[Sca-cooks] [OT][OOP] Pennsic Customs Question
Huette von Ahrens
ahrenshav at yahoo.com
Sun Sep 25 02:19:04 PDT 2005
Ah, Stefan, Giano lives in Germany ... It would cost a fortune to ship anything from there and
would take at least several weeks, to a month. That is a big problem for those living in
Drachenwald.
Huette
--- Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Giano asked:
> > I've just had a most fascinating conversation. It was suggested I
> > might be
> > able to partly fund a Pennsic visit by selling my period cosmetics and
> > aphrodisiacs. "Giano's Medieval Makeover"
>
> Oh? I'd love to have more material on these subjects for the
> Florilegium if you'd be willing to send me some messages I could use.
> Or even better, an article or two. And I have no problem with you
> putting in a notice that you are selling these items for those who
> don't want to make their own and giving the contact info to where
> they could buy these. Of course, if you wish to keep your recipes or
> info as a trade secret, then nothing is going to prevent that.
>
> Just in case you haven't thought to look in the Florilegium, here are
> some of the files in the PERSONAL CARE section which might be of use
> in doing more research on these topics:
> aphrodisiacs-msg (24K) 2/12/04 Medieval aphrodisiacs.
> cosmetics-lnks (10K) 8/21/05 Links to info on medieval
> cosmetics and
> perfumes by Dame Aoife Finn
> of Ynos Mon.
> cosmetics-msg (16K) 12/29/02 Period cosmetics.
> Handcream-art (16K) 6/ 5/00 "Handcream" by Constance de LaRose.
> handcream-msg (9K) 2/10/97 Medieval lotions and handcreams.
> recipes.
> Man-d-Mujeres-art (12K) 4/19/01 Selected redactions from the
> "Manual de
> Mujeres" by Lady Serian.
> Perfumes-bib (20K) 12/26/00 "Perfumes Bibliography" by Nora
> Siri Bock.
> perfumes-msg (36K) 9/19/02 Medieval perfumes and pomanders.
>
> > Now, this is still all very theoretical, but even if it works I'd be
> > Limited to flight luggage, and a chunk of that would be scents,
> > cream bases,
> > Powders and such.
>
> Ship your merchant items to Pennsic rather than carry them with you.
> I think this option has always been there for merchants. What was
> added four or five years ago, was the ability of non-merchants to
> ship things to Pennsic. Because I have been flying in to Pennsic 27,
> except for this last one where my work situation wouldn't allow it, I
> can probably give you some ideas because of what I've learned and
> been doing. Because the luggage allowance is rather small, at least
> for two weeks of camping, I have depended upon shipping in another
> large footlocker of stuff. International flying might be even more
> restricted. I've never had the chance to do that, so I don't know. I
> do know that the extra luggage charges can be rather high. And the
> footlocker I use would get hit with both extra baggage and oversize
> charges. There is a semi-trailer in the merchant area where you pick
> up your boxes. I think for merchants there may be no charge for this.
> For non-merchants there is a nominal extra charge.
>
> At the end of Pennsic I use the regular U.S. Post Office to ship
> things home. There is a small postal cart set up at Pennsic each
> year, so you don't have to get into town to mail things. However, it
> has rather limited hours 10 AM to 2 PM and it is only open Monday
> through Friday, so if you are leaving on that last Saturday you have
> to keep this in mind.
>
> My luggage consists of a footlocker which just fits under the maximum
> baggage size, and an ice chest plus a carry-on bag and my cloak. The
> cloak I carry over my shoulder since the airlines allow you to bring
> a "coat". The footlocker has wheels on it. I strap the ice chest on
> top of the footlocker, sling my carry-on bag over one shoulder and
> the cloak over the other. I can handle everything this way myself and
> not depend upon bell-hops. When I get to Pennsic, the stuff in the
> ice chest goes elsewhere and I have a place to keep foods and drinks.
> You can get ice on site. I have seen ice chests with wheels now, so
> you could also invert the two boxes from what I've been doing. Again,
> your international luggage limits may differ and you may have to
> modify this, but hopefully this gives you some ideas.
>
> Oh yes. I do lock all my checked luggage. The footlocker has a built
> in lock bracket through which I can put a padlock and I put a chain
> around the ice chest, from end to end, through the handles and lock
> it closed. I also tape both of these boxes closed with duct tape. I
> have had to change this in the last few years to using the new
> security locks which the airport security folks can open, but
> supposedly the baggage handlers can't. I've also had to figure out
> how to seal both boxes with duct tape and yet get the duct tape home
> in something other than my carry-on bag. I suspect that duct tape,
> like fingernail clippers are no longer allowed on in carry-on baggage.
>
> > I don't assume Pennsic has 'crash space', so how is this
> > Handled for overseas visitors?
>
> I think there is usually a Drachenvald encampment. As a merchant I
> think you can also camp in your merchant space, but I don't remember
> for sure.
>
> One problem with merchanting is that as many merchant spots as
> Pennsic provides, they get snapped up pretty quickly. They may
> already be gone for next Pennsic, but you'd have to inquire with the
> person in charge of merchants to know for sure. I think it is one of
> the Coopers.
>
> If you are new to SCA merchanting, this file in the COMMERCE section
> of the Florilegium might be of use:
> merchanting-msg (60K) 9/ 4/04 Merchanting in the SCA.
>
> > Are there 'hotel' tents? Do you stay with allied households?
>
> As someone else mentioned, you can rent a Grimm's Tent, but they are
> rather large and expensive for one person. I think you also have to
> be onsite when they deliver it, and that might be difficult if you
> can't spend the entire two weeks there. There is this file in the
> STRUCTURES section of the Florilegium:
> tent-rental-msg (5K) 7/ 3/00 Rental of tents at Pennsic and
> Estrella.
>
> You also need a way to get from the Pittsburg airport to Pennsic. It
> is about an hour's drive. You can rent a car, but that gets rather
> expensive when it is going to be spending most of its time just
> parked at Pennsic. The best way is to have someone drive to the
> airport to pick you up and reverse the process at the end of Pennsic.
> For the past four or five years, Phlip, one of our household members
> of SPCA or another friend not in the household have been taking me to
> and from the airport. I hate to take this time out of someone's
> Pennsic, so I am very grateful for my friends who have helped me out.
> I bought a cell phone initially with Pennsic very much in mind. It is
> rather difficult otherwise for either you or your friends to tell the
> others that problems are occurring. One year while Phlip and someone
> else were waiting for me to arrive, they came across the Prince of
> Lochac and entourage who had been stranded at the airport for a day
> or so. They had had "the trip from hell" with tussles with the
> immigration folks and other problems. Phlip had loaded their stuff
> into the van when their regular ride showed up. It can be very
> anxious waiting for your ride to show up and not know where they are.
> So a cell phone is nice.
>
> I'm not going to commit someone else, but I imagine transportation to
> Pennsic and into town for supplies can probably be arranged with
> Phlip or others. I'm sure also that you'd be welcome to stay in the
> SPCA encampment if you pre-registered so there was space for you.
> Each encampment is only supposed to allocated 225 sq. ft. for each
> pre-registered person. Out of this has to come common areas such as
> kitchens, dining flys, camp showers etc. Sometimes it can get a bit
> tight, so that is why many encampments are going request (or require)
> you to pre-pay. From my own experience though, it often looks like
> having certain Dukes and such in your encampment can get you more
> than the standard allotment of land.
>
> SPCA my Pennsic household, actually member of it, Margali and Rob,
> have kept a small tent in storage for me as well as a cot and
> sleeping bag. While I have transported all those to Pennsic before,
> it is very nice not to have to ship them.
>
> Before I had the loan of the cot from Margali, I took a large, coarse
> linen looking sheet, folded it over and sewed it closed on one long
> side. I then bought a bail of straw at Pennsic for $5, broke it apart
> and stuffed this sack with it. This was much smaller to transport
> than an air mattress and wouldn't suffer from a disturbing "hisssss"
> in the middle of Pennsic. The $5 is slightly high, but it also
> includes the clean up of the straw at the end of Pennsic.
>
> If you expect to bring a propane stove, remember that you can't ship
> the propane canisters by air. But you can buy them here, assuming
> European and American canisters and valves are compatible.
>
> Plan for all types of weather. Check the various files in the PENNSIC
> section of the Florilegium for more info and how-to stuff about
> Pennsic, as well.
>
> I hope this is useful to you. Someday, I'll probably get around to
> writing an article or creating a message file on how to manage flying
> into large SCA events such as Pennsic, but it hasn't happened yet.
>
> Stefan
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
> Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas
> StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
>
Remember that while money talks, chocolate sings.
__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list