As A does not get his schedule until the week before,  we were not sure when we would be able to leave for Pennsic.  This left planning up in the air somewhat, but then he did get his schedule. Closing on Thursday the 30th, off from Friday the 31st through Saturday the 8th. Opening on Sunday the 9th. This meant we were not going to be able to get on the road until Friday and we would need to leave Pennsic the following Friday. Not ideal, but it would work.
About a week before Pennsic the AC in my car failed.  I added a can of refrigerant and within three days it was out again. Brought it to the dealership and $600 later they replaced the low pressure hose. Two days later, no cooling. Brought it back and another $500 and they replaced the high pressure hose. Things seemed to work after that.

Friday morning, I wanted to be on the road by 7:30/8. We actually got on the road by 10:30. Before we actually managed to leave the house, Girard calls me and says its been raining for three days, Roxeter Road behind camp is closed, and we will need to carry everything from the car over the foot bridge into camp, and to get ready for a wet war. *sigh*
The ride up was basically uneventful.  We stopped just past Summersville at a Walmart to buy more refrigerant and recharge the AC. (The dealership called me to ask how satisfied I was with the service – any guesses how I answered?) We also went through The Slowest McDonalds Drive Through In The World â„¢ – took us thirty minutes to order, get a ten pack of McNuggets and two sodas – and they only gave us one straw, so we had to turn around and go back to get the second one.  We made one other stop – to find an ABC store.

We arrive at Pennsic around 7:30/8 and Calli looks at me from behind the troll booth and says ‘Go look at the map of closed roads and cry.” I reply with “Hi Calli, Nice to see you. Girard already called and gave me the heads up.” I should note that it stopped raining that morning and was nice all day both for our ride and at Pennsic.

The nice person checking me and A in finds A’s registration but can’t find mine. She comes back and asks if the spelling of my name on my membership card is correct and I confirm it is. Still, she cannot find my pre-reserve paperwork. Calli ponders why she is looking there for it and realizes that she is reading my middle initial and last name as one word. Crisis averted.

We head off from troll to camp, and are meet everyone who is there. A quick assessment of Roxeter and we decide its passable, and pull the car around and into camp. We get ourselves set up, do the storage shed run, and get settled in enough to crash out after a long day driving.

The week at Pennsic went by in a blink. Some things that stick out:

-    Wandering through the merchants and not seeing anything special that jumped out at me. I recall thinking maybe I have been playing and going to Pennsic enough that its pretty much the same and I don’t need or want much of it anymore.

-    Possibly the single funniest moment of the war and still makes me laugh thinking about it. I am hanging out in Vermine and I mention that Nia said to hug those she likes and spit on those she doesn’t. I think it was Theo who jumped in with ‘Hug or Spit? I hope you don’t run out of hugs or the choice will be Or Spit…’

-    MOLing both the Free Scholar’s Charity Tourney and the Atlantian 5-Man Melee. I love working both of those tourneys every year. And watching the Marshalls modify The Slightly Irritated Sea Bass into the Slightly Irregular Sea Bass provided immense enjoyment. I like that the MOLs had veto power over the team names – I think we should keep that as a general rule. They also need to clarify the details on the Free Scholar Tourney as several people I spoke to thought it meant you had to be a Free Scholar to participate.

-    The wandering beer wagon. So, we had all this left over beer and decided to load it into the wagon and take it to the Atlantian Social. Along the way we stopped and served beer to many a passer by – and many whose camp we were passing by. It was a very fun thing to do. In fact we are talking about making a wandering beer wagon a plan for next year.

-    Bog hopping, and why does the Blue Feather camp have a clock on their sign. Short answer, because they had space and why not do a public service and provide a clock. If only they would stop over heating in the plastic encasement. This all told to us by Caleb who turned out to be very fun. Glad we met him.

-    Having some of my worst garb used as an example of how to do things correctly. A wanted to go to a ‘What not to wear’ class and it sounded fun. Turned out to be a ‘let me critique your garb’ session and less fun then advertised. But the teacher was explaining how to miter trim and called me forward as my late period Pelican work tunic had mitered trim on it.

-    Running into Johann. Lost his (and Gryphon, Larissa, et al) phone numbers when my cell phone went crashing off the fifth story of the parking deck. Had no idea he would be at Pennsic – and up until four days before land grab neither did he. Hardly recognized him until he started speaking. Somehow I should not be surprised that he found Allison and began hanging out with her. Makes a lot of sense.

-    Making dinner for the camp on Thursday before Windmasters’ court. Lots of improvising and such but still a good meal that went pretty far. Definitely repeatable.

-    Finding the perfect coronet at Duchess Isabel’s store. Too bad it didn’t fit. Need to either email her my measurements or find someone to commission a similar style from.

-    The B double E double R U N with their Excellen-Gs.

-    Generally feeling relaxed and not on a schedule with no commitments aside from the two tourney MOLings.

This is the first war I can recall where by the end of it I was not ready to go home. Usually I get to the end of war week and I am done with Pennsic, but this year, for some reason, I did not have that. In fact, I wanted to stay another week.

The drive home was uneventful. We got on the road at 6:30 on Friday night. We crusied along talking and listening to podcasts and at around 1:30 we both were hungry (and you cant find anything open at that time) and I was too tired to drive anymore. We could not find where we packed A’s glasses, so we got a hotel room about 2:30 from home. We got up the next morning, took a long hot shower, had a nice breakfast at the Hampton Inn we were staying at, and was home by 1:30. By Sunday night all of the laundry was done and 95% of everything was away.

All told, a very good war.