| Friday, October 25, 2002 Today I got up at around 8:15am, which is relatively early for me. We were supposed to leave at 9am, but seeing as how Rainwolf and Gerren weren�t all that fond of getting up early, by the time we did in fact leave it was about 10:30. Now, Rain had just got a contract to work in Scotland, and would have to move there for two months. So we had to somehow cram a whole load of bags into a very small car. That was rather interesting, but with Rain�s incredible will power, we managed to fit everything in. So off we went, and I spent the first few hours of the ride getting slightly car sick, and nodding off. What was supposed to have only been a five to six hour drive, ended up being a little over eight hours by the time we got to the meeting point in Keswick. Although we weren�t the only ones who showed up a few hours late, as pretty much everyone got stuck in heavy traffic. When we reached the information booth, Gerren started to call everyone up to let them know we had arrived. The first Were we managed to find was MegaDog, followed shortly after by Ryath. While we were waiting for the others to show up, we ducked into a rather cozy little pub (mind you, the food there wasn�t the best). Next came ALW, Utlah and his mate Razza. Of course Gerren had to persuade me to actually come out of hiding so that I could go through all of the formal introductions. I still find it a bit disturbing just how shy I can get, even around others who I�ve talked to online for years. Ahwell. After dinner, we were still waiting for the last group to show up, (Sandroo, David Cooke and Lonewolf) and so we called them up, saying that we�d meet them at the barn. We left the pub at around 9pm, and the ride there took about a half hour, along a dirt road and through the woods. Then at one point Rain decided that we should try a shortcut. So we ended up driving through what can only be described as a hedge maze. The path was REALLY narrow and the field was so close to us that there was no room at all to even open the car doors. Then we ran into what looked to be a small river in the middle of the path. We weren�t sure just how deep it was, so we pulled back a bit and got MegaDog to drive up ahead of us, since he had the Land Rover. It wasn�t too deep, thankfully, and so we followed him down the trail while Utlah�s group followed close behind us. I must say it�s interesting driving in pitch darkness when off to the right of us we weren�t sure if there was a river, or a cliff, or both. So we just stuck to the left side of the path as much as possible. When we finally got there, it was almost 10:30pm. We were greeted by the owner (who we had caught just in time, as he was about to go to bed) and he gave us a quick tour of the barn�s facilities. I thought it was quite neat, to be honest. There was a main kind of sitting area, which held a few benches and chairs, with a coal burning stove at one end, and a large table on the other end. There was a small kitchen, and then next to it was the barn�s back door, and washroom. There were two main sleeping areas, one on the main floor (which Rain, Gerren and myself used) and then another, much larger sleeping area upstairs. The barn was actually made to sleep fourteen people, but seeing as how only eleven of us managed to make it, I got an extra mattress all to myself (grins). We also had what appeared to be a little dungeon of some sort, but everyone more or less avoided that. Naturally the first thing we did was attempt to light the stove, and being the pyromaniac that he is, MegaDog quickly took on that responsibility. Of course, the fact that we had no wood, and only wet coal didn�t help. So using a piece of wood that Razza had found, along with some pieces of paper and bits of plastic from the bag that the coal came in, Dog had the fire going in no time. The rest of the night was spent sitting in the main room in front of the fire, and exchanging rather hilarious stories. Mind you, I didn�t have all that much to say the first night, and so was more or less just content to listen. At one point Gerren and Sandroo began showing the group some of the masks they had created (I thought the most impressive ones were Gerren�s furred hyena and Dave�s furred wolf). I took a great interest in the masks, especially considering that starting in December I�ll be taking a special effects makeup course, so I�ll get to learn all about making them myself. Anyway, we were all up until about 2am, and then came bed. |