Saturday morning, Signy and I slept late! Bwahahahaha! We got up, ate a leisurely breakfast, and finished packing for the event. It was very surreal getting on the road with the sun well up, but the extra sleep was wonderful.

We didn't fully understand the freeways around Bloomington, so we took a little detour that took us past a shoulder of the road that appeared to be burning. When we went past it the other direction, there was a fire truck there, and the smoke was spouting less. It looked very odd. Getting close to site, there were billions of stupid runners in the road. (I've been a runner, smart runners don't dawdle in front of moving cars. These were stupid runners, almost stupid enough to intentionally jump in front of cars. Only freshmen are worse about looking for traffic before moving into the right of way!) The directions to site really sucked rocks, but we eventually got there.

Tuge checked us in and gave us green Twizlers, which were yummy. A small voice hailed us as we drove past the field, so we didn't have to find our friends to site with. Rowan found us before the car had stopped moving. We set up with Gwyn, Dietrich, and AElf, near a bunch of other people we knew. Rowan helped me park the car, and picked flowers all the way back from the parking lot.

I got in armor, cleverly forgetting to stretch. Some ladies came around advertising lunch waaay on the other end of site! Signy and I decided it was better to mooch off our friends than walk that far with the tourney scheduled to start in a few minutes. I gradually realized the huge difference between real time (even SCA time) and Baille time, and eventually lunch moved closer, but by then Signy had captured me a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, and the tourney really was about to start.

Before the tourney started, the archers were shooting at targets a very long ways away. It was really cool seeing the arrows arching that high, and getting that close. I've only shot outdoors once (as an adult), and not from far away. It was quite impressive. Even the kid with the little bow was getting arrows down near the targets! It was kind of scary though, as they were shooting right along the edge of where the fighters were standing.

Before the tourney started, they told all the fighters to go "mosey over that way, by those ladies under the tree." So of course, some people had to race and feign jumping in the ladies' laps. They were not amused, so I'm glad I didn't. I showed them the proper way to mosey, and did a rather poor attempt at swaggering. (If you want to see good swaggering, ask Percy to swagger like he did after he authorized. That was A+ swaggering!)

Finally, the eggs were hidden. We grabbed bags and lined up. Some people raced for the woods, where there were piles of eggs stashed away. I strolled along, keeping my eyes sharp, and caught a lot of eggs people had missed. I didn't count, but I got a good number of eggs to start with. Half of them had broken in half by the time I got back, but I still had them!

Then came the hard part: picking a fight. I watched everyone else pair up and wished I knew more of the fighters here. Then Sir Ix came walking towards me purposefully. Well, I wasn't planning on winning this tourney, so I put down my bag and put up my polearm. I died quickly. (Did I mention I hadn't stretched? Or warmed up? Those are apparently vital parts of my fighting. I keep forgetting this at actual tourneys...) After that, I had no problem finding fights for a while. I always introduced myself, though I had a hard time getting others' names in my head. I fought Percy for the first time, and I had to work to kill him. I wasn't fighting badly, I was doing the things I've been working on, I just wasn't quite killing people. I did kill Roberto, in a fine feat of wrestling, so now I get to mangle his name until he kills me. I also killed Artis, who usually kills me, so that made me happy. I had a very educational bout with Master John, as I've never fought against someone who was a *good* rapier fighter. I fought more than half of the people there that weren't from Illiton, I didn't die easilly most of the time, and I ended with three whole eggs, so I'm pretty happy.

After a water break, there was melee! Joy! We played a variation on some game played on horses, taking the rabbit around the posts then back to the center. The first time, I stayed alive, might have killed some people, our side won. The second time, it was the Chivalry against the world. We split into 4 man teams, each assigned one guy to kill. My team took Sir Ix. I got out of line and got picked off. I felt really stupid, I know better. Plus, he hit me on the ribs right above the armor. The bruise is pretty faint, but I don't remember ever bruising on my ribs before. At least it stopped hurting before the third round. Third round we were back in our teams. I was watching the people in front of me, just keeping them busy, when I saw Oakley out of the corner of my eye. I forgot he was on the other team until he trapped my pole and killed me. He's going to pay for that someday... (I only hold friendly grudges, never fear.)

Then they opened the field for pickups. As I threw up from too much sun after Rites, I thought it would be best if I stopped fighting before I was sick, since I haven't seen my doctor about it. (Must have worked, I wasn't sick.)

I took my armor off, and carried my gear back to the car in just a tunic. I didn't think that there might be showers, so I just changed into dry clothes and my period shoes and felt Much Better, thankyouverymuch. The new car is much better for changing out of.

I wandered back, and Constance (? the Vicki that goes with Rob) fed me salty things, for which she has my eternal gratitude (that was also a big part of not being sick later).

Signy and I played hnaftafl a couple times. Then Rowan got interested, and she and I played fox and geese some, and then I passed off my spot to Mikalynn. Rowan and Mikalynn are both better at fox and geese than I am.

When it came time to schlep the stuff back to the car, I found a child asleep on my sheepskin! Well, I had just been telling Rob how he needed to find a half grown child to be a page for him, and thinking that I could use one too. So I rolled up Mikalynn in the sheepskins and started carting her away. Rowan thought this was mean, as her parents would be missing her, and I should take her instead. So I released Mikalynn and carted Rowan off to my car and tossed her in the back. (I love the new station wagon: much better for tossing small children into.)

General chit-chat happened until feast. AElf found a couple goblets and bowls that are good for Signy, so we had feast gear coming out the yin-yang. The goblets were nice, we didn't have to use the dribble goblets (I failed to make a water-tight fix on my favorite goblet) or the cheap mug that lives tied to my armor bag (it's a little dinged up). At first, there was a nice empty spot next to me, so our server put all the food there, so I got first pick! Then Karl (von B?) claimed his seat and I had to share the food. The food was excellent. We did not let our server clear the garlic sauce. Yum. Also wonderful was the candied violets (fairy food) and orange peel. It was all good, though. (OK, they didn't do the barley dish as well as our cooks did last weekend.)

After feast, we wandered down by the lake and watched the stars come out. The lake was silver, the sky was beautiful, you could see the dark of the moon faintly... A boat drove by. It was peaceful, quiet, cool, and away from all the people... A wonderful way to relax and digest.

We were crashing with Barb and Tuge. We didn't know how to get there, so we were told to "follow the big blue van with Wisconsin plates!" OK... And we were meeting up from different parking lots. Signy and I spent the entire trip to their house wondering if we were following the right blue van. It was hilarious. They never answered our radio hails, almost as if our imaginary radio wasn't on the right frequency. Huh.

I almost crashed as soon as we got there, but first I had to beat off the "house cow" (hugw black and white dog), who was intent on eating the sheep skins I was sleeping on!

In the morning we went out for breakfast with a lot of other people. Master Avery introduced himself, and I got a, "So you're the mysterious Virithos!" I asked him what was so mysterious about me. Charles, Gwyn, what have you been telling that man about me?

I have no idea how the non-fighters/archers amused themselves, but I got to hit people, so I'm happy. I am, however, dearly paying for not stretching and warming up. I haven't been this sore after fighting since I started fighting with the greatsword, rather than against it.

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