I have to say that we had a pretty good time this evening. I got to the grounds around 4:30 or so, not quite sure of what the routine would be as far as figuring out where to park, (legally) and knowing that the College World Series traffic was going to snarl my route (not to mention construction on I-80 on the Iowa side) might add a lot of unexpected time to the drive.
Anyway… I had time to say hello to a few folk, and then strolled up to the gate to greet the crowd. I got up early enough this morning to raid Nobbies, and I had picked up this nice little treasure box a day before… which I filled with all kinds of little goodies… lots of eye patches, yes… but superballs with a skull and crossbones, a batch of plastic princess rings, little rubber pirate figues, tiny little whistles (mom and dad LOVE me on the ride home) compass rings, etc etc… and then I splurged and bought a half dozen "big dollar items" to mix in along with the general swag. Anyway, I start talking to random people and slowly approaching kids… and sooner or later one asks what's in the box. Then the fun begins.
Later, Mandy and Melissa were towing me around in the shrew's fiddle with a 10' rope attached to it, and I was asking kids to help me escape in exchange for a bit of my treasure. We did that for a couple of hours, and I'm gonna tell ya, the box got a little empty… and this was only a three hour day. tomorrow is 11 to 9… we're gonna have to pace ourselves, or we'll wind up completely out of treasure by noon Sunday. We'll have to go sack Faire and Fowl and steall all their huzzah chips.
Nuff said… it was a good time. The only things we were missing were Bonny Kate and Captain Steve. It would have been really fun to have all five of us playing this tangent. It's a neat little development, but I'm not sure financially feasible in the long run… you can get a lot of stuff cheap, but when you're just giving it away…
Anyway… it's worth it for a weekend just to see the kid's eyes light up. Fun stuff. AAAAnnnd… the Tortuga Twins are here, along with the Jolly Rogers… good line up when you're able to stroll past the stage at the right time.
