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Pennsic
When last we left our hero, he had finally found out that his foot was, yes, broken, but Pennsic was still on the cards. Picking up from there...
So -- yeah, Pennsic. It happened, and it didn't suck.
The biggest challenge was that my foot had mostly stopped hurting a few days before I left for the War. That sounds lovely, but it put me squarely in the danger zone. As the podiatrist explained to me, when the foot stops hurting, that's when you are most likely to say, "Great!", start moving normally, and break it even worse.
So this was a War of forcing myself to take it easy -- easier than I've done since something like Pennsic 15. Avoiding the dance tent like the plague, because the temptation would be horribly strong. Walking only about five miles a day. (Which is maybe half my usual, and for the first time ever I actually made non-trivial use of the bus system.) Generally not being responsible for much.
It was slightly boring, but remarkably relaxing, and there is much to muse on there. (There is another post brewing, about my subsequent realization that I may be a wee bit overstretched.)
Anyway, herein ensues my traditional stream-of-consciousness wanderings about last week. This will be long, covering lots of topics, but hopefully it's a bit interesting.
By my best guess, it's been eight years since I was last at Pennsic. That isn't for any dramatically good reason. Mostly, it's half that traveling on my own isn't as much fun (to put it mildly, Pennsic isn't Kate's bag), and half that I acquired a CPAP in 2014, and camping with the damned thing sounded like too much effort.
That latter excuse got firmly torpedoed by the release of the first really great CPAP battery I've ever seen. None of this farting around with heavy deep-cycle marine batteries: this thing is only four pounds, with a convenient carrying handle, and provides about five full nights of power.
It achieves this by specialization. It is for CPAPs, and nothing else. It comes with direct DC power cables for a bunch of major CPAP models, and powers them very efficiently -- each one at the correct voltage. And it recharges ferociously fast: as far as I can tell, the thing draws up to 24 amps if you'll give it that, so it recharges faster than my cell phone.
I haven't actually pushed it to five nights, because I haven't had to. But after three, it claims to be at about 50% and still going strong.
Caveat: it's persnickety, and you have to be careful. Turn down the power usage on the CPAP (turn off humidifier and such), and turn the battery off when you're not using it. But used properly, it's a marvel, and way easier than I was expecting.
The War itself has changed less than I had expected in eight years. Lots of little things have changed or moved, but mostly everything was where I expected.
The biggest change was to Lochleven's encampment. We've been in E18 -- nearly the "lower right" corner of Pennsic -- since time immemorial. (See map.) But we've talked about moving for a long time (E18 is a fun location, but it's muddy and somewhat noisy), and everyone decided that this was the year for an experiment.
So we moved to B03 -- the extreme "upper left" corner of Pennsic. (Get to Bannockburn, at the foot of Mount Eislinn, turn left, and go all the way to the end: we were the second-to-last encampment.) From our old site to the new is somewhere between one and two miles by road.
I have mixed feelings about it. The downside is that it's a much less exciting neighborhood, and considerably further from most of the folks I hang out with. And the quiet is just plain weird -- for me, going to sleep to the sound of distant drums from the Bog is part of the Pennsic experience.
OTOH, it's pretty convenient for the fighters, fencers and archers, who make up a substantial fraction of Lochleven. It's uphill (so far less muddy), has lots of high tree canopy that folks can camp under, and the Oversized Parking for my big rental van couldn't be more convenient.
So we'll see what we choose to do going forward. I expect a spirited discussion at Lochleven's winter household meeting.
Weather was pretty average. The annual Act of God -- a serious drownpour this time -- happened on middle Friday, so when I arrived on Saturday things were pretty soggy, and the air was soupy for the next several days. (Although not horribly hot, with highs in the 80s.) But things cleared midweek and steadily improved from there on, so the last several days were gorgeous: dry, clear and cool.
I got to see lots of folks, which is half the fun of the War. This included several people who I've previously only talked to via the Known World Discord (which I've been hanging out on a lot this year), as well as a bunch of friends I haven't seen in years. Most folks were doing well, but some not -- it was sobering to talk to at least one good friend whose life has been savaged by Long Covid, and has had a pretty crappy year as a result.
Covid was, of course, a recurring theme. While Pennsic had reasonable requirements (vaxx or test in order to enter; if you get sick, please leave immediately), Omicron laughs at such things, so there was a fair amount going around. One family from Lochleven had to leave early in War Week because of a positive test (although given the timing, I suspect they may have caught it before arriving); a couple of others tested positive after getting home.
So while I'm not panicked about it (Pennsic is mostly outdoors, and I wasn't interacting much face-to-face with those folks), I've spent this week mostly isolating and testing, to be on the safe side. Knock on wood, I still feel fine; assuming I still test positive tomorrow, I will cautiously figure that I escaped.
I sat through East Kingdom Court (of course -- this is me), and it was unusually good. Their Majesties have every bit as much style as I've been led to believe, and clearly believe that putting on a great show is part of the job, so Court was more fun than usual. (Any 3+ hour Court that can be described as "fun" is doing something right.)
Court was actually the other thing that tipped the scales and got me to attend the War: I knew that Thyra was getting her Pelican, and didn't want to miss that. (Really, pretty much everyone except her knew about it. The fact that they double-whammied her again helped make that possible -- as far as she knew, everyone was there for her husband's MoD.)
It was also lovely to see Emine (one of the friends I've made on Discord) get her AoA, and I wound up sitting with Hu Zhen and Matthias (also friends from there), so it made for an overall excellent experience.
There were other entertainments as well, of course. I did a modest number of classes -- highlights included a great survey of period cookbooks available in English, and a class on SCA philosophy taught via selections from Silverwing's Laws. I sat in on the bid meeting for the 2023 Known World Music and Dance Symposium. (June 29 - July 2 in Charlottesville, assuming it clears all the bureaucratic hurdles: I'm looking forward to it.) And I caught most of the Wolgemut Returns to Pennsic concert, which was every bit as much of a blast as I would expect: they always give great show, and it left me completely jazzed.
This was the year of The Crazy Plan, which I've been hypothesizing for years now.
Given:
- Me feeling slightly guilty about how much vacation I'm taking this summer;
- The sometimes difficulty of finding a place to recharge the CPAP;
- The desire to occasionally chill out in A/C and get a really good shower;
The plan was to rent a hotel room -- but not one to sleep in. After all, night time bardic circles are at least half the fun of Pennsic. No, the idea here was to head over to the hotel every couple of days, get that good shower, recharge everything and check my email.
On the one hand, that worked. OTOH, it wasn't really worth it. It cost a fair bundle even by my standards, and none of it was really necessary. Checking in at work was worthwhile, but could have been done by phone. The CPAP could probably be charged with an adequate solar array. And the in-camp shower is sufficient, if not luxurious. So I think that next year, I won't bother.
That said, getting a hotel room for the night on the way each direction was totally worthwhile, and helped make for a safer drive. And points to HGI, on the way home: they upgraded me to a King Suite with a mammoth jacuzzi tub, which was so the right thing after a morning of striking camp and seven hours on the road. They continue to be my hotel chain of choice.
Also worth noting: after many years of renting from Enterprise, this year entailed a switch to, of all things, U-Haul. Enterprise was unwilling to guarantee me a van with cruise control, and I was no way risking that drive on a still-slightly-broken foot without it. So we looked around, found that U-Haul does guarantee it, and you can do long-term round-trip rentals if you call. And they gave me a significantly better rate than Enterprise, to boot. ($900 for 11 days, including 1500 miles, tax, and the CDW -- not bad at all.) So we have a new winner there.
A great aspect that hadn't occurred to me was the "kids". Lochleven's camp has always been full of children underfoot, and when last I saw them they were mostly teenagers.
That was eight years ago.
Now, they're mostly 20-somethings, in college or graduated, and several of them came to Pennsic with their SOs. It was a blast getting to hang out with them.
Probably the biggest highlight of the War was the last night, which was absolutely Classic Lochleven. Everything "downtown" was pretty much shut down, so after dinner we lit a fire and started burning All The Wood.
We actually hadn't overbought this year, and went through the official firewood pretty quickly. So Becky started foraging in the wood we were camped under, finding rotten deadwood and tossing it on. This wasn't always easy, given that some of that deadwood was eight feet long, but she persevered, slowly feeding it in and building up an absolute lake of embers.
So we all sat around, roasting gigantic marshmallows. (Which was great in and of itself -- there's an art to toasting it just right, peeling off and eating the outer browned layer, and then repeating with the innards.) And things quickly turned to song.
Most of the camp gradually drifted to bed, but Becky, the "kids" and I kept going for a full six hours, until after 1am -- singing, talking, and generally having a grand time.
I'd forgotten how much I love that campfire, and it was delightful getting to share it with the next generation: a perfect way to end Pennsic.
So -- yeah, it was pretty great. It was a relaxing time, and there were lots of other highlights. (Watching friends in various battles, especially the Heroic Rapier Champs. Turkish coffee from Kafa Merhaba, and many coffee slushies from Odyssey. Helping Crook'd Cat de-mud the bricks from the oven, after it was disassembled. Walking -- ever-so-slowly -- around the lake on Friday.)
I'm planning on returning next year, when I expect it to be a lot more crowded. (Only about 8k on site this year; I suspect it'll be back to a full 12k or more for Pennsic 50.) With any luck I'll be in better health, and being camped in the middle of nowhere won't be a problem. The big question is whether I bite the bullet and go for more of it -- one big change is that a lot more interesting stuff happens Peace Week these days, so I may want to do more than War Week...