stopped* entirely. It got hot quickly, actually. And in the sun I could see the LAKES that now resided in our encampment. Our tent was in the biggest one.
The metal plate in the ground I mentioned earlier? A drain. If I had only realised it was a drain before, I would have probably made the connection that drain = known flood area. But I didn't.
I went back to the tent, entering through the back door because it was a bit easier to get to than the front. I opened the front door and looked at the pond out there, thought a moment, then submerged my arm past the wrist and probed around. I found my keys instantly. I went and got my car, parked it nearby, and started hauling my stuff to it. lacieldellery woke up and helped me. Eventually we had everything but the cooler, and the cots which lacieldellery said to leave. We drove the half hour or so to my apartment where I washed *everything* that could be laundered and we had breakfast. I lay down for an hour but didn't sleep, though I did feel better. Then we went back, with only her stuff and me taking one medieval outfit. We packed up the cots, then unstaked the tent and dragged it to the road, then I hauled it up on top of my car to pour the water out. We packed that up, and got the cooler too. Drove back to the parking lot, then I went and cleaned up and changed to my costume. Back to the car for sandwiches, then we walked around the event for a bit, pretty much just looking at the merchants stuff. Didn't really buy anything worth mentioning. I was dead tired so we left. I had to drive lacieldellery home, then drive all the way back to Sac (more than an hour of trying to stay awake).
We misssed *everything* at the event, the fighting, the Arts and Sciences stuff, and the famous Saturday night revels. We didn't really get to do *anything* other than hang out Friday night, which was cool, but I'm not sure it was really worth all what happened.
And yet, I'm not like all pissed about it. Because the SCA is *that* awesome. My black fox tail that I wear on my belt rotted, and it hadn't gotten terribly wet, but my foxpelt quiver, which had been submerged, seems okay (I was expecting the tail to fall off or something).
I am going to buy a cot now. And I can't afford one of those wooden chests but I'm getting a Rubbermaid or something. Seriously. (But I don't think an Amazing $300 Sleeping Bag is entirely necessary).
But this March Drown was wetter.
I packed up all my stuff early Friday. I actually realised soon after I left that I had forgotten to bring a coat or even a sweatshirt, but I wasn't worried because I *did* have two cloaks and it was more important to have garb than mundane clothing. The lack of a coat is important later. So I picked up lacieldellery Friday morning and we drove to Woodland. I live in the Sacramento area and lacieldellery lives in Fairfield, so it took me about 45-50 minutes to get from Sac to Fairfield, passing Woodland on the way (this is important later). We got there, found House Darkclaw with whom we would be camping, and scoped out a place for my family-sized tent (I love how tent packaging will claim to house say, 9 people but in reality, it's more like 2 people and their stuff - as lacieldellery puts it, "9 VERY friendly people"). So we found a spot next to this metal plate in the ground that we didn't really think much of at the time (the plate is important later). We pitched the tent and put our stuff in there, and went to sociallise. Btw lacieldellery had contributed to the trip by bringing a table because mine had mildewed (was wooden) and two cots, hers and her mom's. I *usually* use an air mattress, but I was glad to get to use a cot. The cots are important later, too.
So it started to rain before it got dark. Okay. *EVERYONE* expects rain at March Drown. I happen to know that my tent does not leak - might get a little bit of water in at the bottom IF it's *very* wet outside but that can be dealt with. I was confident that the tent wouldn't leak. It started to rain a bit and when I went to the tent to fetch something my golf umbrella broke - it opened most of the way but refused to close because the spring was broken. I thought it was kind of funny at the time. Now I know it was an ill omen.
Eventually lacieldellery was tired and we turned in. Now, I'm sort of an insomniac (I plan to mention this to my doctor tomorrow actually because it's gone on long enough) so I took sleeping pills, then went to bed. Well I didn't sleep. I lay there awake for hours, listening to the rain grow heavier and the wind roaring (it was VERY gusty) and to some faroff drumming, and people chatting in the distance. lacieldellery snored softly, so she was sleeping soundly (very VERY softly, lacieldellery, lol, it didn't bother me at all, it's just how I knew you were asleep).
So...several hours after we went to bed, um...maybe one in the morning, I start hearing people walking around a lot outside. And splashing. Like...through deep water. Seriously *wading* through water. And then it hit me that this wading was going on TWO feet away from my head. I reached down and felt water up to my wrist. Yeah. I sat up and turned on the light, and my end of the tent was submerged. I tugged on some of my stuff, it was soaked. My bowl was *floating* around. The beautiful foxpelt quiver I had made, filled with the arrows I had made, was *under* water.
THANK GOD FOR COTS. Maybe if we'd been on the ground we'd have realised it was flooding sooner, but it still would have sucked, so I'm glad we had the cots.
I called lacieldellery's name. Nothing. Tried again. Snoring. A few more times. Finally she mumbled "Good morning."
"No," I said flatly. "Our tent is filled with water."
"...Whut."
"The tent is filled with water."
lacieldellery sat up and looked around. Expletives. We put on our boots and scrambled around. I had a whole box of plastic trashbags in my duffel so I was putting stuff in them so they wouldn't get worse. lacieldellery had brought her stuff in one of those cool wooden trunks you can buy at medieval fairs so *most* of her stuff was okay, though her cel phone was on the ground and not yet too wet, and she thanked me like 45,678 times throughout the weekend afterwords for waking her up because her mom would have killed her if it had died.
Anyways all of MY stuff got wet, all my clothes, everything. And my bedding got wet because I was putting stuff on my cot briefly before putting them into the bags. lacieldellery's Amazing $300 Sleeping Bag was dry (I'm actually not making that number up) so she went back to sleep. I was WET and couldn't do anything about it. I lay there for almost three more hours before giving up - I couldn't take it. I decided to go to the bathroom, put on some underwear (wet or not) and go sit in my car with the heater on. I went to the bathroom (wading through the ankle-deep water just outside our tent) and got my undies on and everything before realising I no longer had my keys. Yes, I had dropped them somewhere between the tent and the bathroom. I looked with my lantern and couldn't find them, so I went to join the people under the dragonwing huddled around the fire. They'd been there ALL night because their tents had either flooded, blown down (it was QUITE windy) or, in the case of one poor guy, both. All that splashing I had heard had been some of THEM, on "pavilion watch" going around trying to rescue the cloth pavilions that hadn't been able to stay upright. I had no umbrella (this dragonwing didn't "leak" but they're not meant to repel rain so we were continually misted). I had no coat. My cloaks were both wet and useless and therefore still in the tent. I huddled there too until morning.
The sun rose at six-ish, and the rain *stopped* entirely. It got hot quickly, actually. And in the sun I could see the LAKES that now resided in our encampment. Our tent was in the biggest one.
The metal plate in the ground I mentioned earlier? A drain. If I had only realised it was a drain before, I would have probably made the connection that drain = known flood area. But I didn't.
I went back to the tent, entering through the back door because it was a bit easier to get to than the front. I opened the front door and looked at the pond out there, thought a moment, then submerged my arm past the wrist and probed around. I found my keys instantly. I went and got my car, parked it nearby, and started hauling my stuff to it. lacieldellery woke up and helped me. Eventually we had everything but the cooler, and the cots which lacieldellery said to leave. We drove the half hour or so to my apartment where I washed *everything* that could be laundered and we had breakfast. I lay down for an hour but didn't sleep, though I did feel better. Then we went back, with only her stuff and me taking one medieval outfit. We packed up the cots, then unstaked the tent and dragged it to the road, then I hauled it up on top of my car to pour the water out. We packed that up, and got the cooler too. Drove back to the parking lot, then I went and cleaned up and changed to my costume. Back to the car for sandwiches, then we walked around the event for a bit, pretty much just looking at the merchants stuff. Didn't really buy anything worth mentioning. I was dead tired so we left. I had to drive lacieldellery home, then drive all the way back to Sac (more than an hour of trying to stay awake).
We misssed *everything* at the event, the fighting, the Arts and Sciences stuff, and the famous Saturday night revels. We didn't really get to do *anything* other than hang out Friday night, which was cool, but I'm not sure it was really worth all what happened.
And yet, I'm not like all pissed about it. Because the SCA is *that* awesome. My black fox tail that I wear on my belt rotted, and it hadn't gotten terribly wet, but my foxpelt quiver, which had been submerged, seems okay (I was expecting the tail to fall off or something).
I am going to buy a cot now. And I can't afford one of those wooden chests but I'm getting a Rubbermaid or something. Seriously. (But I don't think an Amazing $300 Sleeping Bag is entirely necessary).