Visiting Day, and car update

Sunday was a good day. J had no battles or tournaments scheduled, so he could devote his time to getting me to classes and visiting people at various camps around Pennsic.

I had my first Pennsic class, and can now say I can knit with double-pointed needles. Our teacher was very nice, extremely helpful, and made it a great class. I met a lovely gal from Arizona while I was there, and I'm hoping our car and war situation settles down enough that I can catch up with her to sit and knit while I am here.

I also took a battlefield orientation class, which was a little disappointing. I was hoping the gal would take us around to see the different areas where different fighters do their thing, but it seemed more just a big ad to get people to volunteer to carry water during battles. I did learn a thing or 2 though, so it wasn't all bad.

After that, it was off to the merchants. We picked up a few things here and there, but didn't go too overboard. We visited a friend of ours who runs a shop at Pennsic--it was nice to catch up.


This was J at the leather goods shop, posing in front of a giant leather pouch. Kinda matches the one on his belt, doesn't it?

We visited some other folks too, checking out some campsites along the way. I know I talked about it last year, but the various households at Pennsic (and I'm sure at other large events) set up sheet walls to delineate their campsites. I love checking out the new, novel, and interesting.


This was the "guard" at a campsite on the way back from my battlefield orientation.


One of the many particularly well-done Celtic knot sheet designs at a campsite.


I thought this was cute.


I saw this several times over the course of the day, but even J noticed it on our last trip to the car for the day. I wonder how it handles in wind...

We enjoyed visiting friends and acquaintances at various campsites. The spirit of comraderie here is amazing. People were offering us food and drink everywhere we went, and almost everyone is willing to give you a hand no matter what. A gal in my battlefield class was looking for someone in a royal camp, so our teacher volunteered to get her to the right place. We've had multiple offers of transportation with our car situation, and we couldn't be more grateful.

So you might be wondering, "How does one get around Pennsic without getting lost?" There are of course some major points of interest to get you oriented, like the battlefield, the castle and the central hill behind it, and the food court. And there are some well-known areas of the site, like the Serengeti (a rather large, flat, and generally hot/dry area where a good chunk of the campsites are). But there are also road signs, most with a history I'm still learning to decipher. There's the Low Road, and the High Road, and some with more fanciful names:



We saw this on a truck on the way back to our car. It pretty much sums it up.

Oh yeah, before I forget, a car update. While the boys went off to fight (our friend Mike came in this morning--yay for a secure vehicle to use!), I took the car over to the local repair shop to see what we could do. The guys walked around it and consulted, then said there's no way they could get anything done by Friday. Even if they got a new hatchback, the panel it latches to is so bent in, they doubt they could make it secure. And they'd have to tear the whole thing apart just to see how much damage there really is.

So they vacuumed all the glass out of the back, put on some new see-through plastic on the window, and wished us luck. I'll be chatting with the insurance co. today to see where we can take it once we get home.

I'm hanging out at the B&B while the boys do their thing. J just called and said the first battle was fun, the weather is gorgeous, and he's having a good time. I can't ask for much better.