Dawdling

I spent a lot of time dawdling in the Memphis area.  The SCA kingdom of Gleann Abhinn was having a Beltane event, and I decided to go.  Travel to the event from Shreveport should have taken about 6 hours.
Note the should.

It was not easy to locate a place to mount  bike tire in Shreveport, and the charge was steep, $90.  By the time it was mounted, and I brought it back to the trailer it was too late in the day for them to mount the other one as they closed early that day.

So, putting the trailer back on two wheels, I headed off for Millington (just north of Memphis).  I so wanted to make it in one day, and had a late start, so I pushed my speed a little.  When I got to Little Rock, there was smoke coming from behind me.  Investigation showed that I had over tightened the axle nut, because it locked the bearing in place ruining the new tire.
Sigh.  After checking into a hotel, I found I was too late to get any work done that day, but managed to find a place Saturday that mounted the new tire for me at a cost of $90, including a new bearing.
Then off to the event.  I got there too late for a lot of the fun stuff, but made new friends, and watched a fun court.  At the court it was very nice to see about 25 people be presented in court for attending their first event.  The attendance numbers were under 300, which made for a rather high percentage of new comers, and I talked with a few of them.

Once the event was over the weather closed in for rain and cold.  I stayed in the area to save wear on the one tire left to change, and found the Yamaha dealership in Millington quite nice to deal with.  They ordered a tire in, and mounted it for $80, the best price yet in my quest to keep the trailer rolling smoothly.

I felt like I was dawdling.  I had met a lot of people and made some very nice new friends but it is time to move along.

The weather now is still stubbornly refusing to co-operate, and I could have a very cold and rainy time.  I had hoped the weather would be nicer but with a little luck I will make it through to Salt Lake soon, to visit an old friend and meet 2 of her kids for the first time.

I will finish with posting a few pictures from the Beltane event.

Noise

I am currently in Shreveport LA, being hosted by an SCA couple.  They have an empty suite in their house, and have been wonderful hosts.

The differences between here and Central America are many, but the ones that stand out the most are density and noise.  The modern suburb was mostly missing on my journey through CA.  There were a few gated communities which could have been from anywhere in Canada or the States, but for the most part, the towns were a tumble of cramped spaces.  Roads hardly wide enough for one car, let alone two.  No room between houses, or perhaps a slip, a walk way barely big enough for me to walk down, small spaces that seem to wind their way through in shadow and dim light, hemmed in by concrete and cinder brick.

And the noise.  Bouncing off the hard surfaces of the houses and road, songs played at full volume, with the speakers brought out front so the whole town could hear.  Firecrackers, people practicing musical instruments ( from bad to great and all the places in between, but mostly on the bad side ) voices singing along to the radio and on Sundays, hymns sung way too loud and very off key.  Bits of song would travel with you as you walk along the streets.  Radios and sound systems in the shops would play, usually just loud enough to be heard from the street, but  sometimes so loud as to be annoying from a block away.  The music would fade away as the night came in, to be replaced by the thumping of the music from the bars and clubs.  Those sounds would die a natural death at around 11pm (1am on weekends), but the random bangs and whistles of fireworks never had a cerfew.  They would be set off for any reason, or next to no reason.  Birthdays, saint's day, anniversary, death, wedding, graduation, solstice, and on and on.

After being in San Pedro La Laguna for a while, I never got used to it, but perhaps inured is a better term.

Then, near the end of my stay at the lake, I met a fellow from the USA, one who had combat related PTSD.  It seemed truly  weird to me that someone who had the syndrome would choose to live in a place where truly loud firecrackers would be set off anywhere at anytime.  He talked briefly with me about it though, and his therapist had recommended it to him as a remedial therapy, and it was working.
I certainly believe that it would not work for everyone, but for him, the random nature of the noise began to re-set the part of his brain that automaticly associated loud bangs with combat and violence to one that said it was only noise.  How long he had been in the town, I did not know, but he expressed his opinion that it worked for him.  He was much calmer over all, and the sound of a startlingly loud bang no longer triggered episodes for him.

But me on the other hand, in a lot of ways, I am glad I have had time in a quiet place, with only mild traffic noise and muted sounds from a basketball court half a block away.  Even that gets a little much sometimes, which is weird.  At times the quieter it is, the quieter I want it to be, the only sounds I want to intrude are the ones I choose to play on my sound system. 

Which I want to then play loudly.

Humans are odd creatures, and the older I get the more I realize I am as odd as most of those around me.

Likely odder.

Natchez Trace Trail

The Natchez Trace was an important road in the early development of the USA.  It allowed for improved communication between the north east and southern parts of what has come to be the USA.  Some parts of that history involve the civil war, but for the most part it involved who the area was settle by Europeans, and the displacement and treaties for the natives woven around that displacement.
In the modern day, most of the Trace has been either swallowed by development, allowed to revert back to nature, or simply fade.  Parts of it have been incorporated into the Historic Natchez Trace Trail, some as part of the modern roadway, and other parts much as they were when the Trace was first developed.

The spring has come to the Trace, but the canopy is not quite in full leaf yet.  I think later in the year when it is not quite as wet, and the leaves are darker it would have a very wild feel to it, even though the park is limited in size.  The bottom picture shows a part of the embankment has slid into the trail.  It was quite rainy the night before I took this picture, and I could tell the slide had happened very recently.
There was a very irksome bird at the campground I was staying at.  A nice redheaded woodpecker was flitting from area to area.  Every time I pulled out my camera, he disappeared.  In stead, here are a few pictures of a few of the flowers and other wildlife from the area.

Pics from Gleann Abhann

Pictures taken with my new lens, a 50-300 zoom.

Coronation, Gleann Abhann

Part of my interest in attending SCA events outside of An Tir and Tir Righ, is to note the differences.  The major differences I noticed for the coronation were as follows.
The new king placed the crown on his own head, then took the oath of office from an officer (I do not know the posotion of the officer receiving the oath).  He then stood aside as his consort did the same action and oath.  In both cases the previous King and Queen were not on stage, a very different scene from what I am used to with the sitting royals placing the crown first on the head of the Heir who won the tourney, and that person crowning their Inspiration.

The swearing of fealty oaths within An Tir that I recall went along the lines of Champions, Knights, Laurels, Pelicans, Landed barons/baronnesses, household/retinue, genereal populace.  The order done there was Skald, Royal Peers, Entourage, Landed barons/baronnesses, Knights, Laurels, and Pelicans.
I did not go to their second court which was held shortly after in a different building, and I believe the general populace was invited to swear fealty at that time.
The words of the oaths were different, but the meaning was the same, and the emotions of those involved were nice to see, smiling faces approaching the thrones, serious demeanor during the oath, and smiling faces upon completion.

One of the other differences in style I noted was during the Champion Tourney, when a number of the fighters as well as saluting Crown, Inspiration, and Opponent added in Populace as well.  A nice touch I thought.

All in all a very nice event, held on the same site as Gulf Wars with far far fewer attendees.

Florida - 2014

Ah.  All good things must come to an end.  I have greatly enjoyed my stay with Marina and Francis, but the time has come to roll along.  They have put up with my presence for nearly a month, allowing me to wait for the weather to heat up so that driving and camping my way back to Canada will be more pleasant.
Very little was asked of me during the stay, but I did do a nice supper for them and Francis' bowling friends, warm brie, white lasagna, tabuli, fresh fruit with warm caramel.
 
While here I did not do very much, I attended a couple of the events for Daytona Bike Week, which were packed with bikers, and I even noticed a few others from Canada.  The guy I talked to from Red Deer AB, like me had driven down in the fall.  There were a lot of bikers from the northern states who trailered their bikes down, not having the time to do it when the weather was warm.

I also went to the SCA event, Gulf Wars, which was on at the same time as Bike Week.  And, although Bike Week was nice, Gulf Wars was far more fun.  I found it easier to break the ice with the SCA people than with the bikers, as well as there being a far better female to male ratio.
My trailer allowed a small amount of water in, and mold was on a lot of my stuff.  Cleaning it and washing everything down took the better part of two days, and luckily one item was damaged beyond recovery, a sleeping bag.

Now the road calls once again, and I am off to see what a SCA event,  Coronation in Gleann Abhann is like.  I have attended many in Tir Righ ans Antir, time to spot the differences.

Pictures of the event to follow.