No shit, there I was

Now that I'm actually home and off the road, I can talk about AT war a bit more and share pics!

Left Seagirt Saturday morning, car packed to the roof.
On the ferry, I was mugged by a band of young people, let's call then the Mægtige Børn (mighty children). It was great to see friendly faces, it was a good start to an epic adventure. We took the road on Monday morning.

The journey
The scenery was beautiful. 

 But a bit sad... we got a patch of smoke from the nearby wildfires.

The settling in
When we arrived onsite there wasn't a lot of people. We were pretty early in the week, considering that the main event only started on the Friday. It gave us time to see the site grow, like a garden of period tents. Each day more tent appeared here and there in the field.
We didn't stay idle, we helped set up pavilions, prepare the warfield and the cut the grass!! Cutting grass was fun and really did a number on my core muscles, I think it did me some good considering that I've been out of armour since mid June because of a dislocated elbow. Anyways... got a but carried away and started a path for the royals to go to the warfield. Thank you Snaer, for teaching us how to cut grass the old fashion way!

I've met a bunch of new people. People that I knew by name and some people I never heard of before. But to be honest, it's only when the heavy fighters and the rapier guys arrived on site that I felt really at home. I feel more and more like I belong, even if I am vertically challenged, linguistically challenged and physically weaker. It's great that I finally found my crowd, my family.

Anyways.. the town we were in asked that we stay in garb if we had to go into town, so we did. Also, garb is so much more comfortable than street clothes, I also feel more like myself in garb. We decided to go for a walk in town and I lend one of my hanfu to Argolia. It fit her perfectly.

The brave Mægtige Børn
Everyday, the Mægtige Børn managed to find me. And each time they rushed in it made me smile and added a bit of epicness to my day. One of them only has about a foot difference with me so... we strapped him in my armour. Amazingly enough, it wasn't too bad! My body armour, vambraces and gorget fit. I went through the basics with him and he caught up pretty quick. Since he was wearing my kit, I couldn't fight him so I let my brother and Snaer do a bit of slow work with him. He was at full speed and they were blocking. That kid has something fierce in him.

He proceeded to fight in the youth tourney on Sunday and kicked butt. I'm extremely proud of him.

The demo
On the Friday, we had a demo downtown. It went not too bad, but I was rusted and it showed. Also, it's crazy what 460 meters of elevation can change! It's not much but Hel could I feel it in my breathing.

I was a bit bummed out after the demo because my fighting majorly sucked. The wrist I broke last year at crown was being a jerk and my dislocated elbow wasn't playing nice. And the heat got to me pretty bad. I think that my problem was that I drank too much water and flushed out my minerals.

The site
The site was so beautiful. There was something magical about it.

With all the mountains around, the snowy peaks, the water near, the full moon, the blazing sun, the tall grass. I felt so small but so strong. My emotions were never neutral, I was in the extremes, either extremely happy, extremely driven, extremely mad, extremely excited, never neutral. I felt untouchable, but still humble. I felt loved, I felt comfortable, I felt appreciated, I felt wanted, I felt like I was right where I should have been. Those feelings where especially there at dusk and at night.

The heavy war
This was my 5th war as a heavy and my 2nd as a fencer. It was epic.

When I get sucked in, I forget that this is a game. I forget that this is pretend. I forget that I am a 31 year old house wife, mother of 4. I forget that I am holding a piece of rattan wrapped in hockey tape. I forget that my chances of dying are very slim. For a few hours, I believe that I am Hlíf, second child of Áskell and Ísgerðr, born in 853, at the end of the reign of Horik "den Ældre" Gudfredsson, on Samsø island in Dyret nestle at the feet of Odinsbjerg. I believe that my sword is made of steel. It becomes a way of life and the game doesn't exist anymore.
So... stupid things happen. I push myself beyond my limits and it ends up by being strongly "suggested" to strip out of armour. After my mind cleared, I was grateful for that "suggestion".

I rested for a bit and decided to do some waterbearing. My brother also had a scary happening. First time I ever seen him drop like that. He received a somewhat hard hit straight to the face, hard enough to cave in the ocular of his helm, made of 12 gauge stainless steel. I was scared. I've only seen him that white once and it was when he had his short discussion with a long seax.
It was so hot that there was only one pick-up after the war and it didn't last for very long.

The rapier war
This was fun. So much lighter. Fencing brings a different adrenaline rush. I did a few pick-ups before the war, in between the scenarios and after. We also had a demo at the end.

I liked the different scenarios and the small tourney at the end. It's fun to cross blades with someone who's name is phonetically the same (different writing)!

The aftermath
After all the fighting, everyone was exhausted. You know you had a great day when every muscle in your body are telling you to f*ck off. My brother and I managed to muster enough energy to wonder in the village, I finally bought a horn mug from Pol of the Blackfist! And got a bottle of cold water to go with it. I think that's what gave us the energy to walk back up the hill to our camp.

We had the opportunity to eat at The Sinister Squirrel Kitchen. num num num. I think that I'll be infiltrating this kitchen at other events. Great food, epic company, can't go wrong. Thanks again Ewein and crew!

The drive home
Well that was scary.
When we were waiting at the ferry to cross Arrow lake, I noticed that one of the tires on the trailer was showing cord. I poked at my travel companions and we agreed that we should change the tire and put the spare one after the crossing.
On the other side, the tire was changed. I didn't have a good feeling about the other tire, the one on the starboard side. I was staring at it and I felt my stomach sink in, like if someone just punch me right in the guts. I brushed it off, could be the left-overs of fighter brain. A raven was perched on a lamp post. He was awfully quiet. I looked for a second raven, since they usually travel in pairs and couldn't see him. He eventually left and we also left not too long after.
When we reach Merrit, it started to smell like smoke. We could see the clouds of smoke rolling in. Wildfire.

It was different than the smoke we saw on our way there. I didn't feel awesome. To start with, even if I love fire, I hate it at the same time. I love it when it's controlled. I respect it. It's a living thing. But when it's out of control it's scary, it's painful, it kills.
Eventually it clears out.
At the height of the former toll booth plaza on the Coquihalla pass, we started to hear a strange sound. My brother saw sparks in the side mirror. We had lost a tire on the trailer. The tire.

We drove about a kilometer on the rim... Stopped on the side of the road... or at least what was serving us as the side of the road. To be honest, we were 1/2 in the lane where cars and trucks where rushing by at 120 + km/h. I suggested taking my shield out and using it as a signal to change lanes, but my shield is black and dark red, not the greatest plan. We did have 2 big archery butts in the trailer, so my brother took one and dropped one a few meters from the vehicle and took the second one further and hold it, signaling traffic to change lanes. I was told to stay on the side of the highway and serve as second spotter. The first butt kept falling, so I eventually grabbed it and stayed there. While my brother had a visual on uncoming traffic, I had a visual on the lane change in case someone merged into another vehicle. William took the tire we took off at the ferry and installed it. It felt like hours. Some trucks changed lanes at the last second. There's something very ironic about trying to divert traffic using huge targets... it felt somewhat uncomfortable.
While spotting, I made a shout out on facebook in case someone was in the area. I was amazed by the feedback. We had help from Avacal to the other side An Tir. In a matter of minutes we had an address for a tire shop in Hope. People I only fought 2-3 times where writing to give advices, contact information of people they knew in the area. They poked to make sure we were still ok. I realized that day that the SCA is so much more than a game. It's a community, it's a family. Our Baronies, Principalities or Kingdoms may be at war once in a while, but when shit hits the fan, we're just one huge community.
I have never received that many text messages and phone calls in one day.
Thank you all.
We managed to reach Hope, got to a tire shop and we were back on the road.
If you wonder, the rush of standing in front of a speeding 18-wheeler is somewhat comparable to facing Sir Uber-Duke at your first crown tourney with about 4 months experience in armour, except you know that there's a higher chance of you having your brain splatter everywhere and be for-real dead.

We slept in Coquitlam and took the first ferry on Tuesday. It felt good to see my Berserker. She had a lot of things to tell me and I had an epic adventure to tell her.