[MR] There we were at the Twenty-Year Celebration . . .

[Raitt Jeb]

(Donal moves slowly to the bar and orders hot mulled cider, which he sips as
he speaks)

Someone asked, how was Twenty-Year?  These are my recollections.

Rain.  It rained on and off all day Saturday.  The arts and sciences
displays and the various arts competitions were not unduly affected by this,
though the high humidity might have affected some musicians' instruments.  I
was glad of the dining hall having coffee available in the morning.  That is
one modern thing I choose not to do without if I can help it!  The breakfast
offering was on the line of a continental breakfast, consisting of bread,
pastries and hard-boiled eggs.  

I was mumbling about not fighting if the weather continued that way, and
apparently many others felt it was not worth the trouble and in fact the
risk, for His Majesty cancelled all Saturday's fighting partway through the
morning.  The ground of the original fighting field had turned to mud, and
after several attempts to find alternate sites, they had to give it up.

But to give the fighters some outlet for their energies, someone came up
with the idea of a tug-of-war tournament, which apparently evolved into a
Cambok match.  Don't ask ME how that evolution took place, I wasn't there to
see it!  It was organized(?) by the Lord Admiral of the Privateers, who
brought several of the stars up at the evening's court to congratulate them.

The feast on Saturday was impressive.  Two very large commercial dining
pavilions had been set up on the field alongside the dining hall, in
anticipation of a very large turnout.  They were decorated with tapestries
based on illuminated manuscript pages (mostly the Codex Manesse) and the
heraldry of Atlantia and her branches.  The turnout was smaller than
anticipated due to the weather, but those who did come, and who stayed for
the feast, most assuredly got their value!  At Atlantian feasts, one is
usually well advised not to eat very much of any one dish because there are
usually so many, and this was especially true of this event.  Dish after
dish was presented, each as good as or better than the one preceding it.  To
serve so many under such conditions, and everything hot and fresh, is an
accomplishment!  The King thought so too, for he accorded the entire kitchen
staff (including those who had sent food from their own kitchens) the King's
Award for Excellence.  By the time the wafers came out, I was so full that I
felt like the fellow in the Alka Seltzer commercial or the Monty Python
sketch!

Many courts were held, many awards were given, several peers were created.
I will not tire you with details, since Michael Triton has published that.
The feast was punctuated by performances by story-tellers and bards.  One
feature of the principal court was that several heralds were arrayed along
the center aisle, relaying the announcements to the back of the pavilion.
With the wind, the rain, and the poor acoustics in the tent, it was an
excellent idea.  Kudos to whoever came up with it!  The event was also
favored by the  presence of the Crown Prince and Princess of Æthelmearc,
Andrew and Alexandra, who originally hailed from Atlantia, in fact, from our
own Barony!  (Her Royal Highness Aryana is originally from Marinus too . . .
if we could just get a few more out there . . . )

We ran into many who we had not seen for a long while, one or two that we
had last seen at the Decennial Celebration a decade past.  And the
Æthelmearc royals were by no means the only foreign visitors.  We had
several from the East and the Middle, and one couple came all the way from
Ansteorra!  Of course, they too are former Marinusians who intend at some
point to return:  Baron Geoffrey Rufus and Lady Sieglinde von Achtermann.
Another visitor from afar who intends to return is Duchess Niobe, who
journeyed all the way from Drachenwald with her youngest child, a teeeeeny
little girl, to take part in the elevation of Baron (now Master) Tirloch to
the Order of the Pelican.  Duke Stephan was left behind with all the boys,
it must have been some weekend for them!

There was to have been a Bardic at the camp's bonfire site, but that area
was so wet that it was decided to hold it in the dining pavilion instead.
In fact, several small "sings" were held at different places around the
site, one or two of which we visited.

The two principal camping areas were called the King's Field and the Queen's
Field.  The choices were a bit ironic since the lords' bathhouse was on the
Queen's Field and the ladies' was on the King's.  The Queen's Field was
apparently the lower of the two, topographically, and so was subject to more
flooding.  Several tents were completely inundated.  We found that half of
our pavilion was in the path of a major drainage flow that soaked through
the tarps but happily didn't actually flood.  We were able to move our sons'
sleeping pallets to the other side which was fairly dry.

Sunday was a much finer day.  Breakfast was heartier, including scrambled
eggs.  Lots of scrambled eggs!  Just following the morning Court, someone
saw a good omen on the river - sailboats!  Pleasure sailors do not usually
go out unless they're fairly sure of good weather, and the omen held true,
for after a rather damp and foggy start, the day turned beautiful.  The
Sapphire joust was held in the King's Field, which was higher and drier than
the Queen's.  There were two tourneys, one "light" and one "heavy", held in
adjacent areas in the same general time frame.  Their Majesties and Their
Highnesses alternated watching one then the other.  The heavy tourney, in
which I fought, had 40 entrants, which I understand is less than the norm
for a Sapphire Joust.  Quite a few had either left early or simply opted not
to fight.  All in all, the quality of the fighting was excellent, both in
the technical sense and in the level of courtesy.  Authorizations were held
before the tourney began, adding at least a dozen to Atlantia's fighting
rolls, and the only injury of which I was aware happened during an
authorization when one of the new fighters apparently took a bad fall, but I
do not believe that his injury was serious.

The archery field was busy; my older son spent a good part of the day there.


At that evening's Court the prizes were awarded for the various competitions
and tournaments, a new pirate crew was created, and following the court was
a pageant of poetry in which the history and praises of Atlantia were sung,
aided by some costumed members of the Pages' Academy representing the
various Orders.

Many decided to pack out on Sunday, but we, hoping that our gear would dry
out better if left standing (and reluctant to strike and pack it while still
wet), stayed over.  There was an informal dinner that evening, served buffet
style.  My sons and I helped with the kitchen clean-up.  Some folk held a
Hofla outside the dinning hall, using a dozen or so candles in jars in lieu
of a campfire.  Open fires were not allowed, but it would have made little
difference, it being so wet.  There was also dancing that eve, appropriately
in the hall where the A & S displays and competitions were.  When we
returned to our campsite, almost the only ones left, I looked up and saw the
Great Dipper framed between the pennon poles atop the roof of our pavilion.

Little did I suspect that in a few more hours, the Dipper would tip its
contents upon us!

Starting around 2 AM, there was sporadic and repeated rain, wind, lightning,
and thunder.  The wind was stronger, the rain heavier, the lightning
lighter, and the thunder louder, than any we experienced on Saturday.  It
lasted until after 5, when after a final burst of fury it slacked to showers
only.

Even the good omen of sailboats on the river did not prove true, for as the
morning passed, it rained off and on and off and on . . .  Finally around
noon, we were able to load up without getting any wetter.  We took longer to
get out of there than we usually would, because of the rain.  We stuffed our
under-floor tarps into garbage bags, they were so soaked.

But we suffered no damage; our pavilion held despite half its stakes being
anchored in no more than mud.  

One of the big dining tents had a whole corner collapse, but that would be a
matter for the rental agency, though it was necessary to recover the chairs
and tables.  

The trip home was uneventful, save that we discovered an excellent barbecue
place on the road out, only a few miles from the site.  The name had
something to do with bears; it was right next to an ice-cream parlor owned
by the same person, which alas, was closed.  We had some wonderful BBQ,
while the boys savored their corn dogs.

We're still in the process of trying to dry out those rugs and the tarps
that were under them.  

Was it rewarding?  Certainly.  Was it a bother?  Some of the time.  Would I
do it again?  Well . . . it COULD have been worse - as my Lady Wife the
Baroness Catherine pointed out, hurricane season doesn't start until the
first of June!

Your somewhat bedraggled servant,
Donal Mac Ruiseart
Marinus