Fools Fest Recap – Part 1 of 4
Left Friday morning at 6:30 am, beginning the epic drive from Winnipeg to Lawrence. Four people in the vehicle, including myself, my wife and two Trogdor teammates playing with the women’s team. Now, at times riding four people to a car plus gear (a lot of gear at that) for 15 hours can be problematic… but the ride down was fairly comfortable and uneventful given the circumstances. I think we’re getting pretty accustomed to road tripping. Our next out-of-town tourney, a mere five and a half hours away in Regina, is gonna be a snap.
Anyway… after the long drive, with a few detours for meals and the requisite cross-border shopping diversions, we finally pull into Lawrence at about 9:40 pm. First stop: Massachusetts Ave and a meal at Chipotle. As we walk up to the restaurant, pretty much everyone else on the women’s team is already there. It’s uncanny: despite the vast distances and time covered in a road trip, it’s almost a given you’ll run into someone, on your team or otherwise, on the way. So after catching up briefly we grabbed our giant burritos, made one more stop for essentials (beer) and found our billets. We set up our sleeping bags and thermarests, stayed up briefly to chat, and were out by midnight. Not much left for a Friday night party after the drive, unfortunately.
Saturday morning, up early to head to the fields. A few other players, including a few other Winnipeg guys (Huma, got your own recap?) had pulled in after we went to bed and had slept under a table in another room that may or may not have been flooded the night before. Gotta love billeting. Gorgeous weather and the billets were close to the fields so we walked over. Located a few guys from DingWop, the Duluth/Minneapolis/nearby places in Minnesota and Wisconsin team I was picking up with. We headed out to some distant fields that had never been listed as locations for play on the tourney website. Fools Fest is a historic if not legendary tournament, but not run particularly sharply. We arrived at the fields, and had a look around. Less than impressive. The field we were on most of Saturday had about a 5 foot drop from one corner to the opposite one, and was covered in long dead grass. Anyway, play on what you have. We warmed up, stretched, did introductions – I was one of many pickups for this tournament, we had a roster of 24 – and headed into our first game.
Anyway… after the long drive, with a few detours for meals and the requisite cross-border shopping diversions, we finally pull into Lawrence at about 9:40 pm. First stop: Massachusetts Ave and a meal at Chipotle. As we walk up to the restaurant, pretty much everyone else on the women’s team is already there. It’s uncanny: despite the vast distances and time covered in a road trip, it’s almost a given you’ll run into someone, on your team or otherwise, on the way. So after catching up briefly we grabbed our giant burritos, made one more stop for essentials (beer) and found our billets. We set up our sleeping bags and thermarests, stayed up briefly to chat, and were out by midnight. Not much left for a Friday night party after the drive, unfortunately.
Saturday morning, up early to head to the fields. A few other players, including a few other Winnipeg guys (Huma, got your own recap?) had pulled in after we went to bed and had slept under a table in another room that may or may not have been flooded the night before. Gotta love billeting. Gorgeous weather and the billets were close to the fields so we walked over. Located a few guys from DingWop, the Duluth/Minneapolis/nearby places in Minnesota and Wisconsin team I was picking up with. We headed out to some distant fields that had never been listed as locations for play on the tourney website. Fools Fest is a historic if not legendary tournament, but not run particularly sharply. We arrived at the fields, and had a look around. Less than impressive. The field we were on most of Saturday had about a 5 foot drop from one corner to the opposite one, and was covered in long dead grass. Anyway, play on what you have. We warmed up, stretched, did introductions – I was one of many pickups for this tournament, we had a roster of 24 – and headed into our first game.
posted by Druski at 4:45 p.m.
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