Bill D -

I started out in a 2-person pup tent, "shared" my first night with 5 young ladies whose own tent was submerged in about 7 inches of water. "Shared" is a euphemism, since the 5 young ladies got the inside of my tent, and I was allowed to flop outside, nearby. (It didn't stop raining.)

I tented until a few years ago when I had to trip down from Seattle, and got a tent trailer more suited to "staying the duration." We've camped with pretty much the same group since I started going, but it gets harder each year to capture a good spot big enough. Our major "personal" problem is that we need refrigeration for medications for SWMBO. The week when all the fun stuff goes on is just a little too long to make it on battery power alone - but to get the electrical hookup it's turned into a necessity that you arrive (to stay) a month in advance.

The 3 day festival ($70 x2 = $140 tickets, advance purchase price) with camping ($17/day for two vehicles x 3 days = $51) turns into $499 camping fees to sit in line long enough to get the $50 spot. In addition, if we can't find a suitable "sitter," - the likely situation since most of our close friends are at Winfield - and if we both go for the whole "sit-in," boarding our 5 animals for a month runs to about $1300.

We are scrambling to make arrangements already. Next year we may be forced to cut back to coming later and taking whatever spot we can get, and minimizing the trip to what we can stretch out of the battery. We'll likely still have a pickin' stool and a cupa' under a tarp in the Pecan grove if you manage to get by - and there are a number of other 'catters spread through both groves. If not this year - maybe another.

It's still a good festival - but you can't imagine how BIG it's gotten if it's been more than a few years since you've been there - especially if you remember when we were all tenting. The two groves where everybody used to camp are pretty much filled the day after landrush now, mostly with RVs, with a few hundred units scattered in the ditches and on the pastureland behind the stadium (Stage 1) by the time things actually kick off.

John