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It's been quite a weekend so far
May. 22nd, 2004 09:32 pmThis is the second weekend of the Cotswold RenFaire.
We decided that, being crafters and having both a booth at Cotswold and a pop up camper we haven't camped in, we'd camp on site this weekend. We got organized and put most of the stuff we needed together Wednesday and Thursday night.
Friday,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
teeka had the morning off, and did final organizing and some shopping. I had the afternoon off, so I did the last-minute grocery shopping, fixed the back hatch of the topper (one of the lifters had pulled loose from the frame), and loaded the truck and the camper.
( We can't ever pack light. This is just a fact. )
We left Madison a little after 5, and drove to Lake Geneva. It rained most of the way. A couple times, the rain and the spray from oncoming traffic made it impossible to see, but we made it in a little less than two hours. We pulled up to the site, and there was no one there - not even the security guard tho was supposed to be there at 5. We called the organizers to make sure that it was still on, and then we pulled the camper around behind the back fence so that it was near the site but out of view of the road so that no one would complain that we were camping on site. Even though the ground was hard, and we didn't even leave wheel tracks, in retrospect, this was a bad thing to do.
We hung out in the camper (Teeka read and I cut chain rings), and occasionally got out to see who was driving up to the site. We crashed around 10, and about 12:30am I discovered one of those things you have to remember about campers: If it rains, and you have the roof vent open, rain will come in. The foot-end of my sleeping back was wet (I was sleeping on the table because we'd filled one of the bunks with stuff in order to have room to move around in the camper). I closed the vent and went back to bed.
The next morning, we discovered that we were nearing saturation in the ground around the site by trying to move the truck back onto the road, and stopping after going about 4' because the wheels were spinning and I really wasn't going anywhere (I should have just kept going and left big ruts). We had breakfast, and then people started to arrive, so we proceeded to set up in between rain showers (still only wearing the sweats & t-shirts we had been wearing as jammies). Then we garbed up, finished setting up, and the fair opened.
About 10 the wind picked up enough that I started running extra tie-downs for the tent, and shortly thereafter, we had rush help from a half dozen other people the keep the tent from blowing away while we took it down and packed up all of the booth stuff. About then, Al, the food vendor, and his (kids? assistants?) came over with their truck and pulled our truck out of the mud hole I had made trying to drive it out of the ruts I made this morning. When we got the big table, the tent, and all the display stuff repacked in the truck, the wind died down and the sun came out. By about noon, We had decided to stay, and set up a much smaller booth, with no tent, so that it would be easy to put back down if the weather came up again.
We stayed the rest of the day (until it closed at 5), and the parents of one of the women who runs Mystic Metal Weaving (the chain mail vendor) pulled the camper out of the mud for us about 4:30 (this was when it was starting to sprinkle, and we thought it was the best time to try, since it was as dry as it was going to get). We packed up everything by about 5:30-6pm, and headed home to start drying out the camper (it's popped-up in the driveway right now), do laundry (all of our garb was wet and muddy), take showers, and sleep in the comfy bed. Knowing that we only made $20 today, and that the weather was crap, we're still going back tomorrow, but without the tent or most of the big displays, and with a tarp to throw over everything if it rains and ponchos to throw over us, all because it was fun.
Right now, Teeka has gone to bed to try to stop the migraine that was coming on, and I'm doing laundry and putting away stuff. I just downloaded today's pictures (all 250 of them), and will be sorting some out to post later.
We decided that, being crafters and having both a booth at Cotswold and a pop up camper we haven't camped in, we'd camp on site this weekend. We got organized and put most of the stuff we needed together Wednesday and Thursday night.
Friday,
teeka had the morning off, and did final organizing and some shopping. I had the afternoon off, so I did the last-minute grocery shopping, fixed the back hatch of the topper (one of the lifters had pulled loose from the frame), and loaded the truck and the camper.( We can't ever pack light. This is just a fact. )
We left Madison a little after 5, and drove to Lake Geneva. It rained most of the way. A couple times, the rain and the spray from oncoming traffic made it impossible to see, but we made it in a little less than two hours. We pulled up to the site, and there was no one there - not even the security guard tho was supposed to be there at 5. We called the organizers to make sure that it was still on, and then we pulled the camper around behind the back fence so that it was near the site but out of view of the road so that no one would complain that we were camping on site. Even though the ground was hard, and we didn't even leave wheel tracks, in retrospect, this was a bad thing to do.
We hung out in the camper (Teeka read and I cut chain rings), and occasionally got out to see who was driving up to the site. We crashed around 10, and about 12:30am I discovered one of those things you have to remember about campers: If it rains, and you have the roof vent open, rain will come in. The foot-end of my sleeping back was wet (I was sleeping on the table because we'd filled one of the bunks with stuff in order to have room to move around in the camper). I closed the vent and went back to bed.
The next morning, we discovered that we were nearing saturation in the ground around the site by trying to move the truck back onto the road, and stopping after going about 4' because the wheels were spinning and I really wasn't going anywhere (I should have just kept going and left big ruts). We had breakfast, and then people started to arrive, so we proceeded to set up in between rain showers (still only wearing the sweats & t-shirts we had been wearing as jammies). Then we garbed up, finished setting up, and the fair opened.
About 10 the wind picked up enough that I started running extra tie-downs for the tent, and shortly thereafter, we had rush help from a half dozen other people the keep the tent from blowing away while we took it down and packed up all of the booth stuff. About then, Al, the food vendor, and his (kids? assistants?) came over with their truck and pulled our truck out of the mud hole I had made trying to drive it out of the ruts I made this morning. When we got the big table, the tent, and all the display stuff repacked in the truck, the wind died down and the sun came out. By about noon, We had decided to stay, and set up a much smaller booth, with no tent, so that it would be easy to put back down if the weather came up again.
We stayed the rest of the day (until it closed at 5), and the parents of one of the women who runs Mystic Metal Weaving (the chain mail vendor) pulled the camper out of the mud for us about 4:30 (this was when it was starting to sprinkle, and we thought it was the best time to try, since it was as dry as it was going to get). We packed up everything by about 5:30-6pm, and headed home to start drying out the camper (it's popped-up in the driveway right now), do laundry (all of our garb was wet and muddy), take showers, and sleep in the comfy bed. Knowing that we only made $20 today, and that the weather was crap, we're still going back tomorrow, but without the tent or most of the big displays, and with a tarp to throw over everything if it rains and ponchos to throw over us, all because it was fun.
Right now, Teeka has gone to bed to try to stop the migraine that was coming on, and I'm doing laundry and putting away stuff. I just downloaded today's pictures (all 250 of them), and will be sorting some out to post later.
