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Then, there was cow.

Before that, we set off just as the sun was hitting the trees by our apartment.

On the road we almost saw a place we’ve performed. For several years we performed at the Mobile Zoo in Mobile Alabama. So, when we saw this:

Sadly, it means a different kind of Mobile.

We got to the river front park. It is built over a highway, a train track, parts of the science museum and along the river under a bridge. It really is a park where they had to fit it around, over and through the space still left in downtown Hartford.
As we were dropping off equipment, we got to go through the very twisty entrance.

We were set up near the river, and that section is very nice.

Because of the cow, we were under the trees that grow along the side of the river. Honestly, I’d have asked for that spot even without the cow.

I have never seen an “inflatable pub” before. But, set up under the bridge they had two of them.

Down the path from us a bit was another sword group, Waster.

Although like the stuff from our historical show, they also took classes at the Higgins museum, they don’t do shows so much as lessons for folks. They also do a lot of modern sports fencing. So, there wasn’t too much overlap between what our groups were doing.

And, they had nothing even close to our roaming Roman,

palusbuteo

One of the things I liked about the park is there a bridge over one of the roads in the city to get into the park. First of all, I just like bridges. But, this bridge was called “The Phoenix Gateway”! Well, that’s quite the welcome for Phoenix Swords!

I guess it was paid for by “The Phoenix Companies”.

That’s nice, but I’m glad they didn’t hit me up for it.

From that entrance, across two bridges, down a steep hill, under the bridge and along the river was where we were. The trees in the distance of the photo are where we were.

So, it was a long walk for folks to get from parking to where we were.
Despite that, it was a very nice looking site, even if hard to walk around.

Being across from the highland games, we saw them doing their weight throwing competition. They’re throwing about 60 pounds over a bar that starts at 9 feet and goes up a foot after each round.

It was impressive to watch.

I wonder if some of our people are thinking of taking up the sport.

perrin_o_ravnos seemed to be practicing.

We had said we would wait for them to finish before we did their show. Mainly as I didn’t want clanging swords to distract people throwing heavy weights. But, also because I wanted to gather the crowd they had to come see us.
But, the weight toss went on far longer then we expected. More than an hour.
So, we waited and waited.

We did some practice and other ways to keep busy.

After a long time, they got to the world record height, 17 feet, 1 inch. Three of them tried to get the weight over that bar. At least one threw it high enough as the weight hit the bar, but it didn’t go over.

But, finally, they finished and we started our show.

As one kid in the audience said to me: “You’re getting your ass kicked!”

But, I do give some back and others get it too.

Between shows I used the small trebuchet we have to launch limes. Some of our folks stayed down range and tried to catch them.

perrin_o_ravnos was by far the best lime catcher.

The second sword show went much as the first.

Then, it was time to carry stuff up to where the fire show would be.

The stage is literally over Interstate 91.

And, you have to plow through the music tent crowd to get there.

But, despite jokes about dropped fire toys finding their way through sunroofs and causing multi-car pile ups, the fire show went on and a good portion of the crowd came over to see it.

It was very windy, and I did have to put

perrin_o_ravnos out at one point when his shirt caught a little bit. But, it wasn’t bad and was quickly out.
I was a bit worried about my wife as she added tricks I hadn’t expected to “add time to the act”. But, everything went well.

I was glad we had Casey with us as he always puts on a good show. Now that I know he intends to set the ground on fire, I don’t stomp it out when it happens. This is best on brick as the show was last night.

Then, we got to finish, and I was glad.

By then it was dark, but there was still a big crowd.

At the start of the day they had given us free beer tickets. We had not used them while playing with swords and fire. But, once the show was done, some of our folks were happy to have them.

So, the shows went well. I’m quite tired today, but I think that has more to do with how many times I had to carry stuff up and down those stairs from the river level to the top.

EDIT: OK, I just have to add 1 more picture.
When I say we were over Interstate 91 for the fire show, I wanted to show that I didn't just mean higher than the highway.