Fun at the Faire:
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Posted on May 30, 2010 12:03 am
J-bot
Byte-Mixer
Member Since: Dec 04, 2007
Me and the wife hit the Renaissance Festival over in the Amana Colonies (about 30 min away from us) today. I was itching to get out there hehe. Saw a joust, participated at the archery booth. (They have a public archery tourney, but not enough people signed up for it today, so they'll try again tomorrow.) So I'll be returning tomorrow for that. I'm a bit out of shape on my archery though. Hopefully, more people will sign up this time.
I had to go with a 35 Lb bow. Bearing in mind, it's been probably 5 years since I did any target practice, and I'm a self-taught amateur, so my arm was a little shaky on the 45 Lb they had. Still, managed to sink 3 out of 12 arrows into the gold though, and a few more in the red, both on the middle range and far target. (probably about 20 to 30 ft. and 40 to 50 ft. respectively, somewhere around that ballpark) So I was pretty happy with that result.
My wife Heather bought some jewelry, and a sarong with a bunch of jingly bits on it to go with some of her other gypsy-ish jewelry. I bought a couple medieval short swords at one of the merchants. Granted, not suitable for combat, except possibly stage, but even that's iffy. But they look nice, and they feel nice.
Anyhoo, will have pics up at some point in the next day or two. We're heading back tomorrow so I can hopefully participate in the tourney. Should be good times.
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May 30, 2010 11:11 am The Rennie Fest around here is fun, I haven't been in years...before kids it was just a drinking fest, totally fun, drinking, being obnoxious, hitting on chicks and all that kind of debauchery. Not the same going out there with kids.
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
May 30, 2010 11:21 pm Day 2:
Okay so we went back, and the jeweler did make the changes to the earrings my wife bought that were part of a necklace package. (she doesn't have pierced ears, so needed clip-ons) But forgot to bring them with her. So we'll have them mailed to us. Not a big deal, and the jeweler lives and works in Cedar Rapids which is not far away.
I spent a good hour or more in another sword tent because I found out the guy that runs it actually does smithing, and takes swords and re-forges them into carbon-steel blades (basically alloy smithing) and so those blades are more functional for stage combat and the like. Full tang, and carbon steel means they are not likely to fly out of the hilt, nor are the blades going to shatter very easily. He also had some spring-steel blades. I found a nice late-medieval sword that had a good balance, and suited my size pretty nicely. When ringing it up, however, my wife misquoted the tag as 60 bucks, and the cashier rang it up (I payed via credit) already before I could correct her that it was 100 bucks. So, I offered to pay the extra in cash, and she said it was partly her mistake as well, so I got the sword for $80 total.
I felt kinda bad about that, so I may return tomorrow and get a cheapo blade. Maybe one of the more artsy arc-welded baldes. (where he takes an arc welder to them, and creates some really wicked black/evil looking blades)
Anyway, spending so much time in the tent, I ended up being a little late for my spot in the archery tournament at 5pm. (I think they may have started a touch early) so I ended up having a handicap of sorts. Still after not having shot for so long I did pretty decently. There were 7 of us I think, and I tied with another gent for 3rd place. So we had a shoot off at the mid-ranged target. Each of us had 1 arrow. He shot in the yellow (not the bullseye) and I hit in the red. So, I lost the place by 1 point. >_< I also did not realize at the time, that there was a cash prize for the first 3 places. D'OH! If I had known that, I would have shot more carefully.
Still, I was pleased with my results for A) being self-taught, and B) being out of practice. And it was all in good fun anyway. Me and the other archers got 7 free shots after the tournament as a "consolation" hehe. I'll most likely return tomorrow for another "shot" OOOH! Punny!
Good day all around. :D
