| After that, we started for the castle, but Gerren had to leave with Rainwolf so that he could catch a train to Edinburgh. We said our good byes and arranged to meet Gerren back at the castle later, and so we went off on our own little self-guided tour. We spent maybe less than an hour wandering around the stone corridors, and by the time we met back with Gerren (still with Rainwolf by her side) the place was already closing, so they didn�t get to see anything but the gift shop. It turned out that the trains were being delayed by two hours due to bad weather, and so Rain had to reschedule his train ride for 7pm. And so we decided to find another pub we could hang around in for the couple of hours before he had to leave. Once we got back to the car park, we said our good byes to Rain for the second time and then split off again. We stopped in a little clearing in the woods after driving for about a half hour (during the car ride, Dave, Utlah, Ryath and I started getting into some rather deep and interesting conversations about our Wereness). When we parked, MegaDog had already set up some of the fireworks that he had bought in town earlier. We waited for Gerren to show up, since the train station wasn�t too far away, and then we had our own little private fireworks show. After that it was off to the barn again, getting the fire going again and sitting around the main room, passing around snacks and reminiscing about favorite childhood cartoons. At one point Utlah, Ryath and myself began to pass around books for everyone to sign, and a few of us started passing around sketchbooks as well. All in all it was quite fun, although poor Sandroo was beginning to feel quite sick by the end of the night. We got pretty concerned, and so Ryath, Dave, Lonewolf, Gerren and I stayed downstairs with Roo while the others went to bed. Dave helped me bring out my mattress from our room to set up on the floor next to the stove, and after checking to make sure everything was okay, Dave, Lonewolf and Gerren went to bed, (since they had to drive in the morning) and Ryath and I decided to pull an all-nighter. Between cleaning up the barn a bit and talking with Roo, he started feeling much better, and I felt happy that I could help in some way. In the end I did manage to get a few hours of sleep. Monday, October 28, 2002 I woke up freezing cold, after maybe two or three hours of sleep. Ryath was already up, and Sandroo woke up shortly afterwards. He was feeling a lot better, and so I went out to the kitchen to refill the hot water bottle that I had stolen back from Roo when he had finished with it. I must admit that I love those things, and must look into getting one for myself eventually. Anyway, the morning was like most, everyone got up around the same time and MegaDog started the fire. I woke Gerren up at 9am and then got all of my stuff packed up and ready to leave, since we had to be out of there by 10:00. Others had already started putting their stuff in their cars, and cleaning up the barn. There was a small discussion about what to do with the pumpkins, and Gerren had suggested floating them down river, but in the end we just hung them up outside of the barn. We left our money for the one and a half bags of coal that we used over the weekend, and then all posed for some final group photos in front of the barn. It was actually quite hard saying good-bye, especially since everyone was finally at that stage where we all felt comfortable and relaxed around each other. But there was talk of holding another Howl sometime in the spring and making it a full week instead of just a weekend, since everyone really enjoyed this one. Everyone got all their hugs in, and then got into their cars and drove off to catch trains and whatnot. We were the last ones to leave -- just Gerren, myself, and then Ryath came along with us since she had to travel to Edinburgh anyway. On our way out, we stopped by the pencil museum that everyone had so badly made fun of earlier. From an artist�s point of view, it was actually quite good and I left with some pads of watercolor paper, a new journal, and a whole new respect for how much work actually goes into creating a pencil! Shortly after, the three of us stopped for a bite to eat, went to visit Gerren�s parents in Maryport for a little while, and then took the train to Edinburgh where we met up with Rainwolf. We said our final good byes to Ryath, and then went our separate ways. To wrap things up, I found the Howl to be quite enjoyable, and look very forward to attending again should there be another one happening in the spring! Many thanks to Gerren and Rain for organizing such a successful event, and to Utlah for making the reservations to the barn. Had a lot of fun, and hope to see you all again soon! |