This past weekend was the kickoff to Wild Rose, and the weather did not disappoint! As you may recall from last year, the first weekend showed us some crazy weather.

Ever hear the phrase: “Second Verse, Same as the First”?

Yeah. Except this time we didn’t lose our tent (I think – It’s probably still there. I’ll find out tomorrow) and Sunday showed us beautiful weather! But Saturday was… Exciting.

Around noon the weather began to turn a little dark and we had our first hints of rain, but that was no big deal. We had arrived late due to construction and massively long country-road detours, but we had our tent up and I was busy arranging things. Brian was chasing after Lemony and she was generally tearing around the Faire as the weather worsened and a real storm whipped up.

Word came around that there was a tornado watch on near Erie, about an hour away. We couldn’t find our tent stakes, so as a precaution against the wind Brian lowered the tent. Bob the Gravedigger told us that a funnel cloud had been sighted in Erie, but had not touched down. After last year, I felt very happy to have the volunteer fire department on hand; they had their huge walkies on to get updates. Just as we were hunkering down to ride out the storm, the lightning came tearing down VERY CLOSE and the word was “RUN!” Open field full of tents with metal poles? Nope. Not Staying.

The owners’ farm house was about a quarter of a mile away, and there was a tractor path through the tall grass to it. Brian grabbed Lemony and bolted, and I was on their heels. She was, of course, laughing and giggling the whole time. I fell behind when I got caught up in some mud, and was having a bit of trouble breathing in my bodice. After I got out of the mud, I came upon a little girl who looked to be around 6ish who was crying and barefoot. She was scared and had lost her shoes (and her family) along the way. I picked her up and carried her to the house, which was luckily pretty close by that time.

Once inside and safe, we turned our attention to the weather channel. The tornado watch would go until 1:15, so we just waited it out. The weather cleared up fairly quickly after that, and we all filed back to the Faire grounds. Unlike the wholesale destruction of last year, mostly things just got wet. Annoying and soggy, but everything turned out just fine. The little girl even got her shoes back.

Sunday was just that – Sunny and hot, but I’ll take that over being struck by lightning or hit with a tornado. In all, I’d say it was a great start to the Faire, and I’m excited for tomorrow.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some chainmaille to finish up, and some banana bread to set out for thawing.

Hope to see you there!

(PS – We’ll have plain and blueberry banana bread in the tent, just so you know. ^_~)

In a word – AWESOME! We had a great time, Little One included! ^_^ Even though it’s a long drive from Pittsburgh to Raleigh, we made it there and back in once piece. Thank God for portable DVD players, Ni Hao Kai-Lan, and Kung-Fu Panda. Also for whoever invented those colorless markers that make colors [...]

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