The Proposal: April's Viewpoint

It was the Friday of Pennsic XXXIII, our second Pennsic and our first as entourage for the King and Queen of Ansteorra, Drake and Sibri. It had been raining the past few days, turning the whole site into a muddy mess. We had conferred with our travel and tent mates the night before and decided that if the day dawned bright and clear and the tents were dry, we would strike camp as quickly as humanly possible so as not to have to pack up in the rain with wet tents.

Friday morning we woke up, sent the guys off for the vehicles, and started to pack. We finally finished around noon, and tempers were starting to go. I had not eaten or had any notable amount of caffeine, not to mention being tired and sweaty and not having a very romantic day off alone with my sweetie. After a *cold* shower and changing into our nice, new garb from the Desert Torch Traders, we headed for the food court to get something to eat.

While eating, we discussed our list of what we wanted to buy, who for, and where we wanted to go. We decided to head for the other side of merchant row first, and run our errands back towards camp from there. As we were eating, it started to cloud up again, and by the time we got to the far side of the merchant area, it was raining. We slowly made our way back to the battlefield/food court area, running between booths when the rain slackened to a tolerable level. Nevertheless, by the time we got to the road we were both damp and my already heavy skirts were wicking moisture up around my calves and slapping my ankles with wet fabric at every step. I stopped at the Pennsic Post Office, wanting to look at the aerial photos and get a postcard or two, when JP suddenly seemed to get grumpy about shopping and taking the time to look at things. When we left the post office, he declared that he wanted to walk up the mountain behind the battlefield and look at the view of site from there. He had heard that it was a wondrous site to behold. I didn’t want to, as it was a long walk across the battlefield and then a hike up a huge mountain, in the rain, through long, wet grass and mud, with heavy skirts that were already wet and making my legs and feet more wet and cold with every step. Fortunately, I love him, so I gave into his whim.

When we got to the castle, I decided to make a detour and climb up into one of the towers since I hadn’t ever been up close to the castle. He briefly waffled between continuing the trek to the top of the mountain and calling the castle tower a good enough view, but I told him I had come this far, and would keep going to the top of the mountain. By the time we reached the top, the rain had gotten to me and I had to go. Luckily, there was a handicap porta-potty there! He was looking at the view when I returned, and as promised, it was definitely a sight to see. It looked exactly like the pictures of the Smokey Mountains, with the mountain peaks appearing out of the mist/fog/smoke of the campsite. Very picturesque. He apologized for not being able to think of a more romantic occasion, and then asked me to marry him. The rest is history…