Event report: Crown Tournament
Oct. 27th, 2008 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassI'd been planning on sleeping over at least one night near Crown, but circumstances conspired against me. Instead, I found myself out the door at 8 am for what would turn out to be a long day-trip. By 8:22 I had gas in my car and was hitting the highway, and I reached the event site three hours (almost to the minute) later. The border crossing was fast and easy, and the only problem with the whole trip is that my windshield wipers weren't sticking to the windshield particularly well, leaving a large smear of water in front of my eyes. No matter. The important thing is that I got to the site.
Though people warned me it was a long walk to the list fields from the parking area, I hadn't realized quite how long it was. Thank goodness I changed in my car before walking down! It must have been a half-mile or more!
Showed up, checked in, found Da Queen with only 10 minutes to go before my shift as lady in waiting. In those 10 minutes, I said "hi" to various people I knew, including Ernst (*waves* "Hi, Ernst!), who I hadn't seen in probably close to a year.
Then I was on-duty, along with two other people. Retaining duties consisted mostly of holding Da Queen's cup, following her around, and keeping her occupied by a recital of The Betting Man's Guide to Crown. Oh, and stealing her food. We mustn't forget that. Stealing Da Queen's food is one reason I didn't need to walk back along the long, long path to get dayboard. (It's okay, there was enough for everyone.) Oh, yeah. And we watched a bit of Crown Tournament too, don'cha know?
I got off-shift at 2, and went over to Sharpit to steal their food. (Me: "Can I have some of your food?" Them: "We're having trouble finding places to put the food that's still in coolers. Please, help us!" Me: *nom nom nom*) For the next three hours or so, I shmoozed, I hung out with Ernst and Freya and Toki and Grim (not all at the same time), I stole nummy cider, and I generally avoided the rain. I caught some of the semi-final bouts, but I missed the finals because I didn't want to stand in the downpour.
As Their Majs were getting everything into the wagons to haul up to the feast hall for court, I made a reappearance as "how can I help" girl. (I'm like superman that way: one moment, I'm a pocket bard, the next, I'm how-can-I-help girl.) We got everything loaded up and then I walked up the long, long, LONG (did I mention it was long?) path to the feast hall. I stopped in at the royal cabin and stayed out of the way in a side-room until court. It was really nice to take off my soaking wet cloak.
Then... court. It was short. I retained. Everything went well, except for a brief emergency when Ernst called me back to the royal cabin to get a piece of necessary-but-forgotten garb needed for... Duchess Katherine Stanhope's induction into the Tigers of the East (of which Ernst is a member). On another note, I think that was the first court I've ever been to that had no AoAs awarded. Odd, truly.
I was planning on grabbing some fast food and then heading out, but Grim and Toki convinced me to have dinner with them (twist my rubber arm, why don'cha?). I was at my car by 6:15, but by the time we were ready to leave, it was 6:45. We accidentally left the site in the wrong direction, and by the time we reached the restaurant (a grill-house near the highway), it was 7:15. The poor, poor restaurant staff. They didn't realize they were the closest restaurant to a medieval reenactment event and were trying to figure out where the heck all these people had come from. Consequently, service was very slow.
Dinner was good, company was good, but by the time I put gas in my car and hit the road again, it was 9:30. It was dark, it was raining, and my windshield wipers still weren't up to 100%. Oh, and now I was tired. It was not, shall we say, a pleasant drive.
Border crossing was fine, but I present to you the following conversation:
Border guard: "How long were you gone?"
Me: "Just today."
Border guard: "Total value of goods purchased?"
Me: "No, nothing."
Border guard: "And what were you doing in the States?"
Me: "I was at a historical reenactment event."
Border guard: "So what do you have in the car? Any replica weapons?"
Me: "Nope, just clothes and some board games."
Border guard: "What were you doing at this event?"
Me: "Mostly following around the woman playing the queen and holding her basket."
Border guard: "...And what do you do for a living again?"
Me: "I'm an editor."
It took me a few minutes after getting past the border to realize there was an actual logic to this conversation. I can only imagine the thoughts in the poor border guard's head. I probably was the entertainment for his night.
Anyway. Eschewed going home and went straight to my friend Eric's house for his Topin Wagglegammon party. Got there around 12:15, stayed an hour or so playing Apples to Apples, then dragged Marc back to his place and collapsed into a stupor around 2 am. And that, as they say, is that. Until next time.
Though people warned me it was a long walk to the list fields from the parking area, I hadn't realized quite how long it was. Thank goodness I changed in my car before walking down! It must have been a half-mile or more!
Showed up, checked in, found Da Queen with only 10 minutes to go before my shift as lady in waiting. In those 10 minutes, I said "hi" to various people I knew, including Ernst (*waves* "Hi, Ernst!), who I hadn't seen in probably close to a year.
Then I was on-duty, along with two other people. Retaining duties consisted mostly of holding Da Queen's cup, following her around, and keeping her occupied by a recital of The Betting Man's Guide to Crown. Oh, and stealing her food. We mustn't forget that. Stealing Da Queen's food is one reason I didn't need to walk back along the long, long path to get dayboard. (It's okay, there was enough for everyone.) Oh, yeah. And we watched a bit of Crown Tournament too, don'cha know?
I got off-shift at 2, and went over to Sharpit to steal their food. (Me: "Can I have some of your food?" Them: "We're having trouble finding places to put the food that's still in coolers. Please, help us!" Me: *nom nom nom*) For the next three hours or so, I shmoozed, I hung out with Ernst and Freya and Toki and Grim (not all at the same time), I stole nummy cider, and I generally avoided the rain. I caught some of the semi-final bouts, but I missed the finals because I didn't want to stand in the downpour.
As Their Majs were getting everything into the wagons to haul up to the feast hall for court, I made a reappearance as "how can I help" girl. (I'm like superman that way: one moment, I'm a pocket bard, the next, I'm how-can-I-help girl.) We got everything loaded up and then I walked up the long, long, LONG (did I mention it was long?) path to the feast hall. I stopped in at the royal cabin and stayed out of the way in a side-room until court. It was really nice to take off my soaking wet cloak.
Then... court. It was short. I retained. Everything went well, except for a brief emergency when Ernst called me back to the royal cabin to get a piece of necessary-but-forgotten garb needed for... Duchess Katherine Stanhope's induction into the Tigers of the East (of which Ernst is a member). On another note, I think that was the first court I've ever been to that had no AoAs awarded. Odd, truly.
I was planning on grabbing some fast food and then heading out, but Grim and Toki convinced me to have dinner with them (twist my rubber arm, why don'cha?). I was at my car by 6:15, but by the time we were ready to leave, it was 6:45. We accidentally left the site in the wrong direction, and by the time we reached the restaurant (a grill-house near the highway), it was 7:15. The poor, poor restaurant staff. They didn't realize they were the closest restaurant to a medieval reenactment event and were trying to figure out where the heck all these people had come from. Consequently, service was very slow.
Dinner was good, company was good, but by the time I put gas in my car and hit the road again, it was 9:30. It was dark, it was raining, and my windshield wipers still weren't up to 100%. Oh, and now I was tired. It was not, shall we say, a pleasant drive.
Border crossing was fine, but I present to you the following conversation:
Border guard: "How long were you gone?"
Me: "Just today."
Border guard: "Total value of goods purchased?"
Me: "No, nothing."
Border guard: "And what were you doing in the States?"
Me: "I was at a historical reenactment event."
Border guard: "So what do you have in the car? Any replica weapons?"
Me: "Nope, just clothes and some board games."
Border guard: "What were you doing at this event?"
Me: "Mostly following around the woman playing the queen and holding her basket."
Border guard: "...And what do you do for a living again?"
Me: "I'm an editor."
It took me a few minutes after getting past the border to realize there was an actual logic to this conversation. I can only imagine the thoughts in the poor border guard's head. I probably was the entertainment for his night.
Anyway. Eschewed going home and went straight to my friend Eric's house for his Topin Wagglegammon party. Got there around 12:15, stayed an hour or so playing Apples to Apples, then dragged Marc back to his place and collapsed into a stupor around 2 am. And that, as they say, is that. Until next time.
