Thanks for that, JerMc. It was really nice to meet you guys, too. We got there around 0930, hoping the drizzle would clear as the weather predictors predicted. This, as you pointed out, was not to be the case. We managed to make about one and a half circuits of the whole event before the rain held us up for quite a while and we decided to leave.

Alex Beaton, although admittedly having a bit of bronchial trouble, sounded great to me. I also had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with him for a while and my wife bought me two more of his CDs for my collection. Rathkelter sounded good, but the rain really kept them from getting a good start. Heard some good piping here and there, oohed and aahed at the cars in the car show, ate a lamburger, and got invited to a curling bonspiel in Laurel, MD next month.

To defend the event's organizers just a bit, the event has previously been held at the Episcopal HS across the street from the school at which we parked. That venue would have been flatter and better laid out instead of the cross country, over hill and dale hike through that park. According to them, construction at the school prevented them from having it there and resulted in a hasty reconfugure to what we experienced.

On the other hand, the fact that you guys were refused entrance to the hadicapped parking is shameful. My wife and myself aren't exactly athletes, but we walk alot and I think I'm pretty fit for a fat guy. The walk from that school to the gate was a real chore. The walk back was at least downhill, but still longer than I would have liked. If they have it back at the Episcopal HS next year, I'll give them one more chance.

I met and chatted with a few folks and had, in general, a pretty good time. First was a guy from the clan Wallace tent with whom I spoke for a while. He was very helpful with kilt pointers, dos and don'ts, and clan affiliation advice. Met another nice fellow eatin' some haggis under a tree while we were hiding from the biggest of the rains during the day. Thinking eveyone here was nice, I aprroached a kilted officer representing one of the many police orginizations there, and asked about the tartan he was wearing. He was quite short with me and a little rude, and he said gruffly "I have no idea" and turned away.

On the way back to the car, all of us wet just about through our shirts, I spotted the X-Marks T-shirt. I was, at first, hesitant to approach but my wife spurred me on, so I made my "I've been looking for one of those shirts all day" comment, after which we had the great pleasure of metting JerMc and his wife. They were great, and renewed my good will about kilted folks. I'll definitely be in Richmond next month, in kilt.

Thanks for the welcome to the forum, JerMc. I look ever forward to my kilted days ahead, and hope to learn and contribute as much as possible here. Sorry to make my first post so long winded, hopefully I'll offset that tendency of mine with quality content in the future. Thanks again.