Maryland Veterans Cemetery Crownsville

A couple years ago, Richard A. Medema, a church friend died of inoperable liver cancer. I wasn't able to attend the funeral because I was traveling. I think I was doing an Alaska cruise on Radiance of the Seas. I kept meaning to visit the Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Crownsville where he is buried. I remember seeing one of the direction signs as I passed through Crownsville on my way to the Maryland Renaissance Festival.

Today, I finally drove out there to see his grave and to say a prayer for him. The cemetary itself is all right. It isn't as impressive as Arlington or the American Cemetery at St. Laurent by Omaha Beach. It has a small memorial chapel as well as neat rows of square tombstones inlaid in the ground.

Initially, I tried to find my friend's grave on my own but came to realize how big the cemetery is. Thankfully, they have a small office across from the memorial chapel where there's a database machine you can punch in the deceased's last name and find out where they're interred. The office also has maps of the order of the cemetery. These proved very helpful too.

I finally found his tombstone. I remembered him. Richard Medema was an extremely fine man. He had a wonderful family and was a great christian. He died when he was just 55 years old which seems to me to be too early. He should've had more years to live. His youngest child was just 7 I think and his oldest was in her first year of college.

The cancer was terrible in that you could see it slowly killing him. He gradually wasted away. It had to be hell for his wonderful mother who had to bury him. He was her favorite son. It has to be very hard for a parent to bury one of their children.

After saying a prayer for him and his family at his grave, I walked back to my car. Next week, I'll go back to church and, I'll hear them sing the church songs I used to sing with him and his family during church. They'll remind me of him. I know he's at peace and thankfully isn't suffering from the cancer that caused him so much pain. Still, I wish he was alive. He was a very fine person and a blessing to all who knew him.

Renfen

On a different note, I had to include a post about my visit to the Maryland Renaissance Festival yesterday. I'd agree to meet up with my friend Sven and his very kind wife Barbara. I also got to meet his daughter and her husband. All of us were dressed in garb i.e. costume. Sven was dressed as a wizard and was so impressive, a number of people came up and took his picture. He really does look the part.

The festival was packed! There were long lines at all the food booths which was very annoying. Also, some of shops were packed too. I promised Susan, one of the ladies I met on the tour of France I did that I'd buy a bag of lavendar to put number my pillow. She said the scent helps you sleep. I went in search of a shop that I thought would sell it. To my annoyance, I went 180 degrees the wrong way. I had to walk all the way back of Mary's Dale Way to find the shop Blessed Scents which did sell bags of lavender. For some reason, I thought it had a stronger scent. Barring that, all I bought was a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade. Sven treated me to a smoked turkey leg which I thoroughly enjoyed. The turkey leg was tough and Sven had a hard time trying to eat the thing. I guess I had strong teeth because I tore right into it.

Overall, I very much enjoyed myself. I didn't like the long lines. Also, it was warmer than usual for October. I like going to the festival in October because it is cooler and consequently I can wear my real cloak. My real cloak is made of heavy wool. It's equal to a very good wool blanket. With the heat, the last thing I needed to do was wrap up in a wool blanket. If you haven't been to the festival, I believe it running today and this coming weekend. It is a lot of fun. Cheers!

Renaissance Festival

I got to go the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville, Maryland yesterday. I try to go every year. The festival has good acts, excellent shops and decent food. I watched Fight School, The Rogues, the jousting and Hack and Slash. Fight School did the same routine with some new jokes thrown in. They were still good. The Rogues had a new fiddler and a new CD. They sounded nice. The jousting was all right. I didn't envy the knights wearing their heavy armor in the heat. It was in the high 80's or low 90's yesterday. Hack and Slash did the same routine and it was as funny as ever. I need to buy their Christmas show DVD sometime.

In regards to food at the festival, I had the mandatory turkey leg. It was very good though they raised the price on it a buck to $5. Also, I tried their sweet corn on the cob. The people running the food booth had a pot of melted butter that they could dunk the corn into. They also offered various seasonings. The corn was very good though a bit pricey at $2.50 a piece. Lastly, I tried their lemonade and their raspberry smoothie. I thought both stunk. The raspberry smoothie was little more than a weakly flavored icee.

Some of the shops had some very nice items for sale. I was sorely tempted to buy some new leather bracers for my festival costume and a hand bound journal. However, I'll be leaving soon for the 2-week tour of France I've told my readers about so, I decided it was wise to cool the spending. I ended up buying 2 t-shirts that I could wear when delivering mail.

Overall, the festival was really nice. I very much enjoyed going. One word of advice to any readers that may try to go to the festival. Make sure you leave so you'll arrive shortly before they open the gates. If you do, you should be able to get to festival parking without getting stuck in a line. If you don't, you could end up in a bumper to bumper line trying to get in the parking lot. Also, the festival is fully capable of handling large crowds. I heard one person say the festival could handle over 26,000 people! (It's possible considering how big the festival grounds are. Also, if you plan on going this coming weekend, the festival has a coupon that will get you $4 off the price of an adult admission as well as discounts on other admissions until September 8th. Ticket prices did go up a $1 this year for unknown reasons. Cheers all!

Maryland Renaissance Festival

I try to make it to the Maryland Renaissance Festival at least once a year. This year, it was hard to go because I'm always tagged to work at the Post Office on Saturdays and I go to church on Sundays. The best time to go would've been on Monday of the Labor Day weekend. However, I was in Sweden then. So, I had to either get Saturday off from the Post Office or skip church. I decided to try to get Saturday off from the Post Office. I've been going regularly to church since I quit Medieval Times and I didn't care to skip church for the festival. To my surprise, I was able to get this Saturday off.

If you want to avoid a long slow moving line to get into the festival parking lot, you need to leave early and wait for the festival to open. If you don't do that, you will have a long wait trying to get into the parking lot. I procrastinated and I paid the price. It took me 30 minutes to go from the Interstate 97 exit to Crownsville to get into the festival parking lot. When I left at 2 p.m., it would've taken even longer. Once you're parked its easy to get to the entrance to the festival. Warning! Make sure you take a good look around so you have a good idea where your car is. If you don't, you could have some fun trying to find it when you leave.

I paid the $18 admission and checked the schedule of acts. I decided to check out the Rogues. Their a Scottish group based out of Houston. They play some nice Scottish music. At 11:30, they were playing at the Jury Rig stage. I made my way over there. They were their usual good selves. I did notice they had a new piper. I have no idea what happened to the other guy. After listening to them for 20 minutes or so, I made my way to the jousting area to see the knights battle it out.

Unlike the jousting at Medieval Times, this jousting was more real. These guys really did fall off their horses vice faking it. One knight actually got thrown his horse and landed with a clump. A couple other knights had problems controlling their horses. The minute they entered the jousting lane, they charged. I don't know what the horses problems were. Jousting wise, some of it was good and some of it stunk. One time, two knights went at each other 3 straight times and missed each time. I booed at that point. After the jousting was over, I made my way back to the Jury Rig stage to see the Medieval Baebes.

The Medieval Baebes are a 7-girl group based out of England. They sing genuine Medieval music. This has plusses and minuses. It sounds authentic which it is and has an interesting sound. One of the down sides is often, you can't understand a word they're singing. Babe wise, I thought the Baebes looked nice. If you wanted to get an autograph, you could buy some of their CDs and whatever else and they'd be glad to sign it. I decided to pass on that.

After the Medieval Baebes, it was time for another specialty of the the festival, smoked turkey legs. Smoked turkey legs are tasty and fun to eat. I make it a point of buying at least one every time I go to the festival. Price wise, they cost $4 which I thought was reasonable. I very much enjoyed munching on one as I wandered around the festival checking out the shops.

One of the more impressive shops is the Art of Fire. The shop makes handmade glasswear. R. Foster Holcombe is a fully qualified glassblower. He is so skilled at the craft that me can make a beautiful glass goblet in a matter of minutes while demonstrating to the crowd watching. The demonstrations are impressive if you like to see beautiful things made before your eyes. Price wise, I can't tell you how expensive or inexpensive they are. I suspect they're not cheap. Personally, I don't own of their work though I hope to some day. They do make some very nice glassware.

I didn't stay super long at the festival because the acts don't change much from year to year. Also, after spending over $1,100 earlier this week, my wallet needed a little relief. There are no shortage of tempting items to spend your hard earned cash at the festival (I saw some cool daggers at Rorik Rorikson's ironsmithy). For the sake of my wallet, I decided to call it a day after 2 and 1/2 hours at the festival.

FYI, the festival will be open only one more day, tomorrow. It opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. After tomorrow, you'll have to wait until late August of 2008 for it to reopen. I would definitely recommend going to the festival if you live in the Maryland or D.C. area. Cheers all!