Paula got to meet King Henry VIII -- aye, that King Henry! -- up close and personal quite early in the day. As usual, the King was out looking for yet another young and lovely lady to wed so naturally he picked Paula right out of the crowd (Photo, Right: King Henry kissing Paula's hand most regally in greeting). Since she had brought her professional-grade Canon camera with her especially for this weekend, Paula took the opportunity to take several wonderful portraits of our good King...and even got his email address so she could send him copies, later! She also collected quite a few addresses from both players and patrons alike, all of whom wanted to see her faire photographs. As she said herself of Muskogee: "...it was some of the best photo opportunities I've ever had!" Ryleh couldn't agree more with her: as a group we had five cameras/camcorders in play on Opening Weekend; and shared them around among ourselves during the course of each faire day. At final count, we had more than 2000 individual photos capturing all the fun we had together at Muskogee. Paula, however, wasn't the only one of our party singled out for personal attention by the OKRF players: Sir Lee Ewegest finally got to meet the famous and most-buxom wench, "Honey." Now Sir Lee had heard Ryleh's tales of "Honey" and viewed Ryleh's many portraits of the lovely lass before, so he was well-aware of her truly legendary assets ere they met. Even so, his expression was truly priceless when he ultimately was introduced to her, in person (Photo, Below).

As usual, all the cast and crew we met at Muskogee that weekend were unfailingly enthusiastic, friendly, playful and just outright happy to see us all there. Being playtrons ourselves -- that is, paying patrons who garb up in medieval costumes to attend faire -- naturally attracted their interest and attention, but it was also quite obvious that everyone at OKRF knew the Prime Rule of renaissance festivals by heart; namely "Play with the Patrons!" That kind of interaction not only was greatly appreciated by all the members of our party, but gave them some great memories to take home, afterwards. Our young bethrothed couple, Sir Aaron and his lady, Alexiel, for instance, were "drafted" into the daily "Noon Parade" on Saturday by one of the Muskogee cast members out specifically recruiting playtrons for the event. Even better: Ryleh was totally unaware that they had become part of the parade! Needless to say, it came as quite a delightful surprise for him when they suddenly appeared among the assembled cast, performers and entertainers as he was filming them all parade past Castleton Harbor (See video, below, where they appear toward the end of the parade along with one of Paula's friends, Kevin):

Then there was Ian, Paula's son. He was quite taken by the "Birds of Prey" show which performed at The Castle's Jousting Field twice daily. Some of the bird handlers appeared after the show, each carrying one or more of the avian stars. They proceeded to walk along the fencerow where members of the audience could see these magnificent predators at close quarters. Ian spoke with one of those handlers, who first permitted Ian to pet the Harris Hawk he was holding, then allowed the hawk to sit on Ian's head (Photo, Left). As you might well imagine, Ian was absolutely delighted! As if that weren't enough, Ryleh also got to touch bases again with his good friend, Geoffery the Piper that weekend at Muskogee. It seems Geoffery had made the l-o-n-g trip up from Florida to Oklahoma successfully, but not without some misadventure along the way. First, the tailpipe on his RV fell off, requiring a brief stop-off for repairs. Then, as he approached Tyler, Texas, he and his family encountered a torrential downpour that quite literally reduced driving visibility to zero. Despite those obstacles, Geoffery managed to make Opening Weekend with time to spare -- and much to Ryleh's glee. It was a real pleasure to introduce him to all the members of Ryleh's family present; and especially to Aaron and Rhiannon, as they were both showing an interest in learning to play the tinwhistle at that time. Geoffery encouraged them to pursue their instruments and even offered them a few tips -- "Practice! Practice! Practice!" being prime among them. Apparently he was inspiring enough that later both Paula and Rhiannon each bought a tinwhistle (in the key of "D") at the Celtic Shop at OKRF! (Photo, Below: a portrait of Ryleh and Geoffery in front of Muskogee Castle together).

Standard Disclaimer: This webpage is strictly an *Unofficial* look at the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival held in Muskogee, OK. The author of these pages is in no way, shape, manner or form connected with the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival (3400 Fern Mountain Road, Muskogee OK 74401 :: 918-687-3625 :: 800-439-0658), the Castle at Muskogee and/or any of the sponsors associated with this event. All opinions expressed are strictly this author's own. All photographs are copyright ©2000-2007 by George Laking, Paula Duggan, Mike Duggan, Erica Russell or Rhiannion Shankle.