Day 2 (07/31/10)
The second day started slowly for us, and only the need to visit the bathroom drove us out of the comfort of our bed. After making the trek to the Honey Buckets we poured some coffee (having made up some iced coffee for the trip) and settled in to slowly wake up and watch the kids play. That was one great thing about where we were located. The kids could run and play to their hearts content, and we didn’t have to do much to keep them happy, thus allowing us to sit back and enjoy ourselves.
We stayed in camp long enough that Rowan got his morning nap, and everyone got lunch before we packed up and headed out. The twins were acting pretty tired though, and had not had a nap of their own yet, so we decided to go exploring and see if they would nap while we walked. We found ourselves over on the far side of the RV parking area and followed a badly maintained road out to the main gates. After working our way through the gate at the end of the road we crossed over into the small parking lot at the gates to drop off our camp trash in the bin there, and then proceeded to wander out a trail that we though would lead us to the event site.
This trail proved to NOT be trailer friendly, and it did not lead us to the event site. However, it did lead us to the river, which lead to a most enjoyable afternoon. We treked our way along the trail, lifting the trailer over some obstacles, before eventually getting to a point where it simply wasn’t possible to take the trailer further. There was a short trail down the embankment to the river, and a couple was swimming there so we took a look. Turns out they were skinny dipping, but they said that we could join them if we wished, so we came on down. The kids were all interested in getting into the water, but we had neglected to bring swimwear for any of us. No big problem really, so we skinned the kids down to skin, and Sarah and I stayed a touch more dressed. Turns out this particular location was not the best as the rocks were rather slimy, and there really was no good place for the kids to play. Great place for swimming, but not so good for the kids. We got everyone back onto the trail and worked our way back to an earlier spot down to the river that we had passed up, primarily because there really was no way to get the trailer down the embankment. However, since there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic out on the trail we decided that it was ok to go ahead and leave the trailer on the side of the trail while we went exploring.
What we found was a nice, rocky bar that jutted out into the river, and after some exploring we found a nice shallow place where the kids could play with very minor current. We wound up spending the afternoon here, listening to the bands in the distance, and enjoying the water, the sun, and the opportunity to just relax.
Mind you, this exploration was not without physical hazards. The path down the embankment was quite steep, and I lost my footing at one point and scratched myself pretty good on the brambles. Sarah says I have something like 15 individual scratches all intersecting on the underside of my upper arm. All I know is that it feels grarly and painful, but at least there are no thorns stuck in it and no sign of infection. At another point Tiernan was walking back into the thickets growing on the bar, and was coming back to us when a very enthusiastic young dog (of good size) broke free from where it was tied and came to say hello to Tiernan. It was an enthusiastic licker, but it really frightened Tiernan and caused him to lose his footing on the rocks, resulting in him taking a header into the rocks, giving him a small cut on a toe and a mashed nose. He was rather traumatized from this experience, but got over it soon enough.
We decided that it was time to leave when we noticed that it was closing in on 6:00 pm, and Caulla was shivering so hard that she was setting up a ripple pattern in the water. For a child who did NOT want to get into the water earlier, this child would not come out of the water now. Eventually we got everyone dressed again and got back onto the trail. We still needed to refill our water jugs, so we headed to the event site. Tiernan crashed before we got there, and Caulla was leading the way. We wandered around for a bit, with Caulla directing where we went, and eventually we headed over to the refill station to top off our water jugs and head back to camp.
After dinner we bundled everyone back up, with the kids in PJ’s again, and headed back to the event site to listen to the evening bands. We found a nice place where we had a good view of the stage and laid out the blankets. We had a nice time with the first band, and the boys ran and ran and ran around us. Finally the big ticket band (Faun) came on stage. They had a great sound, but shortly after they took stage we started getting inundated with clouds of pot smoke. I don’t mind somebody taking an occasional hit, but this was turning into a real cloud. Turns out that there were three groups around us that were sharing the wealth, and it got so bad that we felt we needed to leave the concert. Sarah was getting a headache, the kids were all either asleep or falling asleep, and it just wasn’t worth dealing with that to listen to the performance.
Oh, and to add to it, the event was supposed to be a smoke-free event, with smoking limited to the road. The reason for this was that the event was taking place on a mowed hay field, and it was quite prone to easy ignition, so they asked everyone to not light up if there was grass under their feet. In theory this extended to the camp areas as well. At no point did I EVER see this policy being enforced, though it was mentioned from time to time by the MC from the main stage. Another policy that I never saw enforced was the one regarding photography. They had prohibited taking pictures of the bands or performers, and had asked everyone to not take pictures of the people in costume without their express permission. Some people followed this policy, and it certainly limited how many pictures that I took, but I never saw the policy being enforced.
The entire photo gallery from this day can be accessed by clicking on any of the pictures in the post, which will take you directly to the picture shown, or by clicking on the following link: Faerieworlds 2010 – Day 2 Gallery
Lilydwen's Blog 