Siouxland Renaissance Festival: Year Five, New Location

[vakkotaur]

I left work early and took care of a thing or two before going home where I packed and waited for my folks to arrive. I found out later they had arrived earlier, so it might have been possible to be on our way a bit earlier. As it was, it wasn't a problem.

Friday

We arrived in Sioux Falls after an uneventful trip and checked into the fairly easy to find hotel. The hotel (the Oaks) is a bit sprawling and it's easier in some cases to go outside and back in to get places than to take the hallways. I meant to ask folks staying at a different place (Kelly Inn, I think) how it was. The Oaks was, I think, overpriced for what it was even with the discount SRA rate.

A call to irpooh and foolscap001 found they were still an hour or so away, so we waited for them before going out for supper. A call from rillaspins informed us that she was too far away to arrive at a reasonable time to join in.

Sioux Falls is generally easy to navigate, or is to me now, and with construction on I-29 I decided to take a city street across town to the Lone Star Steakhouse. I was later informed that this was a Good Idea as I-29 was quite a mess. Supper was good and the five of us (Billie, James, me, my folks) had a good time. Afterward, Billie and James went to Wal-Mart to get something or other, and the rest of us went back to our hotel.

jmaynard would arrive between 11 PM and midnight, so I figured I'd be best off by taking a nap rather than waiting up. It was probably a good thing I had my cell phone next to me as I got an unexpected call from rillaspins who managed to almost get to melissasutton's place which is a bit of a trick to find. Having relayed Melissa's phone number, I resumed my nap and was awoken again when Jay showed up.

Saturday

After breakfast at the hotel restaurant we all got in Jay's car and went to the fairgrounds, which is the new site for the festival. The reserved parking space was marked and obvious. Opening ceremonies seemed to take a while with various introductions. The weekend was punctuated by the occasional low flyover of pairs of F-16s which drowned out almost everything, but things either paused or pressed right on just the same.

Zilch the torysteller was there and good as usual. Concentio Agnorum was there, of course. Mistress Bawd was back again as Mistress Bawd this year. For someone who changed residence to Ireland she seems to spend a significant amount of time in the U.S.A. Not that I'm complaining, mind. One thing did puzzle me. I was thanked for "helping out" around Christmas and the only thing even close to that was showing up for the Siouxland Winterfest in February. And that's all I (and Jay) did, really: show up.

Jay noticed a shop that had a sort of tea slushie thing (tea freeze?) of both green tea (which was good) and a rooibos tea (which was really good) as well as mints and a variety of licorice candies. To Jay's horror I bought a bunch of the licorice. I reminded him that he'd not be around for a week or so and so I could have the licorice without it affecting him any. I think someone once sent me a packet of the mints, but I don't recall who. Now I know that they can be found in Sioux Falls. I just need to remember it and how to get there. But I likely shouldn't go there all that often.

I forget who all we met (see this entry) but we met many folks we don't see all that often. One person I know we saw was Rilla and arrangements were made to have a small meet up at supper. Not a big "invasion" or anything, but a nice small gathering. Melissa wanted to join and she was welcome, but she needed rest more than anything it seemed and so she didn't make it even though she was the one who suggested the place to which we (Billie, James, Rilla, Jay, me, my folks) went. Again a good time was had, and we all agreed that the day went rather well and the new site worked quite well. A few things could stand tweaking, but those were all things the Siouxland folks are aware of and want to change. They just plain ran out of time before they could get everything "just so."

Sunday

The hotel restaurant only does a buffet for Sunday breakfast, it seems, and after that we loaded the car(s), checked out, and went to festival. There was some sprinkling but nothing very bad. It had obviously rained some during the night but the new site showed it works well. What mud there was wasn't widespread or deep which was a welcome change from 2005 which has become known as Mudfest.

We met a few more folks, and found out that the lady with the ponies that I used to see in Iowa had moved to Texas. She didn't take all her animals with her, but she took Snickers and Talon and I'm not sure who else. I'd have been genuinely surprised if she had parted with Talon. Jay left mid-afternoon as he had to fly to Detroit.

Zilch is one those acts that I don't mind seeing repeatedly, and so I did see him again. Parunzel is quite a good story. I left a later show a bit early as I wanted to see another act that I had kept missing otherwise. I'm not sure which now. Rhosaleen Dhu was good, and I caught at least the final part of Tastes Like Burning's fire act which was impressive for fire, and I must have been in the right mood for the innuendo that went with it. Though perhaps that was seeing the facial expressions of one person who take a mouthful of fuel just as the other would make some quip. I saw a couple of Mistress Bawd's performances and she got me, along with a good many others, up on stage for one bit. I don't know if she forgot my name or just didn't care to use my real name (either is possible), but evidently I was "Patrick" for a while Sunday afternoon.

I'm sure I've left out quite a bit, and perhaps more will come back to me later. I've left out some commentary for another post. But it was clear that the new location works very well, even if it has a couple bugs to work out yet. What I'd said to melissasutton when was concerned about it held true: Siouxland has the right attitude, and that can make quite a lot fade into the background.

Short summary: If you were there, you know to come back. If you were not there and reasonably could have been, start planning to be at the 2007 Siouxland Renaissance Festival so you don't deprive yourself again.