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Aug. 2nd, 2010 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darchildreLet me tell you about my weekend, internet.
So, Friday morning, I got everything in my car and started off down to the Jambermoot. I had a pleasant enough drive - good audiobooks, some raucous music, lots of car food. Finally, after about five hours, I got essentially to the town I was going and let the GPS I had borrowed from my mom take me to the campground where the thing was being held.
Though I didn't know it at the time, the GSP led me past the entrance to the campground. Since I thought it was the entrance, I was willing to follow the road for a bit and see what happened. Some campgrounds are rather circuitous. It turned into a gravel road. I kept going. Didn't find a thing. I came out on another paved road and figured that I had just missed the entrance, so I set the GPS to take me back to the first address, whereupon I would look a bit harder for signs. So I made a turn. This road also turned to gravel. Okay, I thought, the last road did too and I was fine. Then the road turned to dirt. Then it turned to severely rutted dirt going down a hill. A couple of times, I was pretty sure I was going to die. Then my car got high-centered and stuck in an incredibly large rut.
I should mention, at this point, that I was in a heavily wooded area with no cell phone reception.
I sat in the car for a few minutes, panicking. It was in no way a busy road - no one was likely to come along whom I could ask for help. So I threw everything out of my backpack except my keys, my wallet, and a change of clothes, put my phone in my pocket, and started walking down the road. I figured I'd go forward because I knew there was nothing back the way I came and anyway, that would be going uphill. I was going to walk until I found civilization or at least a cell phone signal.
I walked for four miles before I found anything that looked more like civilization than a field full of goats. (Fortunately, there were bandaids in my pack because I was developing some rather nice blisters.) Finally, I found a house with a man and his son in the front yard. I'm pretty sure that they are the nicest people I have ever met. They let me use their phone to call home, they offered me a glass of water and the use of their bathroom, and then the man said, "Well, I have a really big truck and towing equipment. I could probably tow your car." So he and I and his son piled into the huge truck and drove the long way 'round to come up behind my car, and they towed it back to the road. Apparently, I am not the first tourist using a GPS that this has happened to.
I figured, well, this is the worst thing that could possibly have happened to me on my first long solo car trip. Everything has to be uphill from here.
Finally, about five hours after I had passed the campsite the first time, I actually found it and drove in to where the Jambermoot was happening. The people there were wonderful - immediately welcoming. They helped me set up my tent, asked me several times if I needed to eat something. We made introductions and sat around the campfire, chatting. About 8:30, we started sumble, which I'd never actually done before. I discovered that I don't much like mead (which I expected) but the sumble itself was wonderful. There were about 20 of us, counting the kids, so by the time it was over, it was quite dark. We sat around the fire a bit longer, talking, and at about 11 or so, I turned in.
The next morning, it was really cold. The weather report for the area had promised me weather in the low 80's so I had brought nothing but t-shirts. Fortunately, one of the women is one of those people who's always cold, so she had extra clothing for everyone. Several of us ended up wearing one of her flannel shirts. The person organizing Jambermoot announced that we were all going to participate in an activity - improvised skits of Norse myths. I was a little...unsure about that, especially after I got picked as a team leader (they picked names at random out of a jar), but it ended up being a lot of fun. They'd brought a lot of dress-up costumes and props, so the kids were in heaven. My team ended up doing the Binding of Fenris, with me telling the story, one of the kids being Tyr, and the other adult on my team with a fox fur stole on her head, doing a lot of growling. It was pretty awesome.
We mostly hung out for the rest of the day. I had sort of forgotten, in my solitary practice, that a lot of heathenry skewed rightward, politically, so when conversation turned toward politics, I was a bit of an odd man out. Still, I make it a policy not to discuss politics with people I barely know, so I mostly kept quiet at those times. Or went for a walk, because the setting was lovely. But being in a place where I could talk to other people about the gods was wonderful. In the evening, we had a raffle and there were enough items that everyone won something, which was great. I ended up with some really nice chocolates. 8)
After dinner, we held sumble again. We had a few new kids there, who had come during the day and who had never sumbled before. So they got an explanation of it and actually were wonderful - all of the kids ended up giving great toasts. And it was really cool to see the kids who have been raised heathen. That's awesome.
Sunday morning, I woke up and started packing. We had breakfast and said goodbye and started dispersing. I was pretty happy to be on the road because as fun as the middle of the weekend had been, it was also pretty stressful between the huge stress of the car and the more minor stress of being in close quarters with new people and little solitude for a couple of days. I crossed the Washington border and stopped at a rest stop so that I could brush my teeth. And I mentioned that the trip was shaped like a bellcurve, yeah?
I locked my keys (and my wallet and my cellphone and everything but my toothbrush and toothpaste) in the car.
Fortunately, the rest stop had a payphone, so I called home collect and said, "What the hell do I do now?" My parents, being wonderful people, called Triple-A, bought me a membership (which apparently, I desperately need), and Triple-A sent a guy to open my car. At which point I determined that I was not stopping anywhere else until I got home.
I got home about three o'clock yesterday. My car is filthy from driving on dirt roads, my legs are sore from my panicked four-mile walk, and I have a obsessive knowledge of the location of my keys, but I made it. And the bit of the trip in the middle was pretty good.
Today, I have determined that I am not going to do anything stressful at all. Maybe I will get my car washed and go to a movie.
So, Friday morning, I got everything in my car and started off down to the Jambermoot. I had a pleasant enough drive - good audiobooks, some raucous music, lots of car food. Finally, after about five hours, I got essentially to the town I was going and let the GPS I had borrowed from my mom take me to the campground where the thing was being held.
Though I didn't know it at the time, the GSP led me past the entrance to the campground. Since I thought it was the entrance, I was willing to follow the road for a bit and see what happened. Some campgrounds are rather circuitous. It turned into a gravel road. I kept going. Didn't find a thing. I came out on another paved road and figured that I had just missed the entrance, so I set the GPS to take me back to the first address, whereupon I would look a bit harder for signs. So I made a turn. This road also turned to gravel. Okay, I thought, the last road did too and I was fine. Then the road turned to dirt. Then it turned to severely rutted dirt going down a hill. A couple of times, I was pretty sure I was going to die. Then my car got high-centered and stuck in an incredibly large rut.
I should mention, at this point, that I was in a heavily wooded area with no cell phone reception.
I sat in the car for a few minutes, panicking. It was in no way a busy road - no one was likely to come along whom I could ask for help. So I threw everything out of my backpack except my keys, my wallet, and a change of clothes, put my phone in my pocket, and started walking down the road. I figured I'd go forward because I knew there was nothing back the way I came and anyway, that would be going uphill. I was going to walk until I found civilization or at least a cell phone signal.
I walked for four miles before I found anything that looked more like civilization than a field full of goats. (Fortunately, there were bandaids in my pack because I was developing some rather nice blisters.) Finally, I found a house with a man and his son in the front yard. I'm pretty sure that they are the nicest people I have ever met. They let me use their phone to call home, they offered me a glass of water and the use of their bathroom, and then the man said, "Well, I have a really big truck and towing equipment. I could probably tow your car." So he and I and his son piled into the huge truck and drove the long way 'round to come up behind my car, and they towed it back to the road. Apparently, I am not the first tourist using a GPS that this has happened to.
I figured, well, this is the worst thing that could possibly have happened to me on my first long solo car trip. Everything has to be uphill from here.
Finally, about five hours after I had passed the campsite the first time, I actually found it and drove in to where the Jambermoot was happening. The people there were wonderful - immediately welcoming. They helped me set up my tent, asked me several times if I needed to eat something. We made introductions and sat around the campfire, chatting. About 8:30, we started sumble, which I'd never actually done before. I discovered that I don't much like mead (which I expected) but the sumble itself was wonderful. There were about 20 of us, counting the kids, so by the time it was over, it was quite dark. We sat around the fire a bit longer, talking, and at about 11 or so, I turned in.
The next morning, it was really cold. The weather report for the area had promised me weather in the low 80's so I had brought nothing but t-shirts. Fortunately, one of the women is one of those people who's always cold, so she had extra clothing for everyone. Several of us ended up wearing one of her flannel shirts. The person organizing Jambermoot announced that we were all going to participate in an activity - improvised skits of Norse myths. I was a little...unsure about that, especially after I got picked as a team leader (they picked names at random out of a jar), but it ended up being a lot of fun. They'd brought a lot of dress-up costumes and props, so the kids were in heaven. My team ended up doing the Binding of Fenris, with me telling the story, one of the kids being Tyr, and the other adult on my team with a fox fur stole on her head, doing a lot of growling. It was pretty awesome.
We mostly hung out for the rest of the day. I had sort of forgotten, in my solitary practice, that a lot of heathenry skewed rightward, politically, so when conversation turned toward politics, I was a bit of an odd man out. Still, I make it a policy not to discuss politics with people I barely know, so I mostly kept quiet at those times. Or went for a walk, because the setting was lovely. But being in a place where I could talk to other people about the gods was wonderful. In the evening, we had a raffle and there were enough items that everyone won something, which was great. I ended up with some really nice chocolates. 8)
After dinner, we held sumble again. We had a few new kids there, who had come during the day and who had never sumbled before. So they got an explanation of it and actually were wonderful - all of the kids ended up giving great toasts. And it was really cool to see the kids who have been raised heathen. That's awesome.
Sunday morning, I woke up and started packing. We had breakfast and said goodbye and started dispersing. I was pretty happy to be on the road because as fun as the middle of the weekend had been, it was also pretty stressful between the huge stress of the car and the more minor stress of being in close quarters with new people and little solitude for a couple of days. I crossed the Washington border and stopped at a rest stop so that I could brush my teeth. And I mentioned that the trip was shaped like a bellcurve, yeah?
I locked my keys (and my wallet and my cellphone and everything but my toothbrush and toothpaste) in the car.
Fortunately, the rest stop had a payphone, so I called home collect and said, "What the hell do I do now?" My parents, being wonderful people, called Triple-A, bought me a membership (which apparently, I desperately need), and Triple-A sent a guy to open my car. At which point I determined that I was not stopping anywhere else until I got home.
I got home about three o'clock yesterday. My car is filthy from driving on dirt roads, my legs are sore from my panicked four-mile walk, and I have a obsessive knowledge of the location of my keys, but I made it. And the bit of the trip in the middle was pretty good.
Today, I have determined that I am not going to do anything stressful at all. Maybe I will get my car washed and go to a movie.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-02 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-02 06:52 pm (UTC)And the rest... well... amazing stories to tell, and laugh... once your legs aren't hurting anymore, and your stress level is back to normal :P
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 08:56 pm (UTC)