May 2005 - Spring Crown Tourney

This was a great event!  Waking up at 2:15am, I headed south, stopping briefly at His Grace's place to pick up a few items.  The drive at that time of the day is, well, pretty dang empty.  Fortunately I had a good book on CD-ROM to keep me company, and as it was close to my usual waking time, I didn't feel too tired.

The Drawbridge Inn is a fantastic venue; the entire facility is passingly medieval, with an entire complex of restaurants, cafes and a night club, a couple outdoor pools, and indoor pool, and who knows what else.

I arrived nearly an hour early.  While Dag and Anne Marie had breakfast, I ran a few things to the day camp from his van, changed and got my stuff stowed in the room, and rejoined them in the main hall where the tourney would be held.

The fighting, predictably enough, was excellent.  There were some great bouts - wish I'd taken more video, for certain.

That night there were quite a few people gathered in Dag and Anne Marie's room afterward, and much interesting conversation.  It was interesting to see everyone so connected - at a level you just don't see in mundane life.  That's one of the things that Margarethe and I enjoy most about the SCA; the friends you make aren't superficial-come-over-barbecue-and-complain-about-the-price-of-gas types.  They're strong bonds, forged by shared experiences and interests.

The evening caught up to me sometime after 2am, at which point I'd been up for over 24 hours.  Not wanting to either a) fall asleep in front of the assembled crowd, or b) sleep in the hallway, I ambled (ok, it was more of a stagger) down to my car and napped until 4am or so.  The drive home was restorative, and hey, I know that scotch is a very bad thing - at least for me.

-Bodvarr

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