Damn. I hate to come back from a vacation and grumble about what a lousy time I had, but ... there's not much good to say about this Pennsic. Out of 10 potential days there, so far I had probably about one really good day - and that wasn't all at once, like one whole day. It was like, a few hours here, a few hours there, that maybe added up to one whole day.
The first three days were hotter than hell, and I could barely rouse myself from my air mattress, much less from the camp. Finally on Sunday it cooled down due to a light drizzle, and I went out and enjoyed a few hours of shopping.
Unfortunately, that was the tip of the iceberg, as it were. It rained steadily for the next several days. By Wednesday night all my garb was filthy and wet, my sleeping bag and pillow were wet, and I had a large puddle in my tent, right in front of the door. I considered going home, but wanted to hang tough ... I really didn't think it would keep on raining, and that any minute it would clear up and be nice the rest of War.
Ha. Wednesday night I went to bed totally exhausted about 1:00-ish, and at 4:30 a.m. was still tossing and turning, having only dozed fitfully off and on, because I was sleeping in damp clothes in damp bedding on a damp pillow. I was miserable. I decided to come home, at least briefly.
Today (Thursday) after a brief thunderstorm in the morning, it cleared for a bit, and my boyfriend and I went for a walk up to the merchants, where I picked up some last minute things I wanted, and had lunch in the food court. That was a nice time. We went back to camp, and I began the tedious process of packing up wet, dirty things from my tent to come home. Then it started raining again. I took a break, but it didn't look like letting up, so I finished my packing up in the rain.
My disgusting tent is one of the reasons I couldn't stay there anymore. It had gotten wet. It smelled mildewy and just plain bad. And it was full of the creepiest, alien-looking bugs I've ever seen. I couldn't spend another night in there for any amount of money.
After I packed up, it cleared up and got nice for awhile, so I decided to go ahead and make camp dinner (my trade for not having to do set-up or tear-down). We ate, I did the dishes, and it was still quite nice, and I actually considered not leaving. But we had garbage bags of wet clothes packed in my truck which needed washed, and had I not gone, neither me, my boyfriend, nor his two kids would have had anything clean or dry to wear the rest of War. (Lest you think I'm a mere laundry wench, originally my boyfriend was going to make the trip home today with me, and do laundry, but there were several things taking place today he wanted to participate in, and which he would have missed had he come home; since I was more than ready for a break, I offered to do his laundry for him, so he could stay and do the stuff he wanted to do. Whatta girlfriend.)
So I went ahead and left ... and 10 minutes from the site ran into one of the worst storms I ever drove through. I could barely see the road in front of me. To make matters worse (of course, I always can), I'd decided to go home a different way than usual, and had no idea where I was, and couldn't read the road signs. I knew that storm was headed for the campground, and considering that it took me an hour and a half to get home (west and a little north of the campground, ergo, whatever it's doing here it'll soon be doing there) and it was still raining for an hour after I got home ... they had quite a long-lived downpour this evening. It made me glad I'd left when I did.
So I made it home okay. The rain finally stopped, temporarily at least. I dragged all the wet clothes out on the porch and am in the process of washing and drying laundry while I sit here and play on the computer and drink rum and diet Coke.
I had mixed emotions when I got home ... to my empty house. I considered swinging by my brother's to pick up Tyler tonight, but had I done that, I would definitely not have been able to spend tomorrow night at War. I'd have had to drive out tomorrow to drop off laundry and come home, then drive back Saturday to haul back half the camp.
So I opted to leave Tyler where he is for now (though I miss him horribly - this is the longest I've ever been on vacation without him, and I doubt I'll ever try this again). So no one was here ... no boyfriend, no dog, just me. I felt a little depressed.
Yet at the same time, I felt pretty damned relieved to be able to take a hot bath, sleep in a dry, warm bed in dry, warm clothes, and have dry clean clothes to put on in the morning. Yeah ... coming home was a good thing, just then.
I have to go back tomorrow, regardless of whether it's for an hour or two, or another night ... I have to take the clean, dry clothes back to my boyfriend (who will be soooo grateful!). Whether or not I stay will depend entirely on the weather. I checked the weather forecast ... as of now, it's supposed to clear tomorrow, and be clear through the weekend. IF that's true, then I will probably spend one last night tomorrow night ... and I hope I can. Tomorrow night will be a blast if it doesn't do the "R" thing again. It's the last Friday night at War, always a big party night. First, our camp will have it's own "Eat It / Drink It / Burn It" party (eating up all the food that's left, drinking up all the drinks that are left, and burning anything we can that we're not taking home). And, the Chalkman Pub is open, and there will be an all-night-long session of great music (which I can join in, playing the fiddle; I did that one other night this War, and had a great time; one of those couple hours' long fragments that were good).
My plan for now is to make sure I pack at least one (and maybe two) clean, dry changes of clothing in the truck - where they can't get wet; and to dry out my sleeping bag (by stopping at a laundromat tomorrow if need be) and setting up a bed in the back of my truck (which will be empty once I unpack it tomorrow). That way, even if it rains, I have a clean, warm, dry place to sleep and clean, dry clothes to put on before bed. With that, I should be able to stay, even if it rains.
So ... hope for clear skies tomorrow and Saturday, that's all I ask for.
I didn't take many pictures so far this year. I'll post a few tomorrow before I leave if I have time. If not, when I come back, it'll be Pennsic Recap Week.
No comments:
Post a Comment