Gulf Wars that is, I’m not going to touch on the other ones with a ten foot pole…

 So, I survived my first SCA War. Not too badly at that. Since my thoughts aren’t really prose-worthy, I’ll just bullet them as they come:

• I’m not all that into the melees. I mean, the Fort Battle held some interest, but all the others were lines of people fighting with no other discernable action. Not my cup of tea at all.
• Ergo, presuming I attend another war, I will concentrate on classes in the future. I attended one class this war and really enjoyed it, also enjoyed meeting Stephan of the Florilegium afterwards.
• For future wars I will also endeavor not to be half-lame. Granted, the heel held up well, and I navigated the site (which really didn’t seem all that huge after the first day) carefully enough to avoid further injury, but it came at the price of being less able to handle other stressors (like the sudden heat wave of Friday).
• Mother Mairi’s Kitchen is a god-send. I could not complain about that even if I tried. Next war I may volunteer to help her, if she needs it, because cooking in a camp kitchen sounds like it might be fun 🙂
• A & A are wonderful people and I was really touched and surprised to be invited into their household. Nonetheless, I can not think of a household I would feel more comfortable in, which is why I had no qualms accepting their invitation on the spot.
• Shopping seemed to be hit or miss from my point of view. Some booths really seemed to have wonderful items, others tended to more the mass-produced fluff I would more easily expect at a Renn.Faire (not that there’s anything wrong with it, I was just expecting more overall I suppose). Granted, I did pick up a few items I look forward to playing with, like my small inkle loom and the powdered pigments, and the buttons I found for the next Shinrone project saved me $30 from others I had found online. Even though they are not pewter, they will do at least for a stand-in if I decide to later go with casting my own or purchasing more correct ones.
• Afternoon naps are indispensable. Give into their necessity and don’t begrudge them the time. Alarm clocks were invented for a reason.

My overall war experience was positive, and I don’t even regret not making it to Scribe’s Point at ALL during the 5 days we were there; what ‘interfered’ was just as valid a thing to do, so no harm no foul.

 Also, having spent the week with Mon Amour all to myself was interesting. We managed not to be sick of each other lol The road trip wasn’t even that bad, though we did have a smidge of an issue with the last set of instructions getting to I-59.

* * * 

Mon Amour: Okay, so which way do I go here?

Scraps: The directions say North, so whichever way that is.

M: Got it.

S: Now, it says we stay on I-59 for just over five miles and we’re looking for exit 35.

(time passes. The upcoming exit is 41. After 41 the mile markers are going up. Scraps grabs the Atlas behind her seat.)

S: Crap. We should have gone South on 59. We need to turn around.

(Other discussion ensues, no big deal, but Scraps does mention that ever road trip with her usually involves some slight form of misdirection, usually through no fault of Scraps’ own. At exit 59 we turn around and decide to stop at exit 41 to go ahead and fill up the gas tank–again!–and stop for ice, band-aids, and sandwich stuff at a local grocery store. Grocery store means wandering from one end to the other, visions of playing ‘Marco Polo’ in the Weeki Watchee Target at Art/Sci flashing through Scraps’ weary mind as she vows such antics cannot become ‘tradition’ for future road trips! Returning to 59 the duo heads South, in clear defiance of MapQuest’s written and pictorial instructions. Taking exit 35… )

S: (with skepticism in her voice) Now the directions say to turn Right–

M: [SCA] Sign says Left.

S: DAMN IT!

* * *

So, whenever it comes to the fine details of turning right and left or taking North and South, the more specific the location becomes the less reliable the directions are. Thank goodness the trip out of the way was minimal and by the time the next error would have occured the event signs were posted and pointing the way.

Amusingly enough, on the way home, I did pull out the Atlas again to verify which direction we needed to go to get back to I-10, and I kid you not…

* * * 

S: Yes, take the 13 exit and go… East, that will get us to 49 and then South to I-10.

M: (taking the exit) 13 goes North and South…

S: How in the hell??? If I-59 goes North/South and 49 goes North/South and 13 connects them, I’m looking at it and it goes East/West?!?

M: Well, we’ll go South, because it’s East of North.

S: Wha?

(Mon Amour goes on into some spiel about N/S roads turning and looking E/W on maps and if we just take right turns we’ll be fine as Scraps does her usual trick of turning the atlas around so she’s looking in the direction they were actually heading to visualize the turn for herself because at that hour of the night the ‘east is south’ argument wasn’t jiving in her brain. He was right (good thing), but she still thinks the MS sign people are just having fun with the tourists…)

* * *