FOURTEEN HOURS LATER I awoke, realizing what a serious mistake I had made re: Gulf Wars. You see, in order to do both NTIF and Gulf Wars together that month, I had shifted my work schedule around to get those two weekends off. Doing that, unfortunately, meant working something like ten straight days in a row between them! That -- combined with bouts of chronic bronchitis and the flu over the winter -- seriously depleted my energy levels, needless to say. Fact is, it wasn't until the Monday morning following that I finally felt sufficiently rested and energized again -- when, of course, Gulf Wars was over for the year! Fortunately the day was still young and Lumberton wasn't that far down the road. And since Kiko already knew the way there, he took the lead with Regina riding in his car for company while I followed. This was, after all, their weekend: basically I just turned Regina over to Kiko and generally stayed out of their way so they could make the most of their time together.

As it turned out, the weather was clear and the driving was easy, so we arrived at the SCA site by mid-afternoon, Friday. After a quick stop at the Troll Booth (Pun intended, Photo above: Kiko gets directions from one of the "Trolls" while Regina looks on) to check in, register, pay our entrance fees and get our participant's medallions, we went in search of Kiko's SCA friends: the NOVA Vikings. Looking around as I followed Kiko to the NOVA encampment, it was quickly apparent to me that Gulf Wars was a far cry from the renaissance festivals I'm used to haunting. Not only did the numerous households, camps and bivouacks look medieval, but they felt medieval as well (Photo, Below: the Kingdom of Trimaris compound, for example, as viewed in an early morning mist. Earl Gregory Ahearne, Sir Roland de Carre and Sir Lorcan Dubhgaille are the good folkes who created the Trimaris wall)! All the participants, it seems, made a sincere effort to hide or disguise all their modern items, tools and utensils -- we parked my truck and Kiko's car in a narrow lane between NOVA and their nearest neighbors, for instance, where they couldn't easily be seen from the main road -- and thankfully there were no "Garb Nazis" or "Authenticity Police" in evidence during the three days we stayed at Gulf Wars!

Upon our arrival, the NOVA Vikings greeted Kiko warmly and welcomed both Regina and I most gladly to their encampment. Within the hour, we had not only been introduced all around but found a campsite within the NOVA compound to set up our household: Kiko's tent facing mine with my pavilion inbetween. At that point, we all changed into garb. Gulf Wars, I should mention here, is a FULL IMMERSION SCA event. Which's to say that medieval garb is worn 24 hours a day throughout the week Gulf Wars is in progress! There was no "The beer is in the truck" (i.e. the faire is over/time to return to the real world) announcement at the end of the day here. I literally slept in my garb while we were there -- the very same garb I regularly wear to renaissance festivals -- without changing back into my mundanes until Sunday morning. That, alone, made a considerable difference in the "look and feel" of Gulf Wars for me!!!

Now we had missed all the main events of the day because of our relatively-late arrival, but looking at the site map in the Participant's Guidebook, Regina happened to notice a listing of merchants at Gulf Wars. That meant shopping! So off we all marched to Merchants' Row, to check out their wares. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by the qualitative differences between Gulf Wars and your typical renaissance festival. At faire, for example, each merchant is a specialist: a swordsmith sells knives and swords, nothing else; a potter sells plates, pitchers and bowls, nothing else; a bookseller sells books, a cobbler sells shoes, a perfumier sells perfumes, scents and incense...and so on it goes. Not at Gulf Wars! There, a single merchant might carry earrings, pouches, stuffed animals, clothing patterns, boots, sewing supplies, crockery and wooden toys -- a wide variety of merchandise, in fact -- much like the travelling merchants of olde used to do. Even better: while the quantity of wares might be limited, the prices were easily half or less what Regina and I would expect to pay at faire! Kiko, for instance, bought Regina a beautiful handtooled, white leather pouch as a gift to go with her "White Faerie" fantasy garb. Her pouch cost him less than $20. At faire, that same pouch might've set him back anywhere from $35 to $45, easily! So it actually paid us to go through each and every merchant's booth, thoroughly; checking out every nook and cranny of their tables, shelves and displays; just to see what possible treasures they might have hidden there. Needless to say, the sun was soon sinking slowly in the west -- and we still hadn't seen everything in Merchants' Row! At that point, I was both surprised and delighted (again!) to spot Ron Haring, an old friend of ours from LRF among the Gulf War vendors (Photo, Above: Regina and Ron pose together in front of Ron's booth, Castle Creations). It seems Gulf Wars is a regular stop on his circuit, so we got to spend considerable time chating with him, catching up on personal news and hearing all his fascinating stories of the road...

Needless to say, it was quite dark by the time we said good night to Ron and headed back to our own camp. Kiko was off visiting friends, so Regina and I scrounged up some dinner, then hung out in our pavilion awhile, just resting and relaxing. After awhile, Regina grew restless at Kiko's absence so she suggested we take a hike around the site. That sounded good to me, especially since the night was relatively warm and quiet. Which was another big difference between Gulf Wars and the TRF Patron Campground, for example. Aye, some the SCA folk were partying -- and most heartedly, at that (Photo, Left: dancing around a bonfire at the NOVA encampment)! But Regina and I noticed how much quieter the SCAfolk celebrations were, compared with TRF. There were no hunting horns blaring all night, for example, nor bagpipes blowing, altho there certainly were a lot of drums playing all around us. There were also no loud drunken arguments, inebriated war cries or intoxicated shouting from camp to camp -- just good-natured folks dancing, singing and talking quietly around the various campfires. For us, it was a most noticeable and pleasant "change of pace" from our usual faire experience! Mayhap that helped to make the night magickal: what with all the torches, lanterns and firelight illuminating the walls, towers and pavilions in the SCA camps, the illusion that we had stepped back in time to a Medieval era was well-nigh perfect. Even better: our walk took us up around Zach's Loch (Lake) and past the stables, where we could hear the horses in their stalls. No cars or trucks in sight, just the sound of some horses quietly whinnying and whuffing in the night. AWESOME! So we returned to NOVA in a good mood to find Kiko back in camp. That was wonderful for Regina, but as for me: I was ready for bed, even tho it was barely 9:30pm!! Aye, off to sleep then, listening to the sound of drums beating thru the night and still marveling at how quiet the entire SCA campground was, compared to TRF!!!

Standard Disclaimer: This webpage is strictly an *Unofficial* look at Gulf Wars XII held near Lumberton, MS in March, 2003. The author of these pages is in no way, shape, manner or form connected with Gulf Wars; the Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA); the Kingdoms of Ansteorra, Trimaris, Meridies or the Principality of Gleann Abhann; and/or any of the other sponsors associated with this event. All opinions expressed are strictly this author's own. Unless noted otherwise, all photographs are copyright ©2000-2004 by George Laking.