Fly-2-Pennsic-msg

This document is also available in: text or RTF formats.

Fly-2-Pennsic-msg - 5/13/07

Comments on flying to and from Pennsic and other events. Also traveling by rail.

************************************************************************

NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous

Stefan at florilegium.org

************************************************************************

From: peerlady at hotmail.com

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Pennsic via air

Date: 28 Jul 2003 09:26:29 -0700

Try the Lenz airport shuttle. I've used them in the past and they are

less expensive than a taxi. They are familiar with Pennsic (even if

they spell it wrong).

http://www.csatours.com/shuttle.html

-- Signy

-- <me at nospam.com> wrote in message news:<vi99ebo0ed1mce at corp.supernews.com>...

> I'll be heading to Pennsic via airline into Pittsburgh. How's the best

> way to get to Cooper's Lake? Is a taxi going to be outragous? Is there

> any public transportation?

> Galen

From: <alm4 at cornell.edu>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Pennsic via air

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 04:46:50 -0400

Organization: Cornell University

I hope this helps people for future travel. A fighter friend of mine

said he gets around the baggage weight limit by telling them his armor

bag is sports equipment (which it is) and apparently sports equipment is

exempt from the weight limit.

He was domestic flying from colorado to Pennsic.

Angeline

Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2005 01:29:36 -0500

From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] [OT][OOP] Pennsic Customs Question

To: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks <SCA-Cooks at ansteorra.org>

Giano asked:

> I've just had a most fascinating conversation. It was suggested I might be

> able to partly fund a Pennsic visit by selling my period cosmetics and

> aphrodisiacs. "Giano's Medieval Makeover"

> Now, this is still all very theoretical, but even if it works I'd be

> Limited to flight luggage, and a chunk of that would be scents,

> cream bases, Powders and such.

Ship your merchant items to Pennsic rather than carry them with you.

I think this option has always been there for merchants. What was

added four or five years ago, was the ability of non-merchants to

ship things to Pennsic. Because I have been flying in to Pennsic 27,

except for this last one where my work situation wouldn't allow it, I

can probably give you some ideas because of what I've learned and

been doing. Because the luggage allowance is rather small, at least

for two weeks of camping, I have depended upon shipping in another

large footlocker of stuff. International flying might be even more

restricted. I've never had the chance to do that, so I don't know. I

do know that the extra luggage charges can be rather high. And the

footlocker I use would get hit with both extra baggage and oversize

charges. There is a semi-trailer in the merchant area where you pick

up your boxes. I think for merchants there may be no charge for this.

For non-merchants there is a nominal extra charge.

At the end of Pennsic I use the regular U.S. Post Office to ship

things home. There is a small postal cart set up at Pennsic each

year, so you don't have to get into town to mail things. However, it

has rather limited hours 10 AM to 2 PM and it is only open Monday

through Friday, so if you are leaving on that last Saturday you have

to keep this in mind.

My luggage consists of a footlocker which just fits under the maximum

baggage size, and an ice chest plus a carry-on bag and my cloak. The

cloak I carry over my shoulder since the airlines allow you to bring

a "coat". The footlocker has wheels on it. I strap the ice chest on

top of the footlocker, sling my carry-on bag over one shoulder and

the cloak over the other. I can handle everything this way myself and

not depend upon bell-hops. When I get to Pennsic, the stuff in the

ice chest goes elsewhere and I have a place to keep foods and drinks.

You can get ice on site. I have seen ice chests with wheels now, so

you could also invert the two boxes from what I've been doing. Again,

your international luggage limits may differ and you may have to

modify this, but hopefully this gives you some ideas.

Oh yes. I do lock all my checked luggage. The footlocker has a built

in lock bracket through which I can put a padlock and I put a chain

around the ice chest, from end to end, through the handles and lock

it closed. I also tape both of these boxes closed with duct tape. I

have had to change this in the last few years to using the new

security locks which the airport security folks can open, but

supposedly the baggage handlers can't. I've also had to figure out

how to seal both boxes with duct tape and yet get the duct tape home

in something other than my carry-on bag. I suspect that duct tape,

like fingernail clippers are no longer allowed on in carry-on baggage.

> I don't assume Pennsic has 'crash space', so how is this

> Handled for overseas visitors?

I think there is usually a Drachenvald encampment. As a merchant I

think you can also camp in your merchant space, but I don't remember

for sure.

One problem with merchanting is that as many merchant spots as

Pennsic provides, they get snapped up pretty quickly. They may

already be gone for next Pennsic, but you'd have to inquire with the

person in charge of merchants to know for sure. I think it is one of

the Coopers.

If you are new to SCA merchanting, this file in the COMMERCE section

of the Florilegium might be of use:

merchanting-msg (60K) 9/ 4/04 Merchanting in the SCA.

> Are there 'hotel' tents? Do you stay with allied households?

As someone else mentioned, you can rent a Grimm's Tent, but they are

rather large and expensive for one person. I think you also have to

be onsite when they deliver it, and that might be difficult if you

can't spend the entire two weeks there. There is this file in the

STRUCTURES section of the Florilegium:

tent-rental-msg (5K) 7/ 3/00 Rental of tents at Pennsic and

Estrella.

You also need a way to get from the Pittsburg airport to Pennsic. It

is about an hour's drive. You can rent a car, but that gets rather

expensive when it is going to be spending most of its time just

parked at Pennsic. The best way is to have someone drive to the

airport to pick you up and reverse the process at the end of Pennsic.

For the past four or five years, Phlip, one of our household members

of SPCA or another friend not in the household have been taking me to

and from the airport. I hate to take this time out of someone's

Pennsic, so I am very grateful for my friends who have helped me out.

I bought a cell phone initially with Pennsic very much in mind. It is

rather difficult otherwise for either you or your friends to tell the

others that problems are occurring. One year while Phlip and someone

else were waiting for me to arrive, they came across the Prince of

Lochac and entourage who had been stranded at the airport for a day

or so. They had had "the trip from hell" with tussles with the

immigration folks and other problems. Phlip had loaded their stuff

into the van when their regular ride showed up. It can be very

anxious waiting for your ride to show up and not know where they are.

So a cell phone is nice.

SPCA my Pennsic household, actually members of it, Margali and Rob,

have kept a small tent in storage for me as well as a cot and

sleeping bag. While I have transported all those to Pennsic before,

it is very nice not to have to ship them.

Before I had the loan of the cot from Margali, I took a large, coarse

linen looking sheet, folded it over and sewed it closed on one long

side. I then bought a bail of straw at Pennsic for $5, broke it apart

and stuffed this sack with it. This was much smaller to transport

than an air mattress and wouldn't suffer from a disturbing "hisssss"

in the middle of Pennsic. The $5 is slightly high, but it also

includes the clean up of the straw at the end of Pennsic.

If you expect to bring a propane stove, remember that you can't ship

the propane canisters by air. But you can buy them there, assuming

European and American canisters and valves are compatible.

Plan for all types of weather. Check the various files in the PENNSIC

section of the Florilegium for more info and how-to stuff about

Pennsic, as well.

I hope this is useful to you. Someday, I'll probably get around to

writing an article or creating a message file on how to manage flying

into large SCA events such as Pennsic, but it hasn't happened yet.

Stefan

--------

THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra

Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas

Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 01:04:46 -0500

From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [OT][OOP] Pennsic Customs Question

To: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks <SCA-Cooks at ansteorra.org>

Huette replied to me with:

> Ah, Stefan, Giano lives in Germany ... It would cost a fortune to

> ship anything from there and

> would take at least several weeks, to a month. That is a big problem

> for those living in Drachenwald.

Yes, I was aware that he lived somewhere in Europe. I believe I even

mentioned the possibility of his camping with the Drachenwald folks.

Yes, the shipping might be high. I don't know since I've never had to

ship things to/from Europe. But "high" compared to what? I've sure

that it is cheaper to ship stuff than to carry it as excess baggage.

I didn't say I had THE solution. I just figured it might give him

some ideas to work with. The last few years the Pennsic folks haven't

been exactly advertising the fact that individuals could mail/ship

stuff to Pennsic. Probably because they don't want folks forwarding

their regular mail there and such. So, that possibility might not

even occur to him.

If there is a large spread in the shipping time for stuff from

Europe, he may have to arrange to ship it to an SCA person who could

bring it along with their stuff to Pennsic, since if something

arrives a week or two before Pennsic, I don't know if the Coopers

will hold it or send it back. Then again, before they started

allowing non-merchants to ship stuff to Pennsic, one year I shipped

my box UPS to the shipping office in Buttler? (the larger of the two

towns near Cooper's Lake, but not the closest) and they held it there

until I arranged to come by and pick it up. Unfortunately, the UPS

website only listed one hour a day that that station was open for

pickup, and they gave the wrong hour.

It has usually taken ten days or so to for my package to get from

Austin to Pennsic. Surprisingly, it seems to come back quicker than

it gets to Pennsic. Perhaps because I have sometimes put my dirty

clothes in the box to ship and used the resulting space in my luggage

for all the books I usually buy. :-) Federal Express is several days

faster than the ten days for USPS, and cheaper, but until I moved

they were on the other side of town, about 45 minutes away. Federal

Express also has better logging of the package so you can see how

close it is to Pennsic before you fly out.

I came across a number of surprises when I investigated how to get

things to Pennsic. One was that it would cost me as much to ship my

box by bus to Pittsburg as it would be to ship it as excess baggage

on the airline. And I would have to go to downtown Austin and

downtown Pittsburg to the bus stations to ship and retrieve it. Of

course that is not an option for Giano.

Shipping my ~50 lb. box to Pennsic is between $24 and $30 if I

remember correctly.

Even if Giano couldn't use all of the info I gave, I thought it might

be of use to others, such as those in the wilds of Montana :-) or the

West Coast, who might like to fly to Pennsic.

Stefan

--------

THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra

Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas

Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 11:15:55 -0700 (PDT)

From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [OT][OOP] Pennsic Customs Question

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

My SO is coming to GWW next week and is taking AMTRAK. It takes a bit longer than flying, but is less physically stressful than driving 2000 miles.

He will be allowed two carry on bags free and three boxes [weighing about 50 lbs each] of check in luggage free. And for $10 a piece, he is allowed another three boxes of about 50 lbs each. So for the price of his train fare + $30 he can bring 300 lbs of stuff.

I don't know if that will translate to Pennsic, but it might be worth looking into for others.

Huette

Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:58:38 -0400

From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [OT][OOP] Pennsic Customs Question

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>>>

My SO is coming to GWW next week and is taking AMTRAK. It takes a bit longer than flying, but is less physically stressful than driving 2000 miles.

<<<

That is how I did Estrella from New Orleans many years back. Except then it was $5 for the extra three. The extra three at that time could total 150 pounds with no one totally more than 75 lbs. by itself.

Daniel

Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 01:41:43 -0700 (PDT)

From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [OT][OOP] Pennsic Customs Question

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

--- Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:

> Last I looked at the train schedules, they only stopped in Austin

> once or twice a week. Perhaps they've improved this, though.

> --------

> THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra

> Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas

Stefan,

According to the Amtrak website:

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage

The Texas Eagle (#422), which leaves Los Angeles daily, swings through the Southwest, including Austin, Texas and ends up in Chicago. You then transfer to the Capitol Limited (#30) in Chicago, which has a stop in Pittsburgh. So according to the Amtrak schedule there is a daily train leaving and arriving Austin Texas. The one way trip will cost about $137 and take about 36 hours, not counting layover time.

Huette

Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:05:34 -0500

From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [OT][OOP] Pennsic Customs Question

To: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks <SCA-Cooks at ansteorra.org>

Huette answered me with:

>> Last I looked at the train schedules, they only stopped in Austin

>> once or twice a week. Perhaps they've improved this, though.

> Stefan,

> According to the Amtrak website:

> http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage

> The Texas Eagle (#422), which leaves Los Angeles daily, swings

> through the Southwest, including Austin, Texas and ends up in Chicago.

Thanks for the link and the info.

So, taking the train would be on the low end money wise of flying to

Pennsic, but take >36 hours vs. 5 hours but have the advantage of

being able to carry more stuff with me. One of my concerns has always

been "will that shipped box show up?" and if it doesn't, did I do a

good enough time splitting supplies and clothes between the two

shipments that I can still be comfortable at Pennsic.

I also pick my flights so they land in Pittsburg at a convenient time

for those picking me up. The single arrival time in Pittsburg, if the

train is on time, doesn't give as much choice.

The train takes 36 hours vs. 27 to drive to Pennsic. However, the

first four Pennsics which I attended were Pennsic 21, 23, 25 and 27,

which was the first time I flew up. The reason for the gaps, as well

as there being no 19 and 20, was that I couldn't find a ride.

Everyone was already full or was only taking riders that could also

share the driving.

Certainly worth considering though. Traveling by train might well

allow those even further away from Pennsic than I to bring along

their pavilions and armor and other niceties, which they couldn't

bring by air or ship. And if you could get a group of people to do

this together, the trip itself could be a lot of fun. "Principality

of the Mists goes to Pennsic" or some such. "What do you mean we're

already in Pittsburg? I've still got three more cases [of beer]...":-)

Stefan

--------

THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra

Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas

Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 00:16:24 -0700 (PDT)

From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [OT][OOP] Pennsic Customs Question

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Another thing to consider in taking the train v. driving a car is that when you need a potty break on a train you just get up and walk to the bathroom and you continue traveling while doing so, while in a car you have to stop your travels and find a place that has one and hope that it is a) open b) functional c) clean d) all of these. When you are hungry, on a train, you get up and walk to the dining car or the snack bar and purchase what you wish all while the train continues on to your destination, while in a car you have to stop your trip while you dine. If you get tired, on a train, you just tilt your chair back, close your eyes and sleep, all while the train continues on. If you close your eyes while driving, you will have a nasty accident and a) die b) get hurt c) wreck your car d) a combination of these and you will not be able to continue on to Pennsic.

Yes, having only one arrival time is more problematical that having multiple choices, but either way, you still have to be picked up or rent a car or find some way to transport yourself, your family and your stuff from whichever terminus to the war site.

I just brought it up because most people don't think of trains as a viable option anymore. I have also traveled once to an event by Greyhound bus, which took a lot of time, was exhausting and didn't have many amenities. I don't think I will ever do that again.

Huette

Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 08:06:35 -0400

From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Eventing By Train was Pennsic Customs Question

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Huette listed most of the advantages but one.

Not having to spend money on increasingly expensive gasoline for you

car.

Stefan discussed eventing in a group.

>> if you could get a group of people to do

>> this together, the trip itself could be a lot of fun. "Principality

>> of the Mists goes to Pennsic" or some such. "What do you mean we're

>> already in Pittsburg? I've still got three more cases...":-)

That is how I did Estrella many years back. Five of us went out via the

train from New Orleans and it was fun.

Daniel

Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 09:51:40 -0400

From: "Terri Morgan" <nothingbutadame at inthe.sca.org>

Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] [OT] Pennsic Customs Question

To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

FYI - Packages that arrive at Cooper's Lake before Land Grab day are usually

sent back. There's no place to store them until the Merchant's office gets

set up.

Hrothny, Pennsic Quartermaster