[Sca-cooks] Getting to Pennsic

[Stefan li Rous]

Rosine commented:
>    Our barony always sends up a truck full of camping equipment. It'd be no
> problem to throw in an extra tent and a flashlight. chair, sleeping bag -
> you know, stuff. (One year friends from Phoenix flew in - I brought a tent,
> cots, sleeping linens and towels, someone else gave cook gear, someone else
> chairs. With advance warning, your friends can insure that all you need
> bring is your garb. And maybe not that. Besides, you can ship your stuff to
> the Merchant's office if you make advance arrangements and Cindy's OK with
> it.)

Under the new rules for last Pennsic, individuals can now ship goods
directly to Cooper's Lake. You no longer have to go through the
Merchants office. However, big boxes will still end up in the trailer
full of stuff for the merchants and you will need to go through the
Merchant's office, or at least the representative at the trailer to
get your stuff.

The notice on the website is the same as last year, saying this is
not for your routine mail.

This is a BIG improvement from previous years, where I had to drop
ship to the UPS stop, which is in the next town over and is only
open for one hour a day for pickup. And on top of that, after
arranging to get someone to drive me over there, I found out the
central UPS office gave me the wrong hour for pickup.

I then ship my box of stuff home the Friday before Pennsic closes
using the little mail trailer that is there near gate. Note that
this trailer is only open M-F and even then only from 11-2. Last
year I screwed up and tried to take my box there at 3pm on Friday.
Luckily Liadan was willing to haul it home with her and ship it
to me.

It roughly costs me about $30-$40 each way to ship my trunk (too
large for the checked airline baggage) to Pennsic and back. Almost
double that when I use a UPS drop off shop (like Mail Stores Etc)
instead of taking the box across town directly to UPS or when I
send it USPS. UPS does offer online tracking though. These drop
off points are getting as much as UPS, and all they do is hold it
for pickup. (IMHO, a rip-off) I think the wieght limit is 65 pounds.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****