Missy goes to Pennsic

It was chilly overnight and I slept like a rock. Kiernan still wasn’t feeling well so he spent much of the day resting in camp.  In the morning though, we got into garb and marched down to coffee and breakfast.  They were running a contest to name their table fish. We put some names in the hat for the white beta fish on the table. It was acting as a centerpiece in lieu of flowers.  Megan voted Gus, Kiernan voted Auto Von Fishmark, and I voted Captain Ahab.  The kids went with me to the historical games tent and we played the Game of Goose with a random kid.  Then got a tour of the tent and some explanations.  This one is Shoji. I think I’d like to learn it next. We split up and I went join The Watch and to take some classes.  There’s a constant patrol of golf carts at Pennsic. Some of those carts are The Watch. They help people out and keep an eye out for emergencies (fires, people who are inexplicably lying on the ground, people who are black out drun...

Today we finished our survey of the Coopers Lake lake campground. We climbed to the highest height and saw Pennsic stretching out below.  We spent this day in mostly physical pursuits.  I went down to the archery range and got sone shooting in.  I saw one guys bowstring pull off mid draw ( scary but her was fine). I saw a very grumpy know-it-all man criticize his way through several rounds. I met a number of fun shooters and re-met an incredible knowledgeable and kind crossbow man.  Later Megan and I took a beginners belly dancing class.  I enjoyed it quite a bit and battled some self conscious reticence to move with the music.  Megan on the other hand was a natural, and adored it. She even taught the class a cool hand movement she knows from K-pop that blends perfectly with belly dancing.  Megan joined the SCA today officially and is deep into coming up with her persona. We had a fancy picnic for dinner.  Each of us went and got something to shar...

There was a lot of rain and a bit of wind overnight but the rain fly did us well. I kept the doors on screen only so we could have some ventilation.  This resulted in a few big drops landing on my face from time to time. I was relying on the rain fly overhang but retreated to relying on my waterproof cloak by 5 am. That did the trick.  We had some wet shoes and puddles in chairs but over all our prep from the night before stood us in good stead. We had rain showers on and off until lunch time but we proceeded as planned. I took some great classes.  The first one was a weed walk. A personable and knowledgeable man lead a walk around the campsites and pointed out plants.  We talked about edibility and utility and then talked quite a lot about poison ivy.  The rest of the classes today were Asian in flavor. I took one on Korean food before 1700 with Meg and one on cloudwork lacquer in the Western Han dynasty.  We took a Walmart run for more food and ice and im...

  It’s Monday morning and I’m not on my way to work. This is delightful. I am instead sitting in a tent listening to birds and thinking about heading down to get some coffee. Today is our first full day here and I plan to spend much of it attending Pennsic University. All day every day there are classes and activities to attend. They are free and volunteer taught and historical in nature for the most part. There’s something called the Kings Survey that’s is an iNaturalist challenge that I am very interested in trying as well. Here is what the class descriptions look like. Here is a list of classes this morning. And this is a list of the ones I’ve marked as interesting. There are so many cool sounding things that I may have gone overboard. They are mostly free but a few have materials fees. I need to keep an eye on my cash. Lots of people here only take cash. I am normally a cash free zone so that’s going to be tricky. Our first night was pretty good. We mostly slept well. None of u...

 The first time I heard of Pennsic was while at a bardic (music and story event) at The Historic Haven (a social club to which I belong).  Several people told hilarious Pennsic stories. I gathered, from their descriptions that Pennsic was an event or festival in which there was medieval dancing and fighting and sex in tents.   I feel that, maybe that was a correct impression.  If you have never heard of Pennsic watch this video to learn more.  Background I am a member of the SCA ( The Society for Creative Anachronism ) and I’ve been to small local events before. I’ve even done one overnight event. I decamped when storms rolled in so I haven’t actually camped with the SCA   Pennsic is the largest, by far, camping event that I will have ever seen. I wasn’t at all committed to going this year. I look at it a lot and it’s on my list of things to do, but I drag my feet and have a lo t I would like to have ready first. Add that to the fact that I only have one...