Okay, here’s the first part of my notes. I’ll get the rest typed up later, but right now I’ve got to go do some house work. I call this section:

“Tom Bombadil called and he wants his skort back.”

09/14/11

We left home around 11:30am and were lost by 1:00pm. We finally reached Winfield around 4:30pm. Following Le Duke is incredibly frustrating. The term maddening comes to mind. Maybe it is because I am very fond of that word. Whatever. Somewhere around Tulsa our highway was closed for construction. We became lost very quickly after that. Le Duke finally got his GPS application working and we were off again. This is when Le Duke decided to really start driving like himself, i.e. the King of the Road. Changing lanes without signaling, riding the center line, running yellow lights, speeding up and slowing down all willy nilly.

Then of course, we got here. Once we figured out how to get into the fairgrounds, via the wrong entrance naturally, there was still the matter of finding our campsite. I can’t remember if I mentioned this before I left, but our “group” (the people we’re camping with) calls our campsite “Comfortable Shoes”. Yeah.

The place is awesome if you’re into this sort of thing. People are playing music everywhere. It smells of woodsmoke, patchouli, and reefer. Also, so far anyways, I feel like the single Metalhead at the Jerrytown couple’s skate. Lots of families. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for people wearing black t-shirts with long hair. Not that I’ll have any shortage of long hair around here.

Dinner was excellent. We feasted on smoked chicken, wild turkey, Caesar salad, and mashed potatoes. There was probably 30 or more people at dinner tonight. Despite overhearing many conversations that included the phrase “the man” or likewise, the people here are very kind and welcoming. They are hippies after all. We’ve got an early day tomorrow, so I’m off to sleep. Apparently breakfast happens about noon or so around here. Great. Looks like it was a wise move to pack heavy on the cheese crackers. More soon. ~SC

09/15/11

I slept for crap last night. I woke up every few hours to the sounds of whooping people playing music. Oh, and trains. Lots of trains. Every 45 minutes there’s a train. God, it’s chilly this morning. Needless to say, I talked myself out of bringing enough warm clothing. It is hard to convince yourself to pack heavy jeans and sweaters when it is 30°C (85°F) inside your house. The forecast is saying that it is not going to get much warmer today. Great. I hear it is supposed to be warmer tomorrow and the rest of the weekend.

10am. Booth setup time. Can you say utterly frustrating dick jamming? Almost every vendor in our space has to load through a single “emergency exit” door. Luckily, the booth right next to the door is all set up and selling an example of every single one of the most annoying instruments known to man and they are encouraging people to mill about in the walkway to test out their wares. What could be more awesome than trying to carry 50 pounds of pottery through a crowded walk space? You mean there’s something more awesome than having to wait for a tubby guy in a tie-dyed skort who is trying out a didgeridoo to get the hell out of your way? Why yes friends, there is. And that is trying to to setup your booth while people shop in it. Don’t misunderstand me, I took their money if they wanted to buy something, but fuck the rest of those window shopping assholes. That’s like your new neighbors coming over uninvited to look around and drink a beer in your brand new house while you are unpacking your shit off of the moving truck. I came dangerously close to shoving people’s faces. Did I mention the tubby guy was wearing a stripy felt witch hat and walking around with a staff? I mean, sure, I play wizzerds as much as the next guy, but I do it in the privacy of my own home. That guy is bound to wind up living in a tent down by the river and hassling high school kids who are trying to host shitty punk rock shows.

Murder. Death. Kill.

At some point I just had to pop in the headphones and crank up some Austrian Death Machine. That saved me from myself for a while.

And then we opened for business. I made Le Duke go get me some coffee. Oh, and now it’s raining.

I’m sure glad that the crappy instrument booth is going to be keeping up the random drumming, mindless meandering on the concertina, etc. all day, every day, for the duration of the show. Oh, goodie. You know it’s bad when a woman who lives with an amateur banjo player makes a snide comment about the racket. I’m glad it’s not just me. It is currently 5:15pm. Almost four more hours to go. On a happier note, I had Le Duke and La Duchess pick me up a pair of jeans when they went into town. I put them on over my other pants.

Double Pants Attack!

Where’s my dinner? I hear we were having chicken curry. Le Duke left hours ago. Hrm…oh, speak of the devil…chicken curry time.

The flavor was wonderful, but the rice was undercooked a little. It is soaking up all of the moisture in my body. I had to immediately drink a whole bottle of water after eating it. It was tasty, though.

I’m glad I did not bring my lappy. It feels pretty nice to be relatively disconnected.

I’m back at camp now. The show was pretty good today, sales wise. Very little window shopping. We’ve probably almost already paid expenses for the show and according to other vendors that we know, this was the slow day. Since the music festival has officially begun, the crowd has swelled in numbers and volume. If I thought they were rowdy last night, they are already 10x rowdier tonight. Great. Pray my exhaustion will put me down for the night. Needless to say, this trip will not satiate my need to go camping. Definitely going to need a trip to the quiet woods after this. Anywho, I’m off to sleep. Even though the party is just getting started for everyone else. The rain will help. Hopefully. More soon. ~SC

The rest will come later…~SC