Genevieve
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Gulf Wars, Part 3, the end of the War and the road home
2001-03-27 - 04:57 p.m.

Gulf Wars Saga, Part Three

(Hee hee hee hee hee, I have maxed the number of characters in Notepad with this tale, silly me!)
When we last left our intrepid heros they had wrapped up shopping with the Royalty ladies, dressed all in black, being very sneaky, and encouraging them to spend money. Poor Princess Mary-Grace was all excited about her new necklace purchase from Drachenstien and wanted to show off to her fair Prince, who was stuck in a Pennsic planning meeting for hours. Sigh, the road of the Royalty is not paved with gold, in fact it's a gravel and dirt road with lots of big-assed potholes. But that's another diary all together.

Day 8, Friday of Gulf Wars, busy day.

Gen wakes up in the morning to a nice hot shower, clean hair and a decent memory of which merchants were where to hunt them down later. I decide to wear my Middle Eastern outfit, that has not been worn since I made it for Halloween to be a member of Galmr's Harem here at work. I even made new pants to go with it that are most comfy and bright blue and a green sash since my apprentice belt does not go with this outfit. I was very comfy all day long, it was great! Sadly it was a little chilly as the sun started to go down and really chilly after it set. brrr... So, first thing in the morning was the rapier Rose Tournament, single elim, each Rose got one white scarf and one non-white scarf. Alan, who was fighting for Countess Brigit, got knocked out in the first round by a new hot stick in Ansteorra, Edward. He did get to continue fighting bye fights for a while, since the MoL's were obviously screwy to have bye fights close to the final rounds, and won all of his bye fights. The final fight was between Ragnarr, who was fighting for Countess Kyneburh, and Gregor, who was fighting for Queen Emer. Hee hee hee, Atlantians kicked ass at the war! Gregor won and continued to win at everything else too, he had game that week. He won the Ansteorran tourney, and his fight in the Champions battle, and kicked ass in the Rapier Field and Ravine battles from what I understood. Then I spent a few hours talking to Genevieve, Brigit and Padraiga under Gen's dayshade. No, I was not talking to myself, I was talking to Countess Genevieve, thank you! Although me talking to myself is not rare. We chatted about all sorts of things from the rumors of the Eastern Queen being a bitch to trying to talk Brigit into taking my job, to other general stuff. Life was good, and I have a great time chillin' with the ladies. But, while I love Gen and her kids to death, I could go a long time without having to hear "No No sir, Come here sir" from her mouth. She's got the mom voice down and it made me want to be a good child. Then we all hopped up to go to the Heavy Rose Tournament at 4:30pm. Who decided that it was going to be so late should have been shot, along with the painfully slow MoL running the list. Darkness falls really quickly and cooly during spring. Once again this was a single elim tourney, and each Rose could sponsor one white belt, non-royal peer, and one unbelted fighter. Once again the Atlantians kicked serious booty in this tourney. Not sure exactly how it went, but some of the final fighters were Duncan, Forgal, Sir Christian and Christian the German. Sadly, light was wanning quickly and the idea to use headlights was not as great as you might think, torches would have been better, and the final fight was called a Draw between Duncan and some midrealmer? since I heard some statement about fear of hitting the marshals. It was well fought and a great display of combat and inspiration. And, man, can Emer pick her Champions. Although I swear Anton was about to kirk on the silly old man at the MoL table who kept holding up fights and screwing stuff up. I would have helped if I had known any better, but I know enough to NOT HELP, as Wendy puts it. :) Then there was Atlantian court on the field, they gave out two AoA's and a bunch of shark's teeth to Gregor for one, and Kymber listed among others for another. I think the Kymber was all sorts of excited to get a fighting award, one that Rags doesn't have to boot. tee hee hee. Then we went shopping after dinner at the greek food place in the food court. I lived off of those steak kebabs! They were so yummy and all I needed to boot. :) I ended up buying Alan a new dress Pelican medallion and a new GD for myself since I gave away mine at Pennsic, and helped Kevin spend money, and bought more stripey socks, and some new mugs from Please Touch Pottery, and Alan bought a fencing helm that needs some clean up, and Isobel got Bob a really nice present for his birthday and a moonstone cross for herself, and life was great. We got to chat with some friends from Fla. and some of our Ansteorran buds off the field. It was good to catch up. Alan and Isobel then went up to watch the torch light rapier tourney, while I think Kevin turned in for the night. He had had a hard day of fighting and deserved a good nights sleep. By the way, Gen had put on a new warmer tunic over her middle eastern and her wool hood since it got nice and chilly at night.

Day 9, Saturday, March 17th, St. Patrick's Day and final day of war.

First of all, Isobel and I had to pinch those of our friends not wearing green since it was St. Patrick's Day after all. We had heard of rain on Sunday, and since we had canvas, we wanted to get packed up and out by nightfall, since packing wet canvas sucks, and packing in the rain also sucks. Well, the rapier folks had their ravine battle and the non-white scarves field battle to play with during the day and the heavies had the fun fun fort battle. This left poor little Gen to pack up a bunch of stuff on her own during the day. Let me tell you that I wasn't much to look at during the day. It was still chilly, so I wore my pants again, and my short Cuan tunic from Antonella. This made it easier to climb over stuff and into the truck to pack. Much easier. I swear that wearing the tunic has the same effect on Antonella that calling out Beetlejuice's name three times has on him. I didn't see Antonella the entire war, except on my way back from the field, she drove by and shockingly said, "You still have that thing!" I swear I do have other clothes, some decently nice stuff I made myself and yet everytime I see Antonella I'm wearing this damn frumpy but warm and comfy tunic that she made for Cuan years ago that Bera swiped and wore once, ripped a small hole in the back, and then I swiped it from her and have had it all these years. So, I pack a lot during the morning since the rapier ravine battle is only so charming to watch. The one saving grace to the heavy ravine battle was sitting on the hill with Kelly and Tricia and yapping. So, I pack and then head off to watch a little bit of the fort battle behind Emer and her entourage, which stated like 45 mins late and had 30 mins of the heavies mostly standing around while the seige engines and archers had a go at the long range weapon warfare. You begin to understand how a castle could be under seige for a few days watching this stuff. Finally they let the heavies charge and there is much fighting and clamouring up walls until the first hold. Now this is facinating to a point, but the fort is far off from where we are allowed to view and the temperature is dropping, so a need to be elsewhere is very fast creeping up my spine. I head on back to the tent to finish packing up at least once heading by the Royal Cabin muttering something to the effect of if anyone thinks they are authorizing today, they are stupid. Forgal very wisely informs me that the world is full of stupid people and he is sooooo right. While I'm packing up, two folks want to authorize schlager the last day of war, and I get dragged up to the field before the final rapier field battle so that I can handle the paperwork. Sheesh, the glory of aiding more fighters to get on the field has wonr off, I just want a warm bed and flush toilets. We also find out that poor Isobel twisted her ankle a little during the ravine battle, so Gen wisely has a small ace bandage for her ankle, she packs up all of her stuff, changes into mundanes and heads up to the hall to keep warm and watch the weather channel. I head back to the tent before the field battle to get Alan's cassock and his marshalling staff to take to him on the field. I see Kevin hanging out at the tent talking to Thomas of Calais about some of the stuff we are taking back for him and Denise and inform him that he might still have time to get in on the non-white scarf rapier field battle. He jumps up, throws on his stuff and heads up at an amazing pace and thanks to a false start or something, gets in just in time to fit in with the other Atlantians and get orders right before Lay-On. It was very cool and seemed to make him very happy to play in all the combat war points he could, both heavy and rapier. most of the stuff is packed up but the tent and lots of the stuff that goes in the trailer. At some point in time, the Cuan and Padraiga drive by on their way home and he's wearing his Will Fetch For Treats shirt I got him. gosh, it was good to see them both. Luckily, we are eventually packed up before serious darkness. We were tying down the trailer's tarp as the sun set. Mind you many folks asked us to take stuff back for them, Thomas and Denise had lots of stuff, Ragnarr and Kymber gave us those body bags so they didn't have to lug them to the airport when Hanse took them back to NO on Sunday, and even Havorc threw in some last minute stuff. Like I said, the trailer was filled in on the bottom but not tightly packed on the way down, but there was room for nothing else on the way back. Sheesh. So there was fighting, lots of fighting, there were stories of valor, but not being a fighter you'll have to ask others for these, and there were many great things seen and accomplished and money spent at the war. We were packed out and finally leaving site around 7:30, made it to Hattiesburg for dinner at the Lone Star, and made it to Meridian, MS before we just had to crash and crash hard. I had been absolutely freezing all day long since the temp started to drop and it is hard to wear a cloak or coat and pack the truck at the same time. I tried hot food and even coffee with some baileys in it, but nothing would warm me up, except that my face was hot from sunburn. When we got to the hotel, more reasonably priced this time, I took a half hour or more long hot shower to try and warm up. Then we slept, long and hard, out like a light, baby!

Day 10, Sunday, March 18th

We wake up as early as we could muster and pile into the Suburban to head to another Crack House for breakfast again. Despite the fact that we had a long nights sleep, I think we all needed more. We pour protein and caffiene into our systems and we are all still tired as the day is long. I do have the foresight to seek out the 'Grits' collection of stuff in the precious country store and score a Grits, Girls Raised In The South t-shirt with the embroidered logo for Theodora and one with many southern sayings such as "In high cotton", "Shut my mouth", and "Goodness gracious" for myself. :) Kevin climbs back into the driver's seat and drives until somewhere north of Birmingham, AL (not exactly sure since I was asleep) and he finally pulled over to a rest stop since he was tired and looked as sad as a beaten puppy. I offer to take over the driving since I am the only one who can find her sunglasses, so I drive through until the sun sets, outside of Knoxville, TN. Kevin got a good and well needed nap as well as my other cute passengers. It also gave me the chance to listen and sing along to K.D. Lang whilst they slept so no one was disturbed by me too much. Like I said, we were all really tired. Now, Gen had never really driven the truck with the trailer on it. I got to drive it once on the way back last year, but it was windy, rainy and frozen precipitation through a work zone with lots of other crazy drivers and jersey walls. I could only drive for one hour last year before my white-knuckles betrayed me and the boys made me pull over and switch out. Mind you making me drive last year was the boys' cruel way to get back as me since I can soundly sleep in a moving vehicle. evil boys. But this time, it was sunny and clear and some of the construction had gone away, so it was not that bad at all. We decide to stop in Christiansburg for a late dinner at the new Japanese Steakhouse we had heard a lot about and couldn't get into for dinner after KA&SFest. It was a bit of a drive in from the interstate, but the food was excellent, and they had souvineer mugs with the fruity drinks so Laura had one Blue Lagoon in a Skull mug for herself and then another in a monkey mugh for Matt. They were so cute!!! While a longer diversion than planned, it was a well needed rest from the road and fun and yummy to boot. We then pile back into the truck and head on further up the road. Kevin driving and me in the passenger seat blabbering on to keep him awake. Girl's gotta go with her strengths. :) We arrive at Thornbury Manor at 2:30am, yes, that's AM and fall into the guests beds and sleep soundly.

Day 11, March 19th, My Mom's birthday and so close and yet so far away

While we were nearing home turf, we still had to unpack the truck and trailer and repack three people's stuff into Alan's truck for the trip up to MD. Kevin quickly discovers that no grocery shopping had occured during his absence. So, before we get any work done we take off to iHop for a warm meal before setting down to work. I swear we had the worst waitress and the host looked like he should be selling used cars or insurance. We unpack, we pile all of the stuff for other people in the garage, we repack the F150, and we are on the road by 1pm. This takes longer than we ever would have imagined. We say our farewells, and thanks for a great times and get on the road to MD, home and a warm bed. Luckily the weather is good, so after meeting with some traffic around Georgia Ave. we make it home by 2 for Laura to call Bob to come and get her and her stuff. Bob is very happy to take the time off work to do so and see his wife again. We are unpacked into the house, piles of stuff everywhere and Gen waffles between a nap or a bath, 'cause unpacking will happen later. I opt for the nap and sleep until 6:30pm which I then take a bath and munch some snacks and then head back to bed.

So ends the the saga of the trip to Nawlins and Gulf Wars X.

The Large One seemed to have fun in both places and got to kick ass on both fields of combat, as well as buying great gifts for folks at home, with some help from his friendly neighborhood Gen. He also got to look into ways of setting up his tent with dividing walls as food for thought for the future, and came away with four ten foot Thornbury blue walls to be block printed at a later date.

The Angel of Death was in her element in the French Quarter, but also got to brush up on her piano skills. Playing a piano is different from a keyboard, so she says, sticking keys due to humidity and length playing a part. She also got to be vicious on the rapier field and kick booty, until she twisted her ankle. sigh. She got a cool rhinestone skull and cross bones t-shirt out of the trip, as well as a nifty skull mug for morning coffee at Pennsic.

Mr. Hmmmm... seemed to enjoy himself fighting even though his wrist and knee bothered him some during the war. He got to see the sights of the French Quarter: Cafe Du Monde, Bourbon St., the Seaport, and the Garden District, etc., with lovely me at his side. Sadly his war ended with a white scarf meeting after the non-white scarf field battle on Sat. about the blow calling issues on that field and there was much finger shaking and head wagging done, I imagine.

Your Angel of Minor Irritation triumphed mightily as there were many minor irritations, including Trimarians, but luckily I was the giver of MI's instead of the receiver for the most part, except for being sunburn, windblown and frozen. I love New Orleans, and think it a very lovely town to visit, but damn glad I don't live there. There is so much to see that for a few days, it is tough to get bored, especially when working so hard at relaxing. AMI had a great war and loves Gulf Wars, but hopes to go for a longer time next year. There is something to be said for southern hospitality, and the fact that half as many people attend as do Pennsic. There is also something for having trees and cooler temperatures without having to escape to the bog.

Y'all take care now, y'here!?! And I hope that one day you too can go to Gulf Wars and have a great time as well, it truly is worth the drive. But if you are flying, we'll charge you gas money next time to bring your shit for you. :)

Luv,
AMI

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