Carl's Blog

On a personal note, I’m really thinking of investing in a portable toilet. This year there seems to be fewer, they are more spaced out and I have not seen them get cleaned like last year. Last night was particularly annoying because I finally was able to hydrate properly and have to make many long walks in the chilly, humid air and very cold and damp grass. Need to update, later in the morning, after I started this post, the port-a-potty company come through and cleaned the toilets. I’m guessing they decided they didn’t need to clean on a daily bases.

Let’s start with my look for the day. I think my boots from Catskills Moccasin go perfectly with the kilt I bought yesterday. Just dawned on me I’m going to have to look up how to clean a wool kilt. 🤷‍♂️ I also have the perfect pattern for a shirt that I can sew with short sleeves for next year’s look. Now to decide if it will be white, green or yellow?

So, if I adopt a pet dragon from inside the faire on Saturday, how am I supposed to bring it back to visit?

Waiting until 9:30 to return to the faire on Sunday morning made the line to get in extremely short, but the Sunday crowds was noticeably smaller this morning. I’ve got to find something for breakfast. The fall back is Scotch Eggs, I wonder what else could be tasty this lovely Sunday morning? I was thinking of sausage on a stick; however, the vendor next door called out to me if I wanted chicken on a stick. So that won me over and to feel like I was making healthy choices I went with the grilled over fried option. It was a very herby chicken taste, and a bit dry, but getting a juice chicken breast, especially cut this then is very hard. I would order it again, so don’t think it was that bad.

I spent the next few minutes wandering in the shade of the trees and found these two shops that I plan to visit before they close today. The relish, salsa, jam shop had a very flavorful ginger habanero jam. The shop nearby sold salts, soaps and herbal teas. (FE: I didn’t buy the salsa or soap, I was completely tapped out of my purchasing budget. Next, year I will have to buy this first.)

So, the previous stories are out of order. I checked out shops then found breakfast.

Now I’m back on track…

I finished my chicken in the Wedding Basilica because it was shaded, and being 10 AM, the temperature was already getting up there.

The chapel was also next to Nyte’s Turkish Coffee, but before getting a cup; a vendor called my attention. He makes glass writing pens and I just couldn’t resist. I’m currently taking online classes on creating illuminated manuscripts and I think this ink pen will make a great tool when I’m inking the pencil drawings.

The vendor also flint naps daggers, but sells the silicone models and not the actual weapons. He said it is safer for children and drunk patrons who might want to test the sharpness of the blade. I’m hoping to use the glass pen for an arts and craft project I’ve been thinking of starting.

So, Now It’s Time to Try Turkish Coffee… They do sell regular espresso coffees and a variety of both savory and sweet snacks. The seating was very unique with the small table on the raised platforms covered in pillows.

My overall take, was a gritty texture, and strong coffee bitterness. I’m glad I asked for the sweeten version, the un-sweeten would have made me get sugar. It was fun watching the brewing process, but I don’t think I will be trying it again. Sorry to my friends that said I would love it, it wasn’t my cup of tea err coffee.

There was still plenty of morning so I stopped at The Glass Pumpkin Patch to get some pictures since yesterday while I was there working on my flower I was focused on the task and didn’t take any pictures.

Check out Julia’s work here on her Facebook page. Julia Spring Studio

Along this same line of shops, is were I bought my kilt yesterday, and next to that shop, is the Scotch Tasting booth. So, lets try some Scotch before 11 AM.

Unlike the rum tasting, these were very conservate pours, which is what I was expecting with the rum. But the price point for a bottle of Scotch is higher than rum, so wasn’t expecting a full dram of Scotch. I liked all of them, but my favorite was the one on the far left. It was a petted Scotch and reminded me of Highland Park. If I start buying Scotch again, I would welcome any of these bottles on my shelf. Wait, what you aren’t talking about tasting notes, did you taste vanilla, cherry, etc. No, I’m not giving tasting notes, I’ve not really tasted all the sited flavors others list. I just taste Scotch.

After my shopping I wanted to hear some music and timed it right. The Cloister, was the spot to listen to the group Wolgemut perform their first show of they day at 11:30. The bag piper plays either Swedish or German bag pipes possible both. I didn’t realize the bag pipes could be found on Mainland Europe.

If you enjoy their music, go find them on your favorite platform or go to a faire they will be performing at and buy a CD from them directly.

I returned to the row of shops back near the Glass Pumpkin Patch, and walking along the row of shops toward the Tower Stage (The Mud Show and Rondini) at the corner, you will find high quality, handcraft shops. Back in 2024 I need a small bag to carry a few items around the faire and found the perfect one here at booth 57. I’m still using it to this day, and it has held up to many shopping experience, from Comic Con’s to New Orleans to Las Vegas.

And you can see just to the right a silversmith (check out The Silver Nail). If they don’t have your size, they will make the ring you want right there, assuming they have a close match. I had them enlarge a simple wide band and give it a distressed look. I’m very happy with it. They also offer a life time guarantee.

(FE: So, going back over the last two day’s of posts, I realized that I spent most of my time at the opposite side of the faire from where Brigadoon’s is located. So I was having to walk half the faire’s length to purchase my beverages. Note the Tower Stage in the upper left corner and the Odeon in the lower right corner, The Glass Pumpkin Patch is at booth 59 and 60, while Bridgadon’s Brewery is at booth 150. This so explains why I was so tired, I need to make next year’s plan by locations and note events. Like start at the entrance and move from performance to performance with shopping and eating along the way. Maybe do the top of the faire on Saturday and the bottom of the faire on Sunday.)

So, I wanted to make one final stop to visit a vendor, and they were near by Brigadoon’s Brewery. A YouTuber (Tia Renai) I’ve recently started following who makes renfaire themed content, about her trips to faires and how you can thrift a costume from thrift stores was working at the Dragon Hatchery.

— Check out what Tia and the Moss Knight were able to put together from a thrifting run.

— As I was saying Tia was going to be working the Dragon Hatchery. Now I had stopped by on Saturday introduced myself and we had a chat mostly about her new adventure living in van. Which I’ve been contemplating over the last year or so when some of my friends bought a van and traveled the Untied States and parts of Canada. Today’s, conversation was about her actual job selling dragons and I found out these dragons are handcrafted out of leather by an craftsman, so I had to buy one. There were plenty of colors and unique designs to pick from but this one called me. I now have a bearded dragon (credit to the other sales person working the vendor stall for that pun). I’m still trying to learn my dragon’s name. It’s going to take a bit to build the psychic link, but I will learn it soon.

After adopting my new friend I took advantage of the new shaded picnic tables outside of Brigadoon’s and spent my last token from my mug purchase. I enjoyed a nice mug of the brew they named – Carl – a Kolsch from St. Elmos. I followed that mug with two more root beers before moving along.

After my wee sit down, my system was re-charged and I decided to return to the site of the King’s Corn Dog location, near the Tower Stage. (FE: Remeber this is the opposite side of the faire) This is seriously a huge corn dog. If you decide to buy it, get it for breakfast, so you can continue on it for lunch and finish it for dinner. Another suggestion is eat it with 3 or 4 friends.

So, yes I did buy it and no I didn’t finish it. I was only able to eat about 1/3 of it and had to carry it in both hands until I could find the table I used to take the picture. I haven’t eaten anything since trying to finish that corn dog. I did save the unfinished portions, well, it did cost me $22, so I couldn’t just throw it away. I’m hopping it will reheat well tomorrow. (FE: I just reheated a portion of the left overs and it still tasted good and handled reheating, so nothing is going to waste.)

It’s 4:30 PM at this time and I started to watch the Carnival of Sound again, but that corn dog wasn’t sitting right, not that it tasted bad, it was I just tried to eat too much. I decide to head by to my campsite and rest. Well, let me tell you, sitting for that short amount of time, my legs thought they were done for the day. Even as I’m sitting here in my hotel room, my right thigh and hip are reminding me that I walked 17K steps on Saturday and 21K steps on Sunday.

Wait, did you say you are in a hotel room? I thought you were planning on leaving the campsite on Monday morning? Well, that was the plan. The truth… I really wanted to take a shower, and I’m positive if I had to sleep that low to the ground my right leg was going cramp up in a horrendous fashion, just like last year. So I called it quits and used my IHG points and a bit of cash to book a night in Tomball. That shower felt so good. I didn’t realize how dirty I was getting after 2 days of sweating. I’m already enjoying the much shorter walk to the bathroom while I’m trying to get my electrolytes balanced. The clear, sunny weather with very few clouds had me misjudge how much water I should have been drinking. I overheard one of the vendors talking about on of the 21+ pubs on site, making patrons drink a glass of water before allowing them to purchase a beer. Seriously, that’s how deceiving the weather was. It was cool enough if you sat in the shade, you thought your water intake was good, but get out in the sun and it drained you fast.

So that brings us to the end of this adventure. I will be back again next year, and every year I’m still able because I really like meeting the crafters.

Until next year….

Can’t say I slept well, but I did sleep some. It’s 6:30 in the morning with a temperature of 63° F. I’m so glad I brought extra sheets because it got chilly during the night. Now the air mattress is better than the ground but still way below my bed’s comfort level. I’m seriously thinking of getting a cot just to get me further off the ground. Being an early riser, I’ve been lying here in my tent looking up at the stars. I did not put on my rainfly last night, because it was too dark and I forgot which way it attached, so I crossed my fingers the weather app was right with a 3% chance of rain. I say all that because the back mess of my tent gives me a good view of the sky. I’ve seen 2 planes and I’m going to guess a satellite fly by the western facing sky.

The only noises I’m hearing is the AC or generator from the RV camper van near me. It is very loud making me a fan of solar battery power. Honestly, I’m just babbling now, because I can’t go back to sleep and I don’t want to get out from under these covers. Sunrise is at 7:22 and I’m trying to wait until then before I get moving.

Now that the sun is coming up I can set my tent better. Time to fix that rain fly.

This year I added the rug to help keep dirt out of the tent. I also have a tarp and poles to set up a shade canopy but I’m probably not going to be at my camp site that much during the 90°F heat so I’m skipping that for now. (FE = Future Edit: I should have setup the shade, I came back to my campsite on Saturday and Sunday and could have enjoyed the shade. Gladly, the tree to the right provided some good shade.)

The plan today is to head over to Brigadoon’s Brewery and pickup my pre-order mug. This year it is a stainless steel double insulated mug, like the ones sold by Pecos Pete’s, so I’m not going to be afraid of breaking it like last year. (FE: so this mug proved to be a great purchase, it kept beverages cold and did sweat. Always get the double insulted version.)

After that there is a bourbon or rum tasting, a Dragon Forge crafting, and mid afternoon is a glassblowing craft. In between will be shows, shopping and lots of walking.

Here is my fit entertaining the faire. (FE: The look was perfect, but the fit wasn’t. Those leather leggings needed some wearing in and walking around the faire was not the place to do it, the story will continue.)

This year’s opening day crowd felt bigger and speaking to some of the vendors they felt the same. Over all it was a good opening for the faire and the vendors. There even seems to be more campers.

Breakfast was a breakfast sausage sandwich. The bun was toasted to perfection and the sausage was between two eggs. The price was crazy, but that’s a faire. (FE: This was the best food I had)

I located my Scotch tasting for tomorrow, but still don’t know where today’s rum tasting is located. More exploring to come.

Oh, I also ditched the lederhosen for a kilt.

The kilt was so much more comfortable. I just had to mentally get comfortable wearing just underwear under the kilt. Tomorrow, I’ll be able to wear my shorts under and won’t be as self conscience. If you seat just right you can even get a nice breeze. Now with my new look I continued my roving. (FE: 17K steps by the end of the day)

It’s about 10:30 AM and I found the King’s Tasting tent all the way over in the Enchanted Grove. The directions said the Enchanted Forest so I guessed they were the same thing. Luckily it was right next to my forging session, so no extra walking to find the forge.

Only the rum on the left would be a good sipping rum. The others tasted great but really numbed your tongue.

There was even time to catch the Washing Wenches show. One of the gimmicks with this show is if the crowd does cheer loud enough they spin a wet towel over their heads flinging water into the audience. With today’s heat, that was not much of a threat, and they worked that joke into their show. And oh, the innuendos for the show… they actually helped prepared me for what happened next.

The best part of the day was the forging. I thought you would be working alone, but they group 4 people together and everyone takes turns working their metal piece. Which in retrospect was not only a practical idea for the blacksmith but also a great way to show case the other crafts you could make. I think I am now willing to pay the $150 and the extra time it takes to make a knife. If interested you can book your experience on their website, Dragon Forge Experience, they are in Texas and North Carolina.

Why is the guy helping not wearing a shirt? One of the ladies in the group tipped him to take his shirt off. And no it was not one of the 20 somethings, it was their mom. This act seemed to lose the lips of the younger daughter and she started making some very flavorful comments, especially about the shirtless blacksmith, let’s just say we had to do a lot of pounding on our metal rods.

And here is my finished product. I expected the hammering to be tiring, and I’m glad there was a short resting period between the metal working sessions. The young lady mentioned before was making a knife and she had twice as many sessions and by the end you could see she wasn’t hitting as hard as she was at the beginning.

It was fun watching how every hit flattened and shaped the metal. And here is my finished wand. They let me decide how many twists and if I wanted the handle to just be down or have an down / up. I went with just the single down.

I really need to learn to navigate this festival better. (I added more points of interest to my What3words app, so hopefully next year I can navigate much better.) I spent ages looking for the Prince of Wales Pub for lunch. It is an indoor 21+ bar and eatery (fish and chips, chicken sandwich or a prime rib trencher.)

This lunch cost me $38 with a beer and tip. The food here costs more because it is one of the few air conditioned builds with seating.

Here are the regular prices for most of the takeaways (water was $5 for 20oz bottle and $6 for 20oz soda, coke products only)

The corn dog and sausage on a stick are footlongs and are not sausages you can find at the grocery store. Oh, and there is a King’s Corn Dog, but you will have to wait until tomorrow’s post to see that one.

The weather for the day was perfect. If you could find shade the breeze was cooling. The clear sky did provide the sun plenty of opportunities to drain your energy and I honestly didn’t keep up with proper hydration. I tried to drink a mug of water when I passed a water fountain, but I still didn’t drink enough. And no, I didn’t over do the alcoholic beverages this year. I had a total of 3 beers all day long, a few root beers and one purchased bottle of water, because I wanted cold water.

I didn’t see as many shows as I had planned, but I was able to make one shows, Carnival Of Sound. I enjoy this group because they play folk style music but put a bit of a modern sound.

It was then time for my glass blowing craft session. I decided to make a blue and green flower. Picture tomorrow because it needs to cool and cure. Check out Sunday’s post to see the final product. It came out better than I expected.

I made one more stop for a mug of root beer and decided to head back to the camp site.

Throughout the day I kept getting rocks in my shoe and after 17K of steps my feet, back and shoulders were all killing me. I had intentions to return for the 6:30 performance of Ragnarok(a Saturday only show) followed by Solar Rain and the fireworks show, but after completing this post I got up from my chair and realized my back didn’t want to go. So I’m resting a bit longer and trying to rehydrated. I’m hoping to feel good enough to check out the after events near the bonfire here at the camping grounds. There are some new food trucks.

Checked out the food trucks, the brisket Mac and Cheese almost got me, but I wasn’t feeling that hunger and I can find something as good tomorrow for $15.

Going to try to get to sleep early so I have energy tomorrow. (FE: I was in bed early, but my effort to properly hydrate caught me and I was making frequent trips to the potty.)

I’m going to start with a Turkish coffee followed by a Scotch tasting, then shows and a tiny bit of shopping. (FE: tiny bit of shopping, yeah right $200 in cash gone in a few hours, but you will have to see what I bought on Sunday’s post.)