What a blast!
Unfortunately we only seemed to get about half the turnout we usually get due to the threat of inclement weather. Sorry for those of you that stayed away though because, for the most part, it stayed dry and sunny. We had a couple of overnight storms that made the ground soft but the days were beautiful.
We packed up the truck Friday morning, taking practically everything SCA related with us. Primary we wanted to see how things fit with the new cap on the truck but we were also being lazy and couldn't be bothered to unpack the stuff we didn't need. We meandered over to the site about lunchtime and began to set up camp in the lovely afternoon sunshine. I spent the evening working the gate, helping to check people into the site.
Friday night there was a pretty significant storm that blew through with high winds and torrential rain, but it left the all the campers pretty unscathed except for a couple of isolated incidents. The only unfortunate thing is that it made the ground wet again, after it had spent all week drying out. It wasn't too bad though, a little soft and a few mud puddles on low ground but more that okay for the various activities.
Fencing on Saturday was a little weird for me. I woke up feeling REALLY groggy and out of it, more so than my usual morning grumpiness, and it never really left. I had a low-grade headache pretty much all day and I felt dehydrated even though I know for certain that I wasn't since I was drinking LOTS (water and Gatorade) and pee'ing regularly. Salt was also being replenished. Not really sure what was wrong but I had a solid day of fencing nonetheless with some great bouts, even making it into the final of the first tourney against Wyatt. The second tourney was the dagger one, at which I'm not great, but it was still fun, and we had the pleasure of His Majesty joining us for a while. Unfortunately his loaner dagger "broke" so I gave him mine to use and pulled myself from the tourney, which actually turned into a plus since I got some much needed MiT experience. Lastly was the Blood Money tourney which relies on NOT killing your opponent, and even though I was terrible I had some great bouts! All in all, a GREAT day fencing.
Sunday started with the Baronial Champions for both Heavy and Fencing. Don Thomas put on a great fencing tourney, starting with a bear-pit that allowed everyone a chance to fight and have some phenomenal bouts. My goal was to go out, have fun and enjoy fencing regardless of the out-come. That mind-set worked really well for me and my fencing felt very solid and its starting to feel like I "fit in my skin". I didn't make it in to the final rounds but was very pleased with my fighting nonetheless.
The Tournament of Roses was an interesting couple of hours, primarily because there wasn't nearly as many people competing as there usually is. By the mid-way point we seemed to have lost even more fighters that had wandered off to do other things. My goal was just to stay healthy and go the full two hours which I accomplished. I don't view this tourney as anything more than an opportunity to fight a BUNCH of people in a set time-frame. I'm not about to kill myself from heat exhaustion or dehydration trying to win it. Instead, I just want to have fun with it and fight.
As far as the Heavy fighting went, the hubby says he had a couple of great days fighting, even winning his Tournament of Roses which was quite funny considering he made the winners prize! I now have a small wooden chest with a rose carved in the top, I'll post pictures at some point.
Sunday night in camp was pretty cool also. A lot of campers had already packed up and gone home so the site was quieter. We got a cooking fire going so we could make coals and preceded to make stewed rabbit with red wine and Herbs de Provence - DELICIOUS! It was a great evening.
Other than that, there was LOTS of catching up with friends and talking with people we've not seen in a long time. To be honest it's nice to be back outside after such a cold, bleak winter.
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