Happy Monday. Counting down until Sharon arrives, I have two Wednesdays and one Friday to finish cleaning the house and getting her room set up. That's plenty of time, if nothing unexpected turns up. Of course, the vacuum dying didn't help, but hopefully that will be fixed this week and I can get back to using it on my carpeting. If not ... well, acts of Spirit and all that ... LOL.
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One of the things that allows human beings to be as flexible as we are through problems of all types, is our ability to adapt to adversity and change our course to meet new circumstances. We need to be nimble on our feet these days. |
We had a lovely day at Ren yesterday. DH's hips have really been bothering him, so we didn't walk around a lot (even completely skipped one part of the Festival grounds. The temps were perfect, but we've back in the heat for the next few days now. Parking at the Fest was changed this year. They dramatically increased the number of Park-and-Ride busses, and they charge for parking. Because I was notified in advance, I was able to purchase my parking tickets for $10/day. If someone drives into the gate and wants to park, though, it's $30! That's a serious chunk of change!
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First weekend is always a slow one, but this year's seemed unusually slow. I suspect the parking requirements kept some people away, but a lot of people don't go to Ren Fest until after the State Fair has closed down. |
The parking attendants were extremely efficient, and got us parked quite quickly. I was impressed by how well it was operating, but I was surprised, when we left, at how few cars were in the lot we parked in. Where, during the latter weeks of Fest that lot will be filled to capacity, it was maybe 1/4 filled, and the Quarry, which had always been popular and filled quickly, was reserved for the park-and-ride busses to drop off and pick up. It's a new experiment, but it actually worked quite well (so far) and yes, it's rather like buying a Season Ticket for my car, but parking has always been a PITA and the traffic has been a serious issue. Hopefully this new system will help somewhat.
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Parking on Festival grounds used to be several massive lots holding about 12,000 cars. That's been dropped down to about 7000 cars in only two lots, and they've added six park-and-ride lots in areas surrounding the Festival grounds. From all reports, it's made a substantial impact on the traffic conditions and has improved the traffic flow dramatically. I'm calling the new parking system, despite the extra expense, a win/win. |
The other major change that they made to Fest is no overnight parking and no camping. That means that out-of-town vendors have to actually park in a campground elsewhere and drive to and fro, or they are skipping the Fest completely. Although we have an extensive location, we're not one of the major Ren Fests of the nation, so I suspect there are definitely vendors who opted out of the Minnesota show because of the extra expense of paying for a hotel room or a camping spot for an RV. The after-hours parties that used to occur are also ended with this new stricter policy. The grounds are closed at 7:00 pm, no exceptions.
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Whatever happens in life, there is only one direction in which we can move - onward. Just like these determined ducklings, we'll manage to overcome the obstacles, one way or another. |
DH and I came home, had drinks on the patio, and relaxed for the remainder of our Sunday. I think we both needed it. The next few weeks will be busy ones. I still have to purchase Ren Faire tickets for Chickie and Sharon for the Labor Day weekend, but that's easy to do - in fact, I just did it. Done and dusted! Onward with my day. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow.
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