{"id":4852,"date":"2012-04-23T20:07:16","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T00:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=4852"},"modified":"2012-04-23T20:07:16","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T00:07:16","slug":"viking-weekend-viking-weakened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=4852","title":{"rendered":"Viking weekend, Viking weakened"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo credit: Philip Patton.<\/i>
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I’m heading this post<\/strong> with the picture above, because I’m kind of proud of it. Not that I took it, of course, but I think it catches the tragedy and grandeur of its subject as no photo ever has before. A Viking with a secret sorrow. A plunderer with dyspepsia. Credit to Philip Patton, a talented young man who came along with me to Missouri, and returned with many splendid pictures.<\/p>\n

But none of them as splendid as this one, I think. Subject matter is all.<\/p>\n

As you may recall, I left Thursday morning for Knox City, Missouri, home of Sam Shoults’s Ravensborg Longphort<\/a>. All went swimmingly, and Mrs. Hermanson, my Chevy Tracker, was running at her best, when we suddenly rolled to a stop just outside Ottumwa, Iowa. Then followed a call to AAA, a wait for a tow, and a short hop to a nearby auto mechanic, who I must say proved to be both honest and skillful, so far as I could detect (I have it now as a principle never to go to the shop the tow driver recommends. I disregarded his advice on this occasion, and did not regret it). I’ll say the shop’s name, Superior Automotive.<\/p>\n

Turned out it was the clutch, the same thing that stranded me on the road a couple years ago, and got fixed then (apparently only temporarily). They named me a price I thought fair (I had experience with this repair, after all), and said they could get it done by 4:00 the next day. Since that would allow us to still make most of the Viking weekend, I readily agreed. They gave us a lift to a nearby motel. The next day they actually finished the job about 2 \u00bd hours ahead of the estimated time. So I’ve got no complaints.<\/p>\n

We finished the trip, and still arrived ahead of several people. This is Ravensborg:<\/p>\n

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Not much got done that evening, other than chatting. I had brought a sleeping bag this year, and so slept a little warmer than a year ago. The next day we cleared out all our modern impedimenta, and the public was allowed in. I sold books (had good business, as a matter of fact), and there was fighting.<\/p>\n

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And in the evening was the Great Feast.<\/p>\n

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That’s where I went all weird, as I do, you know. There’s something about seeing people having fun that depresses me deeply. I crawled into my sleeping bag while the others were still laughing and drinking, and nursed a good, profound funk into the wee hours. This is why I should never be let out among people.<\/p>\n

The next morning we loaded up in the rain and headed home.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Sam Shoults and his wife Suzie for all their work in making the event possible.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo credit: Philip Patton. I’m heading this post with the picture above, because I’m kind of proud of it. Not that I took it, of course, but I think it catches the tragedy and grandeur of its subject as no photo ever has before. A Viking with a secret sorrow. A plunderer with dyspepsia. Credit … Continue reading Viking weekend, Viking weakened<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}