My First Pennsic 
Welcome to the web
page I have dedicated to the details and pictures of my first trip to the Pennsic Wars! I will warn you now, this page takes a long time to load because there are tons of pictures here!
I am departing from
my house approximately 20:00 hours August 11, 2000. Everything is packed and ready to go, except for the mini-van
(also known as Ye Olde Wagon). I have
made all necessary arrangements for pet-sitting and plant-watering and the
like. Now all that is left is the six-plus hour drive!
I don’t know how
often I will be able to update this, but if possible I hope to add pictures and
stories while there! If that turns out
to be impossible, I will fill in all the details as soon as I get home again.
The drive out there
The drive was not as bad as I thought it would be. It started out to be a lovely night as we started to pack the van. Then just as we were almost ready to go, a storm started that sent hail the size of teeth raining down on our house. We finished packing in spite of this sign, and were ahead of schedule when we left the house at 6:10PM.
During the drive, we ate snacks, stopped a few times to get cofffee, and spent many hours singing hilarious songs just trying to stay awake. The closer we got, the more nervous my stomach became. I actually got very jittery as we stopped for the last pee on "flushies" before we reached the site. And then....MAGIC!
If you don't believe in magic, you will if you go to Pennsic. Coming over the last hill on the highway, you look to your right, and all you see for miles on end is campfires and canvas tents. It really, truely looks like you have stepped into a whole other time and place. THIS is what I am in the SCA for!
My first day –
Saturday
I guess our first hour at Pennsic was technically on Saturday, so I will start here. We arrived around 1am or so, trolled in and received our site tokens. We spent a few minutes driving around in the dark trying to find our campsite until I finally noticed the Shire of Eisental banner in the dark.
We drove up and several people were still awake around the campfire. We were told that we didn't need to set up our tent because another one was already set up and still empty. So, we sat up for a while and watched the Persieds (shooting stars) fall over our heads. It was dark, peaceful, and I could hardly believe I was there!
After a few hours of sleep, we woke up and set up our tent and parked the van. We looked around the shire campsite, taking a tour of
Kat'ryn and Istvan's yurt, and then the
armouring tent.
Then, of course we went shopping! This is the main reason to be at Pennsic, I think. (j/k)
After the overwhelming feelings of Saturday, it was nice to get back to camp for dinner, and spend time around the campfire with my close friends.
Sunday
I hate to say Sunday was rather dull, but it was. Saturday was so hot and I was so excited to be there, that I forgot to drink water! Consequently, I woke up on Sunday with a severe headache that only got worse. I spent most of the day in camp, nursing my headache, and being nursed by my friends and fiance. Finally I got enough water into my system to get up and take a walk around Pennsic with my fiance. We went to the East Kingdom Royal encampment, and took pictures of the "wall" we donated money to. (There's a long story to this, but you'll read more about that on Friday's entry). Here are those pictures:
Then we walked around more parts of Pennsic and saw a few of the noteworthy "walls" that households and groups erected around their camp sites. The first was the Dragon's Eye
The next one we saw was the Ravenspittle encampment that had a pirate ship for a gate.
This one we don't know the name of, but it looked cool.
Then we headed back to camp in time for dinner, and I took a hold of the camera and took some pictures of the Fjord Apes that were in our camp.
Here is the home of the Head Fjord Ape and his family...
Dinner was cooking on the campfire as I walked around with my camera.
Here's a cute picture of Tarl and Katherine the Lost.
Another one of Katie and Tarl, just cuz I had it
And yes, we had to do the Group Fjord Ape shot...
Monday
Monday was the first day we started getting the "warnings" of "the big storm is coming". (It actually took three days to get here). It was also the day of the opening ceremonies, and the first battles of the war. I was given advise by those who had been to Pennsic before that watching the opening ceremonies was pretty much a waste of time. All you can see is the traditional arrow being broken, but you cannot hear anything unless you are close enough (that is, part of the royal escort to get that close). So, I didn't see it, I just saw pictures in the Pennsic Phoenix (war newspaper) the next day. This was also the day of the Champions battles (30 of the Kingdom's best fighters per side), and the East Kingdom won all four of those battles. We also one the Champions Archery war point that day, giving us a 5-0 lead over the Mid Realm.
As the Champion Archers were doing their thing, I walked over to the Archery Range and took some pictures.
If you look to the right of this picture, you can see the clout shoot target in the background.
Under the tent is the East Kingdom King Balfar and Queen Luna watching the Champions Archery shoot.
Looking back towards camp from the Archery range, is a sea of tents as far as the eye can see...
Then I walked over to the battle field (which was empty at the time), and took a picture of what it looks like empty. I wish you could see something to give you a size-comparison on this, but take my word for it that it is huge!
That night as we sat around the campfire, the coolest blood moon rose over Pennsic. (It was actually a full moon on Tuesday, but it looked very red on Monday night). Here are two attempts at pictures of this phenomenon.
Tuesday
To be honest, I don't remember much of what happened on Tuesday. I think I spent most of the day at the merchants tents. I helped out around camp a little, and worked on some handstitching to finish garb I had brought along with me to war. I do know, however, that I spent that evening at the Masked Ball. What a great event! Totally period dances, with people in wonderful costumes and masks. I just have a million pictures of this, so I'm going to line them all up here and let you look through them as you like. (I'm sorry they didn't turn out that well...apparently my new cam doesn't take pictures in the dark very well.)
Wednesday
Wednesday was another shopping day. This was the day of the woods battle. There are no spectators in this battle, so mainly I spent the day looking for great deals on fabric, not finding any, helping my friend Cristoff find a good deal on a sword, and didn't find any, and hanging around in camp. Wednesday night the rains hit. This is a picture of the shire banner, where you can see the rain clouds coming in over the horizon.
I also took a picture of the view out our "front door" so to speak. This is Camp of the 3 Bears, and they were our "across the street neighbours" for the week.
Thursday
Thursday was both fun and sucky at the same time. I got to watch the Abbey/Town Battle first thing in the morning, which was great fun! This is the only battle to include thrown "weapons" including combat archers, non-combat archers, and seige weapons. The fighters were constantly frustrated by stuff flying at them from over their heads!
The course of the battle started with the MidRealm taking control of almost every Abbey, and then holding feircely onto them until the end. The East tried valiantly to take control, but continued to be pushed back.
Even our brave warrior, Elias, is seen walking back to Resurrection Point several times.
The archers from the MidRealm decided to sit and rest until they could get a decent chance at killing someone from the East. There were only MidRealm fighters in this Abbey!
Here are the fighters taking a break as points are tallied during the battle:
At one point, two C130's buzzed the field. We thought the East Kingdom had called in the Paratroopers!
We lost the Abbey battle, and later that afternoon we also lost the Canyon battle. The score was now 6-3 for the East.
That night we slept in cold wind and driving rain. The tarp on our tents made such a loud noise that it was difficult to get a good night's sleep.
Friday
Friday morning wasn't much better than Thursday night. This was the day we spent seriously considering packing up everything wet and just going home. We first decided to stay for the field battle, which was to take place in the early afternoon. Then it got changed to immediately after the Bridge Battle. The East Kingdom won the Bridge Battle, thereby taking the 7th point needed to win the war. So the field battle, usually the best of them all, was a bit of a let down. Most of the East fighters left the field, never to return to fight. Therefore, our side was greatly out-numbered, probably three to one. It happened rather like this:
First there was an attempt at peace talks (or maybe people were switching sides? Who knows, when the Royals start talking...)
The cannons went off (as they do at the beginning and end of every battle).
The MidRealm started charging the field...
The East finally joined in the frey, trying a sneak attack to hide their small numbers.
There is a mighty battle, however short.
The East dies a quick and horrible death.
There are a few singles bouts to decide the winners, but the outcome is the same. There are just too many of them, and too few of us.
Some of Sir Dan's squires come back bearing their battle wounds...(Derek and Thud)
So we lost the battle, but we won the war!
And in the background during this was the thrown-weapons competition...
The weather had improved slightly, so we decided to stay one more night and leave on Saturday as originally planned. And a good thing we did, too! That night was the East Kingdom Royals party for the Allies of the war. The Shire of Eisental had been asked to serve at this party, and we had plans for some tomfoolery too. Remember those pictures of the East Kingdom wall? Our shire contributed a great amount of money towards that wall, so we felt we "owned" about a quarter of it. So, for a lark, we decided to make up a few stickers with the words "Property of the Shire of Eisental" on them, and then stick those on various parts of the "Wall" right before the party.
The plan would have gone off great if some of the tight-butts from the Royal encampment had just left the stickers up long enough for the King and Queen to see them! But, I got pictures of the action...(the little coloured dots are the Post-It Notes with the wording on them.)
Before...
During...(sorry its a little blurry, I was trying to hurry)
And after our handy work was done. (NOTE that people from the Royal encampment were quickly trying to tear down the notes as fast as we put them up.
Then we decided to get one up where they couldn't tear it down. So Tomaso hoisted me up, and I stuck it way up high!
After these aborted attempts, we got really brave and took the rest of the stickers with us into the encampment. We then cockily stuck "Property of the Shire of Eisental" on the King and Queen's personal banners!
As if that wasn't enough, we finally got inside the "goodies" tent, and found the Rhino that had been Squired. So, we stuck one on him too!
Thank goodness their Majesties have a sense of humour! :)
If you thought that was the only pranks we played this war, you were wrong! There was also the attempted take-over of the lands belonging to Gaping Maw (last year's across-the-street-neighbours). Sometime during that saga, a sign was posted on Gaping Maw's gates that read "For Sale by Neighbour, ask Eisental for Details". However, someone from Gaping Maw took it off their gates and tried to stick it back on ours. Instead, we gave it to some kids and said "hey, go stick this somewhere". It ended up two doors down, and stayed on those gates for the rest of the day! Many passers-by posed...
I kinda wished we could've had the ones a few doors down from that. You know, the Roman encampment with the pillars and mosaic floor tiles...
I thought I would also include in here a picture of Battle Road, since I walked it so damned many times getting to and from the merchants and everywhere else...
Saturday
Saturday we went home. It wasn't quite as dull as that, because in the wee hours of the morning, a small surprise walked into camp. That's right...on the last possible day to arrive, Johnathan Carver came to Pennsic after 9 years of trying. He showed around pictures of his new baby son, and was truely the proud, lucky, and happy Pappa. He woke up early Saturday morning and got a quick tour of Pennsic from Kat'ryn. From what I hear, he left again that night (we were already home by that point).
Leaving Pennsic was a strange mixture of feelings. I was just getting into the whole thing, and yet I was so eager to get home to warm showers and non-rusted water, and to see my pets again. I just didn't want Pennsic to have to end too.
Coming Home…
Coming home was time to reminisce about all the things I had seen and heard. Trust me when I say you cannot experience Pennsic without the sounds...the drums, the cannons, the singing, the shouting, the talking among old friends and the meeting of new people. I realized that for 8 whole days, I had lived within several people that I hardly know. But I feel like I know them a thousand times better now. Thank you to Derek, Ysabeau, Sophia, Katie, Tarl, Kat'ryn, Istvan, Rose, Greywulf, Sabylla, Thorkatla, Victoria, Jimmy, Julia, Tommaso, Elias, Jacobina, Ben the Steward, Cousin, Linda, Frank, Asa, Leoric, Duncannon and his lady, Oriana, Astrid, and of course Maeryk, for making the camp a livable place...almost like home! (almost).
This was my own account of Pennsic XXIX, from August 11 to the 19th, 2000, A.S. XXXV
