[Ravensfort] Gulf War report

Corbisier, Barbara L barb at tamu.edu
Fri Mar 24 18:51:33 PST 2006


I would like to regail you all with tales of camraderie and bravery, wonderous merchants, chivalrous 
deeds, and much merriment at Gulf War, but I can't.  Before you cry, "But Catherine, surely you must 
have missed something!  Ansteorrans are famous throughout the Known World for these things! Did 
you spend the entire War in your tent?", let me explain.

We arrived on Monday, a day later than planned.  Gregor drove all night so we could set up in 
daylight.  I am pleased to report that the cool navigation system in the new car worked perfectly, and 
we found King's Arrow Ranch with no problems. We didn't know exactly where we were camping, but 
within a few minutes of driving around we saw Lorraine Deerslayer, so we didn't have to remain 
clueless for long.  We helped set up the big tents for the camp kitchen, and then got to setting up 
our own tent.  We were next to the ravine and were setting up during the ravine battle, so we had a 
perfect view.  Unfortunately, we couldn't really appreciate it because we had to get ourselves set up.

Once that was completed, we set off in search of food merchants.  They were mostly still setting up 
themselves.  I saw Love of Halesworth in line at one place, but didn't get a chance to talk.  I didn't 
worry too much as I assumed I'd have plenty of time during the rest of the week to catch up with her.  
We finally found something to eat, and then took a brief tour of the rest of the merchants.  I was in 
search of some proper chairs to use at events.  Unfortunately, the only ones that were for sale were 
Viking-style X-chairs, which wasn't the type I was looking for.  We went back to our tent to rest for a 
bit--Gregor was rather tired after driving all night.  Around that time it started to rain, and I 
discovered that our tent was leaking in new and exciting places. I managed to find a place where the 
bed wasn't being leaked on, and the drips weren't falling on anything else crucial.  

After a bit of rest, we realized that we had left a couple of things in the car.  We set off on a trek to 
get to the car.  The parking lot was a LONG way away from where we were camped.  But this also 
gave us a good excuse to see some more of the site.  By the time we got back, there were a number 
of parties going on, but we decided to go to sleep.  After all, we had the rest of the war for 
merriment and mead, right?  

In the wee hours of the morning, I woke up feeling sick.  And it got worse.  I won't go into gory 
details, but I will say that having the bathroom a quarter mile down the road was a very bad thing.  I 
will also say that Gregor is a saint and I don't deserve him.  

I was finally able to sleep a bit, and Gregor went to get the car back over and started packing 
everything back up.  I eventually woke up and tried to help, but failed when I realized that I got dizzy 
when I tried to bend over to pick things up.  Mirabelis came by about this time and very nicely agreed 
to complete the tasks I had to do at war, as well as set up Baroness Fionna's weaving for the A&S 
competition on Friday.  

And then Gregor drove all the way back home while I tried to sleep some more in the car.  So we 
were only there for a day.  I'm sure that all the things I mentioned at the beginning of this missive 
happened, but unfortunately, I didn't see them.  We'll try again next year and maybe we'll actually be 
able to enjoy the war.  Sigh.

In service,
-Catherine Barbary






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