October 2004

 

Dave & Suzi

I’m sitting in the back of a friend’s car, with Dave at the wheel and Suzi riding shotgun. They are driving me from Cornelius, North Carolina - near the Carolina festival site - to the airport in Raleigh (more affectionately known as RDU). I’m flying out tomorrow to Denver, Colorado to visit a couple friends, and Dave and Suzi volunteered to make the drive so I wouldn’t have to leave Achilles in the airport parking lot. Well, truth be told, Suzi volunteered, and Dave, being the dutiful boyfriend that his is, is now driving the 100+ mile (one way) jaunt. I was very surprised and touched by the offer. It is much nicer to be riding in the back of Dave’s luxury car than fighting sleep and weekend fatigue in my truck.

These last two weeks have been a blur. The week before last I took another trip, but this one to Manheim, PA and the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. I went to visit a good friend of mine - Eric Michaels, better known as "Emo" to most - with another good friend of mine - Sarina Stone. Sarina, Eric, and I have been friends for well over ten years now, and we have together shared numerous countries, continents, and adventures with one another. If you were to call us the "Three Musketeers," it wouldn’t be the first time that we had been labeled with that moniker.

Eric is co-owner of a southern Pennsylvania based joust troop named Impact Productions. They are doing quite well, and have even gone as far as to open their own show this past Memorial Day weekend called the Endless Mountains Medieval Festival. He has recently gotten engaged to Janine, his girlfriend of a few years.

"Congratulations, Emo & Janine!" he said in quotation marks.

Sarina is a certified massage therapist as well as a Universal Tao Chi Kung instructor/practitioner. She is keeping herself very busy as the founder of Chi Kids, an organization established to promote the holistic well-being of children.

Yes, this is the sort of riff-raff that I surround myself with in my free time. Kind of makes for an interesting "Riki cocktail," doesn’t it?

 

Psychic Sarina "I told you so's" Jouster Eric

A Tortuga with Tartan Terror kiltmen Ian and Spencer

Jouster Emo hams it up before a Happy Crowd

The first day in Pennsylvania, we awoke from our slumber at the Red Carpet Inn - not lodgings that I recommend unless, of course, you’re trying to save some $ and don’t mind things a little on the lacking side of hotel opulence - and drove promptly to the festival (located almost right next door). It was a bright and beautiful morning, with a slight crisp/cool wind blowing out of the northeast. This was very nice, except it happened to place us in direct line with a chemical spill that had happened in the wee hours of the morning.

You see, at around 3:30am a truck carrying potassium cyanide overturned and caught fire. They quickly evacuated everyone in a 1.5 mile radius... but we were located at about .3 miles beyond that, and left to our sickly sweet dreams of bitter almond candies. Could we have died in our sleep if it had spread to our area? I don’t know that much about cyanide and how it works, but it sure makes for a much more exciting tale to think so. Quite a few jokes, made to mask the real concern we were all feeling, were made backstage that morning about how the festival was still choosing to open for its student day. In light of the recent event, many of the schools had chosen to keep their children safely at home that day, but many did not. And those kids had a great, if not chemically enhanced, time at the faire.

 

Yay, it's Hershey's Chocolate World!

Sugar Rush is not pretty

Three new workers for the Hershey Chocolate Factory

Other than that, we three amigos took a trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania and the Hershey Chocolate Factory. There were Hershey fun characters, and a 3D show, and a ride, and...chocolate galore! (Can you tell that I’m still riding high on my sugar buzz?) It was a fun trip, and without too much effort we were done in less than two hours. No amusement park, mind you, but a nice excursion none the less.

 

One twin and a baby

Sharon and baby parents, Robbie & April

Me and Yours and Baby make... four!

All-righty then.... Time for us to step back a few weeks to when we had just arrived in the Charlotte/Lake Norman area. A surprise birthday party was thrown in Sharon Hall’s honor at the Galway Hooker Irish restaurant. True, it was a day late, and by then she had figured out the surprise. But it was a party none the less, and everybody was happy. The guest list ran the gamut of Carolina Ren. Fest. Tortuga friends. There were proud the new parents Robbie & April Messer, along with their new baby girl, Carly. Todd Jordan & Ruth Thompson, lord and lady of Tarnished Imagesfame, showed up to toss back a few. Dave & Suzi, my savior airport chauffeurs, were also there. They were new to this group then, but made their introductions and were soon rubbing elbows with people like Sarina, Christian (my favorite Greek), and cast of thousands. (Okay, a cast of tens, but who’s counting?) The evening was a total blast of all attending. There was drinking, and singing, and hobnobbing...it was great to be back in this part of the world.

 

A Surprise Party for me! Sharon and Ruth enjoy the moment

Sarina, Christian, Todd and a cast of thousands

Joker's self-portrait

Here ends another journal for me. I’m having quite the life, traveling about and entertaining in my tights and yellow shirt. I can only hope that you are having as good a time... but I doubt it.

Ciao, bellos!