the gypsy life: thoughts from the faire circuit

the blog
If any of you have attempted to keep up with me and my updating ways in the past, you can all speculate as to how well I will keep up with this. But, there it is. Oh, and it begins on 1 November 2007.

the photography
Here you can find a chronological display of the pictures I have been taking since around February 2007. The most recent "events" are at the top of the list!

the social networks
While we do have a MySpace page, I do not really frequent it. Cannot say I care much for the interface. I am on Facebook and Twitter. But if you really want to get updates on what is going on, subscribe to my FriendFeed. Any time I post anything, whether to my blog or any other social networking sites, a notice gets shot over there. Free plug for them. Hooray.

Much of my life consists of wandering the country with Patrick. We go back and forth, frequenting the same places, but it's always different and amusing. It makes me think of a Dr. Seuss title. Oh, the places you go and the people you meet. Life is funny.

Below are memories from the festivals and the adventures we've had on the road. As you will see, some are much more detailed than others. It all depends on what manner of records I had kept at the time. Ticket stubs make excellent reminders as to what one did on a certain day! I started to journal late in 2007, as you might be able to see from the details provided. At the point when I started my blog with wordpress (look, another free plug!), I ceased the journalling designed for this page. Why make my life more difficult?

Maybe, some day, I'll do more back-tracking on my blog. Take advantage of those ticket stubs and give a little more insight on specific dates. But that truly is a "some day" project. So, for now, here is what you get. The lucky ones reading this might even see my scrapbooks, with pictures and everything! But those are hard copies, not digital, and I do not have the means nor the inclination at this time to scan those 12x12 pages and upload them. So you'll have to come visit us when we're at home to see those!

Enjoy this peek into our lives.

2005
Port Angeles Renaissance Festival
Port Angeles Pirate Festival
Heart of the Forest Marin Faire
Maryland Renaissance Festival
Louisiana Renaissance Festival
Dickens Christmas Faire

2006
Florida Renaissance Festival
Southern Pleasure Faire
Big Bear Pirate Festival
Wisconsin Renaissance Faire
Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire
Maryland Renaissance Festival
Dade County Arts Council Renaissance Craft Faire
Louisiana Renaissance Festival

2007
Florida Renaissance Festival
Greater St. Louis Renaissance Festival
Wisconsin Renaissance Festival
Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire
Maryland Renaissance Festival
Louisiana Renaissance Festival

Mid-June to Mid-July, 2006: WIRF

August, 2006: WRFF

End of August through October, 2006: MDRF

So here we are again! It's been a long time since 2006, so what can I recall...

It would be the last year Patrick and Michele would do a Teatro show together (at least so far and, at the time of this writing, the 2009 season has begun). After working out the kinks of doing That Show as a two person show instead of a three in Wisconsin, they returned the show to MDRF after several years of absence. So that was cool.

Michele had me read for her during her Stupina Show, which was so much fun to do. I like doing different things at festivals. Helps me to keep things fresh in the "everyday" stuff. And I try to take every experience and discover how it actually applies to the princess act that is Maid Marian. I was also able to be there for Michele at the drop of a hat as well, should a previously arranged person not work out last-minute.

Since That Show happened toward the end of the day, Patrick did not change back into Robin Hood. Since it seemed a bit strange to have a random Italian character hanging out with Maid Marian, I changed too. I love that outfit. It's bright, it's colorful, it's bold. Once again, I love doing different things! I got may compliments too, although when we would pause at the joust before heading to Pub Sing I was told the bright colors were quite distracting!

There was, of course, plenty of Seamus Kennedy to enjoy on Tuesday nights!

We visited several Civil War sites, some Patrick had to experience on his own as I had a temp job that lasted almost the entire time we were in Maryland. Which is good, if a bummer.

When Thelma visited, she and Patrick went to the Baltimore Aquarium. He returned with a penguin backpack, something which continues to bring much amusement to people of all ages when I wear it.

He took me to the Aquarium too, once my temp job ended. We paid extra for the dolphin show which was SO adorably wonderful! I love how they are always seeming to smile! We went to the National Zoo, the very week their new Asian Trail opened. I cannot recall ever seeing animals so active at a zoo. They were still exploring their new habitats, which were truly lovely. The baby panda was climbing a tree that morning; I still do not know how he could possibly have been any less coordinated. Nor do I know how he managed to not fall off the tree! And the red pandas were SO cute! If they wanted to, they probably could have just jumped off the tree and right into the crowd, but they did not. They just climbed around and looked at us looking at them.

We also went up to the Baltimore Zoo. It is pretty nice and has penguins, which the National Zoo did not. But I was rather concerned because the penguins kept sneezing.

November 4-5, 2006: DCAC Renaissance Craft Faire

This was a fascinating little faire. We're not quite sure how they heard of us, and had a hard time finding info on them online, but since we were free that weekend we figured, hey, why not?

How fun it ended up being! It was a small faire, held in a small city park. And I would say ninety percent of the merchants were local(ish) craft artist. There was a lot of pottery and wooden bowls. And a few salsa and dip booths giving away free samples. Yum! There was quite the hodgepodge of performers. Only a couple other "ren-faire" type acts besides us, throw in a couple re-enactment fight groups (not SCA, but similar to them) and a local ball-room dance troupe and that was about it. Very few customers came in costume that we saw. At the end of it, we decided it was not so much a traditional Ren Faire as it was a long-running craft festival with a Renaissance theme. And it worked!

We did our normal opening gate welcome duty. It surprised people who had been coming for many years, but they seemed to enjoy and appreciate it. Our shows were a huge success, which is always a happy feeling. Patrick often comments how loved he felt there.

And the food! We went to a wonderful little Mexican restaurant. Oh boy, it was good. They put these little plastic animals on our margarita glasses. In the waiting area stood a huge cage with parrots. I liked that. We'll likely keep trying to stop there when we're driving through, timing it for dinner! Because of the wait, we wandered around the little shopping plaza a bit. It was just charming!

Thanksgiving to Mid-December, 2006: LARF

This year, Alvon was kind enough to give us the second half of the run instead of the first half. The first half generally made more sense considring School Days were during the first half, but Patirck had the Opera gig during that time.

We were not able to have Thanksgiving at home because we needed to get to Louisiana in time for the three-day weekend. So after a couple days of driving, we arrived at Bob and Jamie's on Wednesday. It was enough time to settle into the trailer we'd be staying, upack our props, and catch up on some sleep before the festivities of the next day.

Thanksgiving was a phenomenal event. It was the sort of thing one reads about or watches on those odd Thanksgiving television specials. From oysters to mimosas to turkey to pie, it was exhausting trying to keep up! Patrick and I eventually just curled up on the couch and had a nap, all the while the party continued around us.

In addition to being welcomed into this wonderful Southern family and getting to know some performers we may not otherwise have spent so much time with, there was one particular discovery we made this year: The Global Wildlife Center.

The Global Wildlife Center is about seven miles from where we stay in Louisiana. There are deer of several varieties, zebras, a couple of camels, cows, bison, llamas and giraffes! Giraffes that eat out of your hand! The tractor was pulling three sets of trailers, but only one other family was on the tour with us. It was so much fun! I just could not believe that we could actually feed the giraffes, pet them if they stayed still long enough. And the llamas would eat from your hand too. Both are incredibly gentle. It was wonderful. I could not wait to come back to Louisiana in order to go back to the giraffes!

This show is really good to us. The people are really friendly, and everyone seems to be having a good time. It is a fairly young festival and the audience is still learning how to interact with the performerss. But it is a joy to be part this growing process.

February to Mid-March, 2007: FLARF

FLARF this year, like all the faires we go to I suppose, was much easier this year than last. It still posed it's own special challenges, but that's fine. Thankfully, we weren't camping this year. One of the regular customers, a mother and her daughter, invited us to stay for the duration of the faire, and it was so nice to be under a roof without ants breaking through the floor! They have waterfront property, I believe it is a lake of some sort. And a lizard comes to visit and eats their leftovers. It's huge! The little girl introduced me to this corky website called Club Penguin and we'd play every couple of nights.

I didn't find much in the way of temp work, but enough to get by which is always better than nothing I suppose. It did mean that we had time to go and do fun things. We went down to Miami beach and splashed in the water. We went to Butterfly World (twice!) which was SO FUN!!! So many butterflies! And SO many lorikeets! And all for JoNell! Patrick took me for a suprise and we went to Playmobil World. He saw it on the catalog I had in the bathroom at home and decided that he would make a suprise of it for me. He loves me. :)

Mid-May to Mid-June, 2007: St. Louis

It was our first time at this Faire and I was looking forward to it. The Limey Birds were going to be there and they are always fun to work with and to socialize with, when the chance arises. The first two weekends were tough, unfortunately. Not for any reason involving the faire. More due to our over-ambitious scheduling. We had school programs both Fridays before those weekends. So we ended up flying into St. Louis to arrive after midnight on Saturday. Both times. The three-day second weekend was killer. Boy, did we sleep that following Tuesday!

The faire is on a permanent site as part of the city park. Driving on, you enter the regular park, with green grass here, a pond there, barbeque pits there. When dropping off the props before opening weekend, we missed the turn at first since no signs were up yet. But then we found the entrance in an opening between the line of trees. And there they were, the permanent stages and permanent shops! It's tucked away off to one side, and apparently open to the public during the year.

It's French themed, which made for fun with us being English folk heroes and all.

Our stage was in the Children's Area, right next to the Petting Zoo. There was a Highland Cow the first two weekends! That was fun. Patrick had to make a few jokes about the donkey braying in the middle of shows. One of the bellydancing troupes built the stage and attached a greenroom to the back, complete with windows and doors that lock during the week and a clear roof to allow for sunlight and protection from the rain. That was really cool.

Once we were finally settled in, we were able to do some fun stuff. We went to the St. Louis Zoo and I got to see many penguins and puffins up close! We went to the City Museum, the adult-sized jungle gym to end all jungle gyms, with some of the other performers. And we also went to this jazz club in town, Cookie's. It was an open mic type thing. All sorts of singers and musicians took turns. After much hemming and hawing, I finally went up and sang a song. Patrick was very proud of me. He says I wailed.

Mid-June to Mid-July, 2007: Wisconsin

It was pretty exciting going back to Wisconsin this year. The faire had shown so much potential for growth after a successful first year, we couldn't wait to see what was new. Especially after hearing rumours of more buildings and rock pathways and flushable toilets. Patrick likes to play a character other than Robin Hood for a while. Fun as it is to wear the green tights and leather tunic, stepping away from it for awhile to give it a rest makes coming back to it all the more fun. And at this faire, we get to play Italians. I have a fun costume. It jingles! And I feel like a maypole, it's so colorful! Patrick's Teatro partner from Maryland is the one who brought us in. It was a five shows a day schedule. One was only Michele: The Super Stupina Show. Stupina is her masqued character and in the show she was trying to become a super hero. Awkward business, that. Two was she and Patrick doing That Show, a swordfighting acrobatic battle of the sexes with really bad puns. Then Patrick and I had two kid shows. St. George for the first two weekends twice a day, and then St. George once and Robin Hood once. The Robin Hood was especially challenging what with the switch to Italian, but also going from "I laughed again!" to "He laughed again!" And then for the last two weekends, we actually dual-narrated it. Something neither of us is sure would really work as Robin Hood and Maid Marion. But it was chaotically fun to do!

There were quite a few repeat customers who came back to see our show. Their kids had watched it last year and wanted to be in it this year. The usual "reglar customer" stuff. It was really nice to see, and nice to give them a different show to bring their kids to. We were on the main stage for all of the shows, something we really don't get anywhere else. They really spoil us at this faire. We shared with Curious Magic. Moonie was also there for the first three weekends, though he was on a different stage. And Zilch the Storyteller was also there. I'd never seen him before, only had heard tales. Now that is a funny show! It's all spoonerisms. The Baker Babes were there for a partial run, and the Jugglenauts were back. We were so happy to see them.

This family was easily one of the best reasons for being at Wisconsin. They opened their home to us, invited us over for dinner and to birthday parties, let us borrow their bikes to go trail riding (which we only did once on a day when the humidity was nice and brutal). Their oldest was home for the summer from college. Since she's part of the act, it was a good thing she came home! Their son had quite the social life and wasn't always around when we were there. But their youngest was usually around (when her paper route and clarinet lessons didn't interfere) and we all had a great time hanging out.

One special thing that happened this year was that Patrick got to fulfill a lifelong dream. He'd always wanted to MC a pub sing, and the Entertainment Directors here listened to his ideas and allowed him to take on the project. It was a bit of a challenge, with the audience being G-rated. So lots of his pre-prepared material didn't quite work, and even some of the drinking jokes fell flat. But it really changed the way the end of the day went for this faire. Previously, it had been the end of the day musician and performer jam, with all of us clustered around trying to stop the patrons from leaving before the queen made her final speech. But this, being at the stage near the entrance/exit, stopped a good number of them in their tracks. We frequently ended with standing room only. It gave all the acts, and many of the local cast, a chance to come and perform their odd talents. The owners loved seeing so many people stay until closing. Patrick got to invent a new character: The Innkeeper. He never really came up with a particular name for him though. My job in all this was to help coordinate who would be up next and make sure people had signed in. This sometimes posed a more difficult challenge than it should have been, and if we are able to do it next year we've already got plans set for making things run more smoothly.

After it all, the Queen went up onto the castle gate and gave a farewell speech. Then, Patrick, Michele, and I finished off the faire with Prospero's speech from Tempest. It was nice to be part of the closing of the faire, even though we're not musicians or fire-eaters.

Our favourite place to eat was at a little Mexican restaurant called Cancun. There are three of them, but the original is our favourite. Between the beautiful hand carved woodwork in all the tables and chairs and the 99cent margarita nights Monday and Tuesday.... it's a fun place. And the food! Yum! We liked to share the nachos. But the fajitas and the pollo asada were especially good treats too.

Twice, we were invited out to the farm where our E.D.s board their horses. The first time we went, a new baby had just arrived (born two days earlier!!). It was SO fuzzy! Fuzzy all over and still a little wobbly! And they had another one that was four months old and it was half fuzzy and half normal horse. It looked really funny. But she ran beautifully. They had some other young horses that they let us help them work, and we got to ride a little too. And we brought carrots and apples. Their spit turned orange; that was pretty gross.

Yay! We have a break in our schedule! A week and a half at home! It was going to be time to relax. But, Patrick had jury duty. While both of us are willing (if not necessarily happy about it) to engage in that particular civic duty, it ended up being rather inconvenient. So, out the window went all of our plans for building new costume pieces and shelving units for his mom. And it was up to I to do the running around and make sure everything was packed up and ready to go for the long road trip. Usually, this time of the year is dedicated to refreshing props so they'll be all beautiful for Maryland. That didn't happen either. But, we did get a new pair of angel wings all ready with extra fluffy feathers lining the top (fluffy for JoNell)!

Patrick had his birthday in the middle of all this. We went out to a Polynesian restaurant called Bahooka. We shared two giant drinks that came in a bowl and were on fire. That was fun. There were tropical fish in tanks at every booth, and a large fish who had been in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

We went to Disneyland "one last time" just in case we don't make good enough time coming back from Louisiana in December. We went on the new Nemo submarine ride. After a two hour wait in line. But it was fun. I took pictures of lots of Nemos carved in the rocks along the line path. Don't know if we'd wait two hours ever again, but it's a fun ride. We missed out on Fantasmic though. I went back the next day to do some shopping for gifts for people up in Washington. It just wasn't the same going alone, but I went anyway.

On Tuesday, Patrick called late in the afternoon to say that a verdict had been made and they would be going back into the courtroom for the final steps after the break. Now it was my job to get all the last-minute stuff together so we could get on the road first thing in the morning. And then it's 19 weeks on the road...

On Monday, we slept in! Yay! We spent much of the day working on getting our marketing for PLH put together. The brochure needed last minute touch-ups, and I had many more calls to make!

We went up to Port Angeles for the afternoon. We stopped at the Mexican restaurant that we ate at on our first date, then tried to visit the Bed & Breakfast Patrick had stayed at. But the sign was gone. We remembered the owners talking about wanting to sell it, and figured that's what had happened. So sad; it was lovely. We then stopped at the coffee shop where our first date started. We sat on the couch and Patrick read me questions from the box of Disney Trivial Pursuit (the adult box; the kid box was too easy). Finally we stopped down at the pier where the Pirate Festival had been located. It looked so small! I can't imagine how all those people and merchants had fit!

My sister and her husband took us out to dinner. It was so nice for my brother-in-law to get to know Patrick a little better. They'd not met until this trip. My sister liked getting to know him better too. It's difficult to have a "so tell me about yourself" conversation with everyone else running around the place too.

Just stopped at a truck stop at exit 48 on I-90. It's a little place, almost looked closed except for the trucks pumping gas. The pumps didn't have credit card readers, they were so old! Still, the bathrooms were clean and that's a big deal. But what really struck me as charming was, upon walking in, there was a woman walking from the counter to the little diner and said, "Hello, Fluffy" to the big brown dog with cute feet snoozing in the middle of the floor. Too funny.

Stopped in Ohio at an RV place. The guy wanted us to buy one right then, and it was an incredible deal on a low mileage RV, but we wanted to see it first (and we're not really ready to buy, but that's beside the point) and the people who are selling it were still living in it. So we gave him our email and asked him to send pictures, but he didn't do that yet. So maybe we'll email him on Monday and see if it's even still available. It feels like such a big step!

We're back in Maryland! Third time for me! It's much easier to come back to a faire rather than start a new one. I know people this time (even if I can't remember everyone's names), so it's "hello again!" instead of "nice to meet you" everywhere I go. There are lots of little additions this year to the site. New trees have been planted and little arbors are here and there. It's so cool to come to permanent sites and see the changes from year to year. And I love the village, the storybook feel to it. It's very romantic!

Since we didn't bring the sewing machines this year, we've got so much more shelving space in our room here at Michele's house! We've got manageable stacks of clothes instead of teetering towers of clothes. I like that. Makes me feel organized and stuff.

Dropped off our stuff at site in a funky smelling backstage. Patrick thinks some raccoons may have housed themselves in there over the summer and left their leavings way up high. That's what it smels like. If being open all week and airing it out doesn't help, Patrick is considering going at it all with a scrubber. Brave soul.

Opening weekend and MDRF was quite the doozy. Let us just say the heat was unbearable and leave it at that. After all, when the local radio station is telling its listeners to stay at home and not go outside unless necessary, you know it is not going to be a good day. Everyone managed the best they could and, miraculously, people showed up for our shows! The first two (11:30 and 1:30) went rather well, better than they had any right to go. But our last, at 3:30, was like pulling teeth on Saturday, and not much better on Sunday. The audience was simply worn out. They had nothing left and few cheers or boos could be encouraged from them. Sunday did go better than Saturday in general, but it was still warm.

The storm on the drive home Saturday night was phenomenal. Lightning flashing through the sky ahead. The rain actually held off until shortly after we got inside the house. And then, oh what a beauty! We opened the drapes wide and watched it go until bedtime. And even then it kept going for some time! I love that sort of weather.

I had my Manpower appointment, much too early in the morning on a Monday after an exhausting opening weekend, but what can you do? Unfortunately, my rep person was no longer with the company, so it was starting from scratch. Again. Change sucks sometimes. Since the office was right next to the mall, I stopped at Sears and had the oil changed and the tires rotated before going home. That afternoon, we met up wtih Tom and Maryanne and watched The Ninth Legion. It was a fun movie. Terrible effects, really, but everything else was really good. Great cast, too. I wasn't sure what to expect when we went, not having heard a word about it other than it had something to do with Arthur. I suppose that's always best. That way, you can't be disappointed by preconceived notions being unfulfilled.

Tuesday, Patrick and I went to Gettysburg. We walked Pickett's Charge again, in the proper order this time. What a surreal thing, with all the butterflies flitting about happily. How is it possible something so terrible happened on the very ground we walked on?

We also took pictures in costume. Hooray for a tripod! Random people took our pictures too. That was fun.

Then came the shopping. Bad us. Patrick got his calvary boots. I resisted the nibs and inks and writing desks. We also got more soldiers and sundry for the programs, so it's all going to a good place I suppose. I got a call while there for work the next day. Yay! Receptionist for a law firm in the same building as Manpower, of all places.

First Seamus was that night. It's so fun to watch him perform, and listen to him too. The kitchen was down, so that meant no buffalo wings. Sad. And we found out that it was Brian's last night bartendering at Seamus. Even sadder! Hopefully we'll do mini-golf agin soon, because that was fun last year.

Work is work is work. They're actually really nice, laid back, and by the end of the week had offered me a job. How 'bout that?

Second weekend was SO much nicer than the first! I suppose the lack of opressive heat is mostly to blame. Blame sounds rather negative for such a happy result, but it feels like the right word there. The biggest drawback to it was that it was Labor Day Weekend: meaning three day. Man, that's exhausting stuff! I kept forgetting too. But three days meant I got to wear my new socks!

It was Sunday morning at opening gate. I saw Patrick occupied with a family, he was talking mainly to the mother and she was translating into sign language. Shortly thereafter, I heard the little girl, who was probably about four, scream. I had an idea of what was now going on over there.

On the walk back to the stage, he told me that, if they show up, our Princess for the first show will be pre-cast. When we started with our pre-show crowd gathering, there were a couple of regulars sitting front and center with a couple of friends talking about how to get into the show. Patrick let them know what was going on. A few minutes before we were about to start, the mother comes running up with her daughter in tow. I went down and reviewed what was going to happen, and they sat in the front row. (The mother actually had to borrow our mobile phone because she had no way to get in touch with her family who were lost!)

When it was time to start, we brought her up. Patrick explained to the audience what was going on and how we were going to have a very special show this morning. He brought her to the front of the stage and gave her the tiara. He asked her mother what her name sign was and had the whole audience sign hello! Then we set to getting the rest of the cast. It truly was a magical show! Patrick said the Princess line and her mother signed it to her and she signed it back for the whole audience. And they responded with the applause sign. Her scream was so loud! And, since her brother was St. George, the love scene was actually quite cute.

What really struck me, however, was how much the audience supported a pre-cast Princess. We had a good sized audience and there were no shortage of little girls. But we had no complaints, no angry mothers storming out, no overly-upset children. They were all right there. Ready for her to succeed, and willing to do everything they could to ensure she would. The show was wonderful, thanks to all of them too.

One of the lawyers bought a fish on Tuesday. A Beta. He was very worried after transferring it to the big fish bowl that it was sick and dying. It was very cute. The fish, who has yet to have a name at the end of the week, frequently just hoovers at the top of the water, making all those who walk by ask if it is dead.

We went to see a movie with Marianne and Tom that same night, Bourne Ultimatum. It was pretty good. Had a sort of happy ending so I, of course, solidified the happy parts that were missing. But the handheld camera business needed to stop. Or at least be calmed down a bit. Did the camera operator have too much caffeine that day?

On Wednesday, Patrick got a private riding lesson with Roy in the morning. He rode Malachai and gave him pumpkins. Thus, Malachai became his best friend. Lucky. But then he met me for lunch and we went to Red Robin to share a salad. The waiter split the salad in two, added extra toppings, and brought two plates! It was really nice. And we didn't get charged extra, either.

That evening, we met with Jenna to see Merrily We Roll Along in DC. It was great! They had this gorgeous spiral staircase that went up what looked like two storeys, and a gigantic door. The stage area was a circular platform, white, with the door toward the back, the staircase

October 22 to November 2, 2007

We had a weekend between the closing of MDRF and the opening of LARF, and the drive straight down would only take a day. A long day, but a single day nonetheless.

We stayed with Michele for a few more days. We had to clear out our stage and pack up the car. And, of course, stay for Seamus on Tuesday! Then, early in the morning on Wednesday the 24th, we began our trek! The goal was to see some Civil War sites on the way to Richmond, stay there for the night, see the Crater the next morning, drive along the Road to Appomattox, and arrive at our friends' house in Georgia.

Things did not quite pan out the way we had planned. Things were going fairly swimmingly until we got to the site of Stonewall Jackson's death. After the adventure finding it on the way, it began to rain. And not just rain, but pour. We ended up taking a short nap in the car before continuing. It kept raining all the way down to Richmond. Ruined one of our walks; even the Park Ranger was surprised we had shown up.

The next morning we went to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, and by the time we were done and had lunch, we had to readjust our plans. The website for the Crater gave us some misgivings as to whether we would even be able to see it due to road construction, so we started the drive on the Road to Appomattox.

All things considered, it was a good thing we did. The drive, while beautiful and informative with all the little signs, was slow-going and much longer than expected. We barely got to Appomattox Courthouse in time for the final video. It was actually quite pretty there, bigger than I expected. It made me think of an old Wild West town.

Because our timing was off in the planning, we did not end up arriving in Georgia until bedtime. Mercie was waiting up for us, got us tucked in and we slept the night away in quite the cozy little guestroom! The next day, Mercie took us to Chickamauga and Chattanooga and a really fun little Irish pub. The next day, she and Roland took us to a little craft festival and a random Civil War site neither of us had ever heard of. We tromped about in the woods and had a grand old time.

After that, we drove up to Shiloh in Tennessee. That evening, we stayed at Kate & Roy's Jouster Ranch. It's very relaxing there. The next day we went to Fort Donnelson. It was quite the small site in comparison to Shiloh, but there was an eagle in a tree by the river. It was a nice visit, as always. We spent time with them, with Gene and Becky, I visited the chickens, and we even got a tour of their property on horseback! That was so lovely.

Finally it was time to go down to Louisiana. We wanted to get there with enough time to set up our stage and get settled in at the house. I was very excited; I love it there.

November to Mid December, 2007: LARF

It was our first year with a full run at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival! And my first forray into the blogosphere....