DragonBlade Wars

I went off to Nevada this weekend with some friends to attend an Amtgard event called DragonBlade Wars. Hank invited me at the last minute and I decided to go ahead and give it a try. It was only the second event I had ever been to. It was just four guys going up in a van together and I had a lot of fun. It was great just doing guy stuff. We left here Friday evening a little later than planned due to schedules. My job was to stay awake and keep the driver company and be ready to spell him in case he got tired. So I blathered away about nonsense for hours on end. A little bit before Salt Lake, about 4:00 AM, we had a flat tire. Fortunately the spare wasn't underneath all of the junk we had packed in the back. That would have been really annoying. We were just finishing up when a cop stopped to check on us. After seeing that we were almost finished his first question was, "Are you guys on your way to a rave?" We just stared at him. We didn't quite know how to answer. The first thought was "do we look like the type of people who go to raves?" The answer for me is... maybe? I don't really know what the "rave" type would be. I'm guessing it wouldn't be the mid to late thirties crowd, though. My second thought was, "do I really want to get into an explanation about what Amtgard is to a cop in the middle of the night on the side of the road?" That was a definite "not really." In the end one of the other guys said something that satisfied him and we moved on. He gave us the number of an all night tire shop and we said good-bye. Unfortunately the tire shop wasn't open and we couldn't find any other place open. We ate a little breakfast in a diner across the street from the first tire shop while we looked for another. We finally decided to just get a room for a few hours and sleep until places were open. This started a whole line of thinking about the weird look we would get when four guys asked for a room for "just a few hours." Apparently one of the other guys had actually been refused a room when he was in a similar situation before. In the end a casual explanation during the purchase of the room answered any concerns that may have existed. The fact that the guy on duty was younger probably helped out as well. After a few hours sleep Hank took the van over and got them started on it. He came back and got us after a short while and we walked over to see how it was going. The tire was done but the guy came out and told us that the other rear tire was just about to blow in the same way. His exact words then were, "Given the size of your friends it might be a good idea to replace it as well." Again we just stared at each other. Fortunately we're all pretty good-natured so we didn't get upset. We joked that Hank should have said, "Given the size of my friends you should really re-think that statement." We let them go ahead and change the other tire while we waited for a few minutes. After that we were on our way again. We went the rest of the way without incident and arrived at the site around 10:00 or so. They were in the middle of doing battle games and I took that opportunity to get my tent setup. I'm not really into battle games so it was good timing. We had lunch and some ditches before court that evening. After court people basically sat around talking. I chatted a little bit and then headed off to bed. After taking out my contacts and calling Karen I went out to use the bathroom one more time. On the way back I saw a group of people I knew sitting in a group talking. I thought about just heading back to my tent but then decided I should try to be more social. I was very proud of myself for going over there. It is the type of thing where I normally would have been too shy to join the group and would have went off feeling kind of sad. Instead I overcame those shy tendancies and went over. I know it wouldn't seem like a big deal to most, but it was a huge deal for me. All went well and I had a good time chatting with people. We broke up a while later and I went off to bed.

The next morning Hank invited me to go to the Lion's breakfast with him. Hank and Marleah belong to a company called "The Golden Lions". Every time they are together at an event they go out for breakfast together. I understood that and was surprised that he invited me to go with him. This again butted up against my "don't want to impose" instincts. He assured me that it was fine so I went ahead and joined him. I was a little nervous because it was a group of people that I didn't know and didn't really have anything to chat about with. In the end I just stayed quiet and listened to everyone. I had a good time, though. Marleah would like me to petition to join the Lions but I have always been a little hesitant. I don't really know any of them except for her and Hank. I wouldn't want them to feel like I was "friend-stalking" them by joining even though they are the primary reasons why I would join. I could appreciate them thinking, "Must you do everything we do just because we're friends? Go out and do something for yourself!" Going to the breakfast gave me a chance to get to know other Lions a little bit. They were all nice people. It turns out that one of them is moving to our area so I will probably get to see him a lot more. Hank and Marleah would still be the reason why I petitioned the Lions, but at least I would know some of the other people. Also, they would know me. I'll need to give the whole thing more thought.

We got back from breakfast just in time for the tournament to start. I almost wasn't going to get to participate because they were already full for a 32-man bracket. Fortunately several other people wanted in so they opened it up further. I did better in this tournament than I ever have before. I've only been in two other tourneys before so I suppose it's not really saying much. In my previous tourneys I only won one match all day. This time I won three or four matches in one event. I did a fairly decent showing in the other events as well. I was quite pleased with myself. After the tourney we did a single-sword circle and later single-sword ditches. I did quite well (for me) in both. Up to now my fighting has been very random. I throw random shots and get lucky if something hits. I still did that a lot this time but I also had occasions where I saw and made targeted shots. I got a couple of compliments on my fighting from Hank and Jody. That made me really happy. I know I still have a long way to go but it felt good not to be stinking up the joint. As I told a few people, it really sucks sucking all the time. This event was a chance for me to not suck as much. It was quite a confidence builder.

We originally had planned on leaving Monday morning but everyone decided that we wanted to take off early so we packed up and left right after court Sunday night. We were all pretty beat when we got in the van and I could tell it was going to be a long night. We stopped at a McDonald's on the way out and discovered that it was the worst McDonald's ever. We had to wait at least 15 minutes to get our food to go. They were out of apple pies and were substituting with ice cream. When I picked up my food I swear I heard them say in the back that they were out of meat. Out of meat?! How do you get to be out of meat?! It was pretty sad but we had a good laugh over it. Hank started out driving but only got an hour or so down the road before he needed me to take over. Like I said, we were all pretty wiped. Right after I took over it started raining like crazy. I drove through the rain all the way through Utah and part of the way through Wyoming. It was poor visibility, twisting mountain roads, standing water and a heavy downpour. I was not at my happiest. I have decided that I really don't like driving through bad weather at night. I'll do it when I have to, but it is not tops on my list. I have also become a really cautious driver. More so than I ever was before. That has really surprised me. Anyway, I drove for a few hours and then Hank woke up and took over. It was good timing because I was starting to drift off. My co-pilot had already fallen asleep and had done a poor job before that of chatting me up to keep me awake. All in all I was quite happy to turn the wheel back over to Hank. I still stayed up to keep him awake, but I didn't have to drive through the bad weather and that made it better for me. We had bad weather the bulk of the way through Wyoming. After that we made it back home without many problems. I started to drift off between Cheyenne and Denver but the sun was coming up and Hank was fine by then. When we got into Denver and started heading toward Jody's house I really hit the wall. I was pretty done. After we dropped Jody off I was fine again, but it was a moot point because the trip was basically over. Hank dropped me off around 6:30 AM or so. I unpacked my junk while telling Karen all about the trip. It didn't take long before I was passed out on the bed snoozing away. I pretty much slept the whole day away.

It was a long weekend, but I had a ton of fun. It definitely made me interested in going to another event in the future. It also renewed my flagging interest in Amtgard. I can't wait to go out to the park this Saturday and play again. So, in the final assessment, it was a great weekend for me and I'm really glad I went.