"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"
Charles Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities"
It was the best of times...
There were a lot of great memories made at the Texas Renaissance Festival in 2003. For one thing, my young friend, Regina (Photo, Right: pausing for her portrait as Aviana, the White Faerie of Texas (AKA the Wind Faerie), at the entrance to Sherwood Forest at the Texas Renaissance Festival) made a triumphant return to TRF after missing several seasons of faire due to illness. Even better: she was able to attend EVERY WEEKEND of the 2003 TRF season, even if she wasn't able to play her Faerie persona every day, there. That was quite an accomplishment for her -- and one that was most warmly greeted by all her faire friends and Faerie acquaintances (Photo, Below: Regina at "McDane's Tavern" in Camp Chaos at the TRF Patron Campground, with Gryphon (playing with Regina's long hair); mutual friend Linda (in foreground); and one of the lovely Ladies of Chaos at right)! Unlike the Knights of Chaos -- who can party all night and do faire all day -- Regina; her friend J (just "J"); and I actually needed to sleep occasionally during each faire weekend at TRF, so we set up our own camp far enough away so all the drums and hunting horns of Camp Chaos wouldn't disturb us, but still close enough for easy walking between. We quickly settled on a camp configuration that worked quite well all season long: setting up my 10x10 pavilion in the middle, with our seperate tents facing each other on opposite sides. This created a "common room" for cooking, eating and just visiting with easy access to our tents -- mostly out of the weather! -- while
still affording considerable privacy for us all. Of course camping TRF not only allowed us to enjoy faire more -- after all, it was only a short walk back to our campsite so we didn't have to fight traffic on a l-o-n-g drive home right after closing -- but we also got to enjoy everything the TRF Patron Campground has to offer: drumjams, dancing, fireshows, great feasts and lots of carousing and carrying on with all our Rennish friends after hours. Which's why I chose to camp out during the TRF season, even on those weekends I had to work my mundane job! Aye, it often meant rising from my warm sleeping bag in the cold, dark hours before dawn, leaving the campground before sunrise to spend an hour on the road driving all the way back to Spring just to work my shift, then followed by another tedious hour of driving returning to the campground in the evening, afterwards. But believe me: the Patron Campground at TRF is an event ALL BY ITSELF, and one certainly well-worth NOT missing!!!
In her guise as Aviana, Regina makes a most attractive young Faerie (Photo, Right: a portrait of Aviana taken in the Magick Garden at Aviana's favorite bench), so it was a real honor for me to accompany Aviana on her frequent rounds at faire, allowing me to act as her personal photographer and documenting in particular her return to TRF in 2003 (for more portraits of Aviana and/or Regina at faire, pray do check out the link to Aviana's website in the "Galleries" section at the foot of this page). Fortunately, my young friend felt quite comfortable and natural in the role of photographer's model. She certainly has a wonderfully fey sense of humor, playing both freely and easily in front of the camera -- often outrageously and mischeviously, too! -- all day long. In fact, the majority of all the pictures I took at the Texas Renaissance Festival last year were of Regina in her Faerie garb!!! Furthermore, my young friend not only has many personal friends and old acquaintances of long-standing at TRF, but she also makes new friends quite easily. This is little wonder as she has both a friendly and very outgoing personality... not to mention she has
also been attending the Texas Renaissance Festival since she was 16. Thus, "making the rounds" with Aviana often meant going from one friend and/or group of friends to another -- visiting Ben in Sherwood Forest, for instance (Photo, Left: Ben plays it up as the evil "Dark Demon of TRF" with an innocent young Faerie visitor to Sherwood Forest), before hanging out a bit with Joel at Lord Entropy's; then going off to play a short time with Kat before joining the TRFaeries at the Main Gate for awhile; then popping into the NEW! AIR-CONDITIONED!!! Prince of Wales Pub for a cold drink and a chance to cool off while catching some great tunes with Aviana's favorite musicians -- and doing that, repeatedly, all day long (Photo, Below Right: Aviana poses with Julia, who was visiting TRF as a playtron in 2003. As it turned out, Regina's new friend just happens to be a cast member at the Scarborough Renaissance Festival, where she plays a gypsy)!
But simply spending the entire day visiting with all our friends at faire wasn't good enough for us. Frequently right after Closing Gate, we'd all hop into our various cars and trucks and drive down to the little town of Magnolia, where we'd "invade" one of the local eateries in full faire garb and costume. Fortunately, the locals were already used to having large mobs of Rennies show up unexpectedly during Faire Season, so having us all -- myself, Regina, J, Ben and Julia, accompanied by 7-15 of our best faire friends -- suddenly descend on them during the dinner hour was something they just accepted, mostly with a lot of of amusement and good humor on both sides. In 2003, our favorite spot to eat was a little country diner appropriately called "The Junction" as it was barely a block away from where the railroad and the main highway through town crossed. Not only did they serve truly ENORMOUS hamburgers with a huge side order of onion rings included -- incidentally the best burgers and onion rings that Ryleh has had the pleasure of tasting anywhere, to date -- but their prices were downright reasonable for a Rennish budget. Even better: they were always happy to see us, no matter how large our party. Of course, it certainly didn't hurt that we tended to tip most generously as a group! For variety, we also visited the nearby Hickory Hollow Restuarant -- located in the shopping mall across the tracks from The Junction -- for chicken-friend steak; as well as the Rancho Grande Mexican restaurant (located just down the street on Farm Road 1488) for some excellent Mexican dining. Still, we all had the best meals at reasonable prices -- not to mention some very memorable if not outright boisterous good times! -- together at the Junction.
PRINCE OF WALES PUB -- Aviana and Ryleh visit the newest 2003 addition to the Texas Renaissance Festival.
POGUE MAHONE -- Being a True and Amusing Incident which occured to Ryleh at the TRF Patron Campground during the 2003 Season.
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