Going Medieval

This weekend my family and I will be heading to Pennsylvania for the Society for Creative Anachronism's Pennsic War.  Pennsic is something of a full immersion Medieval Fair on steroids.  It has also been our family's main vacation for the last 9 years.  Not only do we get to camp out for two weeks, but the kids get to participate in a number of activities they don't have access to the rest of the year like archery, theatre, youth combat, and dance that doesn't involve ballet shoes.  Moreover there is nothing like 2 weeks in the woods with portajohns and without electricity to remind children to appreciate what they have when they get home.  (In fact when the kids were younger the first thing they would do is run up to the bathroom and flush the toilet. Repeatedly. Just to witness the miracle.)

Me and the kids at their first Pennsic,
They were smaller then.

Last year's war was all about the weather which was very wet, featuring several of the most amazing thunderstorms I have ever seen.  This year will probably be something different, though the weather service is saying the heat wave should break this weekend. 

Father and Daughter waiting out one of the
numerous storms last year

For me one of the greatest things about Pennsic is that I don't hear phones ring for two whole weeks. Only people who have  answered phones for a living can fully appreciate this I suspect. (The other greatest thing is that being in another state keeps me from being tempted by the endless stream of overtime at work. If I don't go away, I'll go in)Although its true that almost everyone, including myself has a phone in their pouch they are all on mute.  It is considered the height of rudeness to have a phone go off in the wrong place and disrupt the illusion.  The downside is the limited availability of Internet communications.  There is a vendor providing such services for a fee, so I will probably get out a post or two, but the operative word here is fee. 

Ironically, I know that while I am heading back to the Middle Ages, many of my fellow bloggers are header to the BlogHer conference where they will be focusing on more effective and creative electronic communications.  At one point last year I was sitting in a tent waiting out a huge thunderstorm texting a friend who was waiting to get into a BlogHer forum.  Strange juxtapositions.

So everyone, safe journeys wherever you go the rest of this month, and I will see you all in August.