One down...

Ho

ly

Crap.

Seriously... holy crap.

It may be the sunburn on the top of my head talking, but I just had one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. I was a little nervous on Friday when I drove the 4 hours from where I live to Fishers IN... but after a few hours of waiting for my tent to show up, I got a call from Swayer. Dinner time, yay!

Swayer rocks in person. Rocks more so then she does in her online down time. Ren, this is where you get all jealous and start thinking about that one time where you thought she and I ______ with the _______ and then sent you the ______ without the _______ just for giggles.

Anyway, I told Swayer of my tent woes over our delicious dinner and my huge margarita since the tent thing is what was making me all nervous. You see, period tents aren't cheep, not my a long shot. So because I'm just starting out I was planning on using the Company's loner tent so I had someplace to sleep should it rain or I needed some quiet time. The tent is left with the Quartermaster who brings to to events for the poor newbies who need it. I got to Conner Prairie at 3:30... the tent was not arriving till 9 or 10. There went my plan to set it up in the daylight...

So I go out, have a tasty dinner, and then the lovely Swayer drops me back off at camp where I wait until the rest of the company comes rolling in at 10pm. Tent setting up time! I wish... turns out the guy who was bringing the tent forgot the ridge pole, which is the big pole that holds the bloody tent up. Needless to say there were many jokes made about poles and I decided to sleep in my car because there was a fairly good chance of rain for the weekend.

On the upside, Ion's have wonderful backseats/trunks for sleeping in!

Moving on... nothing much happened Friday night, I turned in early at about 11:30 and got up around 9. Conner Prairie is a great living history site that I just had to check it out. They have different time periods, lots of animals, the staff normally wears clothes that go with the period they're in at the village... it's really quite nice. I didn't get to look around as much as I would have liked, but it was still cool.

There were two 'battles', one on sat and one on sun, both at 2pm. As battles go, I have to say I really wasn't impressed. It felt like they were doing a drill against each other instead of actually fighting. Hopefully it'll be a bit more refined next year if I go back.

I got to talk with a lot of people about reenacting over the weekend. People have some of the oddest questions.. but once you say you're new to the hobby that conversation almost always turns too how do you get started in something like the encampments. I think a few of the IN company's may have some new members soon, thanks to yours truly.

As much as I love the people who come to the events, I still think the best part is after the sites close and the reenactors can relax a bit. Period instruments and songbooks come out, fires are lit, talk and some drinking ensues... it's just nice. people who have been in the hobby for years have great ideas on camp life and what to do too make yourself at home wherever you go, and a lot of them are just huge fonts of knowledge about anything Civil War related.

Saturday was really the best day for me. I hung out with Ma Chin and learned some tricks of the trade. She plans on moving to NC, so the company will need a cook and all around awesome person to fill her sizable shoes. I think I'm up to the task, but I need a loooot of work yet.

After dinner was music, a ball (which I couldn't dance in because of my knee), and the drinking. The music for the ball was great, but by the time we got there that half bottle of tequila Mac told me I should drink was catching up with me. I ended up sitting with some of the guys under the trees and taking sips of peoples beers... and then I somehow ended up with the Captain's kepi... which looked WAY better on me then it did on him, and I even have the ego to fill it out! Mac's hat was bigger though, so I need to work on filling that one out too....

Also, my new nickname is Cinnamon.

Back to camp, played some eucker with Euclid and totally kicked the 4th Virginia's butts at it even though my team was halfway and a bit to passing out. Finally decided to call it a night when it started raining. Now my car is a good 5 minute walk from where the camp was, so I had a ways to go.. carrying my quilt, haversack, key (just the one), walking in the dark, the rain, and the tipsyness. Needless to say, I dropped my keys. To this hour I have no idea how I found them so quickly. It's really a miracle that I wasn't wandering around the grassy infield for ages looking for one key.

Really long story short, my drunk friend and I made it to my car without getting totally soaked, but at last count I have bruises just about everywhere, including my spine, God only knows how I got that one....

Assume nothing! No cake was had, but I did sleep daaaaamn well and was nice and toasty all night.

Sun was a bit slower, more relaxed. I kept looking for some chick in a pirate hat but I must have missed her. Gives me a good reason to go back next year though.

The only part of the weekend I regret is not being able to answer my cell when John called. John has been a friend of mine for quite a while and right now he's in GA at boot camp. I miss him and I wish we could talk more often, and Sat was the first time he'd gotten a chance to call me since me left back in March.

All in all, it was a kick ass weekend. At this point I'm reconsidering the trip too Gettysburg just because 7 hours of driving with my knee as is will be a bad idea if the 4 hours one way this weekend was any indicter.

Oh, I have pics too! Tons of pics! I'll pop them up later but right now I have too head to bed. The lack of sleep is catching up with me and I have my new job tomorrow at 8am.