Not last weekend, but the weekend before, the three of us (Brad, Tam, and I) went to the Carolina Renaissance Festival in North Carolina. Brad and I have seen ads for it every year since we moved here, and had always wanted to go. Tam has fond memories of Renaissance Festivals from when she was a kid, so she really wanted to go. It was around the same time of year as the state fair, so we picked one and chose the Renaissance Festival this year. We met up with a friend from Historic Brattonsville named Angie and her niece Meredith while there.
As we were preparing for the festival, we had a few disability related things to figure out. I knew the Renaissance Festival would be an all day thing, and Felix doesn’t like working more than a few hours at a time. He also doesn’t like loud noises, and I didn”t know how often they’d shoot off the cannon there, and how much noise there would be. So I decided that since I had Brad and Tam with me to be my service humans, Felix would probably rather spend the day with his sisters rather than have to work all day in a probably noisy environment. I had our friend Patty, who works at our vet’s office, come by midday to let the pups potty.
The other thing we had to figure out was how Tam was going to get around the festival. She normally uses a cane when walking, to help with her spinal stenosis. But she’d been having a lot of pain and didn’t know if she could walk all day. Well, luckily for her, I just so happen to have two portable power wheelchairs. I had planned on using the Whill myself, as even though it is harder to get in and out of the van, it is better for off roading. So when we were thinking of Tam using one of my wheelchairs, I decided she should take the Whill, and I would take the Jazzy Ultra Light, which is lighter and not as good at off roading.
We fit all three of us and all three wheelchairs in the car well, and headed out. It was about a 45 min drive to get there. When we arrived, we parked in the lot for vehicles with handicap parking tags. When we said we had a wheelchair van, they directed us to the end of an aisle so we’d be sure no one could park next to us.
We got out and got our chairs all set up. I put a galaxy backpack on the back of my Jazzy. It matched my purple witch hat, which I put a purple flower garland around, with purple fairy wings, and a green Renaissance dress. Tam was wearing all black with a grey witch hat and a black flower garland. We parked very close to the entrance, but the line to get in (they were not yet open) went a long way down a gravel and dirt path.
Tam had a steep learning curve driving a power wheelchair for the first time on grass and then gravel! While the Whill was better on the grass, the gravel causes the Whill wheels to shimmy, so she had problems with that. My Jazzy was fine on the grass and packed gravel, which I was pleased with.
Unfortunately, my backpack kept falling off of my wheelchair, so before we even got inside, I had to just put it on my footplate and carry it there. It’s a good thing I didn’t have Felix or I wouldn’t have been able to manage my bag and Felix at the same time!
They shot off a cannon to announce the opening of the fair, which was difficult for me, and then as soon as we entered it was super crowded and there were lots of drums being played to accompany Renaissance music. This caused me to have a panic attack, so we had to get away from the music and crowds, and I had to take a valium.
Luckily Tam found a garlic shop that she was interested in, which was off to the side, so I could relax a bit as she tasted various garlic seasonings. Tam has never really cooked much before, but lately has been roasting a lot of chicken and veggies, so she was really excited to try all the garlic seasonings and got some!
Brad got pictures of Tam and me on the grass and gravel, and at the garlic shop. The last picture shows how well I can hide a panic attack. I was super anxious and still coming down from my panic attack when it was taken. But most people would not be able to tell I was panicking because I am so good at hiding it. When I look at the picture, I see how my smile doesn’t reach my eyes, and can tell how I have my arms in front of me defensively, even though I just appear to be posing.
We waited around the garlic shop for our friends to meet us. We saw some very awesome people in costumes as we waited. When they arrived, they were wearing flower headbands, and Meredith had really cool Halloween themed nails! Pictures below of the costumes and us meeting our friends.
We also took this opportunity to get some photos of Brad, who was impeccably dressed for the occasion as usual. He had on all black, with a black cowl. He painted his face a mottled black color, and has on an evil silver crown. He had a smoke machine hidden in his clothing so that he looks as if his body is smoking. The first two pictures he is by himself looking serious, and in the third picture he is snarling at the camera while Tam is casting a spell behind him and I am smiling on his other side.
Angie also took some photos, and I’ve included a few she took of us below.
The festival was quite crowded, and the shops and attractions were all very close to one another. So it was a bit difficult for me with my anxiety, and for us in our three wheelchairs. We stopped occasionally for food, to watch shows, and browse in the shops.
The first third of the festival was on grass, which was fairly easy to navigate. The middle part of the festival and half of the end part were mostly packed sand. When the sand was hard packed, this was OK in a wheelchair. However, there were areas where the sand was deeper and was a trap for our wheelchairs.
We tried to learn how to spot the deeper sand (it was lighter, or around trees), but it was hard. Brad’s wheelchair handled it the best, as one would expect since his wheelchair would be like $70,000 new. He only got stuck once and needed a push from an employee.
The Whill that Tam was using handled it OK. Tam got stuck a few times, but she was able to get out of the chair and unstick herself. The Jazzy Ultra Light, as expected, was the worst. The biggest problem with the Jazzy was that if the front wheels got in any sort of loose sand, instead of going straight through, they would drag the chair into the deepest part of the sand. Unfortunately the deepest part of the sand was often around trees. So I’d be driving along and then suddenly be grabbed and forced to drive right into a tree. I ran into many trees. I didn’t tell Brad and Tam at the time because I didn’t want them to worry about me.
Brad was leading the way through the crowds, Tam was following him as she was the least experienced wheelchair driver, and I was bringing up the rear. So I would get stuck, hit a tree, get out and free my wheelchair, and catch up to them before they realized I was missing. But it was still quite stressful.
Below are some pictures of the things we saw (like a booth with greyhounds in regal collars) and us going around the festival and sitting at shows.
We watched many shows at the festival. Some were not good, and a couple we even left a few minutes in they were so bad. Below are pictures of a good show and my favorite show. The good one was the nuns who did lots of punny songs. They were entertaining and I enjoyed them, especially their songs. This is just a selection; Brad will publish a lot more pictures of the shows and festival on Instagram.
My favorite show was the Washing Well Wenches, which had two wild women who loved men in the audience. It was a really entertaining show, lots of fun to watch and be a part of. For that show, the time just flew by and I forgot about all the stress of the crowds and everything. There are pictures of them doing their show, and one of them has two pigtails on the sides of her head, and one sticking straight up! The other one at one point jumps into the tub of washing water!
My favorite shop was a great store that made faces out of leather and put them on things like purses, tissue boxes, etc. I really wanted a purse, but they were all too small for my things, so I didn’t get one.
By that time in the afternoon, the dirty shows started being offered. We went to two back to back in the same theater. One was OK to me, though it was Brad’s favorite. Then the next one was about to start, and some really noisy drunk guys came and sat right next to me. I couldn’t really get another place to put my wheelchair, and the guys were really triggering me, so I went outside the theater and just watched from there. This was a fun show, with a guy lighting his nipple on fire, dirty sign language, and a lot of fun bits.
As I sat outside, I was next to another gentleman dressed as an elf, and we stood together (well I sat) and enjoyed the show companionably. We had the interesting experience of watching people with young children trying to come into the theater. We warned them all that it was NOT a show for children, but one mom didn’t listen to us and just as her kid walked in, the performers started talking about some very dirty stuff. You should have seen her face as she grabbed her kid and left! We laughed a lot at the parents who didn’t see all the signage that it was a dirty show!
We explored every inch of the festival, and as it was overcast and drizzled a bit during the day, it got quite cold. As we were watching the last few shows (which weren’t good), I had to get out my shawl and drape it around my wings. It is burgundy. We got some food as we headed back through the festival and to our car. Brad got a few pictures of eating and others in cool costumes, like this gay couple in short fairy and angel costumes that we LOVED.
As the festival was closing and they were shooting off the closing cannon, we stopped by a bakery that had croissants buy one get one free. Tam and I each got a savory and a sweet one to eat over the next few days.
We loaded up and headed home. Unfortunately I had been feeling more and more nauseous as the day went on, and on the way home, I was very ill. I managed to keep it together for the ride home, but it was very difficult. We all were exhausted when we got home. It was a good day, but very tiring. I’m glad we went, but I think we probably won’t do it again any time soon.
The pups were very happy to see us when we got home, and hadn’t had any accidents in the house, yay! We were very happy to see them, too.
Pictures below show us eating yummy food, some interesting costumes, and us ordering from the bakery.
