Gypsies, Tramps and Queens (Part one)

Last weekend Moueska, Drac, Gram, John and I went to Kansas City for The Kansas City Renaissance Faire. Moueska and I had been talking about going to see it for a long time after going to the Greater Saint Louis Renaissance Faire with a bunch of our friends.

Last year our brother got a leg up on us. Tarrith was so enthralled with the faire and hearing how much fun one of his KCAI (Kansas City Art Institute) buddies had that he decided that he would try out for it the next year.

So Tarrith became Nicholai Boleyn, Handsomest of the Gypsy Sons and the most sought after by women everywhere. Because of this I felt that a trip to the KC Renaissance Festival was in order for the whole Buritsch/Tonnelicci clan. Unfortunately the weekend my sister and I chose was a weekend that Dad and Kathy were going to Columbia to visit with the counselors there for my stepsister. When Moueska's boyfriend found out that we were going to it he begged and pleaded with me to come until I relented.

It was a major drive for John and I. I told Vickie, Tom and Gram to go ahead of us and get themselves checked in because it would be a total of a 5 and a half hour drive for John and I. We left Cape Girardeau around 4:30pm, grabbed a little something in Wentzville on the go and kept right on going. When we hit KC we hit some major construction meaning that the total drive ended up being about six hours for us, John was exhausted.

After getting to the hotel we found out that I had accidentally booked two hotel rooms as opposed to the one for John and I (Vickie took care of the rooms for her, Gram and Tom). The guy at the desk told us that it was quite commonplace and switched the hotel rooms around so that Moueska and Tom had a smoke free room and got rid of the smoking room they had accidentally reserved (basically getting rid of one room reservation). Right after we got into our hotel rooms John collapsed and slept.

Moueska and I decided to try and get out to the Festival about 10:30 at the latest. After not trusting the front desk clerk's directions (turned off an exit too early and had to backtrack to the highway to wait for the next exit) we arrived at the Faire. The night before I had called Nicholai (Tarrith) for directions for us to get in. Because he was an employee for the faire he got all of us free tickets. We were sent to the media entrance off to the side of the "Town Gates" where we were greeted like nobility and made sure we had something to drink (they offered us bottled drinks and such) told to sign in, given a guide to the shows and a program with a map.

Just outside of the media entrance we wandered out to see a great pole topped with ribbons where Queen Elizabeth was hosting a maypole dance for the little ones. Moueska and Gram got caught up in the faire booths almost immediately. John "dragged" me off to take a turn around the Faire town before he would let me wander to booths.

John and I stopped in the Pirate square for "MentalPause," a baudy show about women reaching the "golden years." After that it was close to time to see about meeting up with Tom, Gram and Moueska for lunch. John and I waited by the town fountain when we heard a great sound off in the distance. We look over to see a great processional parade with Nicholai way up high on stilts! By the time I had seen him I only saw his backside (not to mention he was on the wrong side of me). I called out his name but I had seriously doubted he had heard me.

John called my sister up on her cell phone so that we would know where to meet up with her. We told her to follow "The End" of the parade (written on the end of the executioner). John and I caught up with them at the Fairy Commons.

Because this is getting a little long I will post Part two (and probably also going to be a picture intensive post) sometime early next weekend.