Steve and I celebrated Christmas on 19th December 2009 this past season. Since we were going home for the holidays, we decided to have 'our' Christmas before we left and to have a small Christmas with few gifts. It was a Sunday night after I had just finished packing for our trip.
One gift for me, one gift for Steve. One gift for me, one gift for Steve. It went on like that for four and a half rounds. Five presents for me and four for Steve. He opened is last present which was an index card. There was a clue! I love games! It was the beginning of a scavenger hunt.
Once he opened the index card he stared at me. I had gotten this idea from a gift my dad gave my mom one year. In Moorestown, where the house has many, many rooms, my dad sent my mom on a scavenger hunt. In the family room, then the study, then the bedroom, then the kitchen, then another upstairs bathroom, the laundry room, then finally back to the family room where her Rolex watch was in the cabinet where the remote controls are stored.
So when Steve stared at me, I explained my inspiration followed by, 'No, your end prize is not a Rolex.'
And so he started. The Moorestown house where my family lived had 15 rooms (including bathrooms). Our teeny, tiny apartment had 3. This was going to be a challenge. Plus, I had to figure out how to plant the clues throughout the rooms without Steve seeing. But he piped on anyway. After the first index card, he was off to the bathroom, then to the kitchen, then to the laundry room, then to the library (small corner in our family room with a chair and shelf of books) and finally under the rubbish bin in the kitchen.
Ahhh, the golden present. It must be a good gift to require a scavenger hunt, right? Well, Steve liked it. The present was tickets to the Golden Plains Festival. A weekend camping and music festival. Just what Steve likes. He was very happy with his gift.
You may remember last year, December 2008 when Steve and I went to another music festival (Meredith Music Festival). It was my first and Steve's umpteenth. (Picture below.) It was challenging to say the least. Aft
er that experience, I am shocked that I considered going to another let alone bought tickets as a gift for Steve. It rained the entire time we were there. It was ridiculously muddy. I walked around in wet, muddy sneakers all weekend and had to continue to wear the same pair of wet, soggy, muddy socks as they were the only non-cotton socks I had taken with me. It was a nightmare. We slept a ton and barely any beer had been drunk. But the worst part, and I suppose the best part, was that that had to be the absolute worst conditions to ever see a festival in. It could only go up from here. And it had. Sunday morning we saw sunshine - on our way out. But I had survived, with minimal complaining. Coincidentally, the Golden Plains Music Festival was to be held at the same amphitheatre. But it was in March and the beginning of autumn. It was going to be a lot of fun as we had four additional people going with us this year.
We arrived early, got a great campsite and set up camp. I can't even remember when it started. When the first drop of invasive rain fell. I almost felt like it hadn't stopped since December of '08 or that this country town has a permanent rain cloud over it. Surely it couldn't rain again, could it? No, it was just a sprinkling. Phew! Close call.
No, I was wrong. In December 2008 when I thought there was no way another festival at this amphitheatre could be that rainy and muddy again...I was wrong. It was. It rained the entire time! Except on the morning we were leaving - why does that always happen? It poured. It hailed. It was cold. It was wet. It was muddy. It was miserable weather. This couldn't be possible. I'm never doing this again, ever!
There was an upside though. After the festival in December 2008 and on our drive back to Melbourne, we stopped at an outdoors store and bought gumboots. They remind me of gardening boots. Basically, they are rain boots. They sat in storage for over a year. 'So glad we purchased them and I'll never get to use them' I would think sarcastically. But Steve suggested we bring them this weekend 'just in case.' I couldn't have been happier. I had the driest feet around. Last year when I was wearing muddy, soggy, wet sneakers with the same muddy, soggy, wet socks I had worn for three days, I had so much gumboot envy as other girls had prepared for the rain. Well, this year I was prepared too! I had gumboots, rain pants and a raincoat. (Picture below.) It was bearable and actually still fun!
I don't know if I'll ever do a festival like that again. When I think of the rain I think no way. When I think it can't possibly happen for a third time, I think I may be able to.
Anyway, to tie it all together...thank you to shoemaker Hoby of St. James's Street London for manufacturing the design of the calfskin leather boot. Thank you to Charles Goodyear for inventing the vulcanization process for natural rubber. And finally, thank you to Hiram Hutchinson who bought the patent to manufacture the footwear and took the rubber from Goodyear and calfskin leather from Hoby to combine them and make the 'Wellington boot' aka the gumboot aka the best footwear that kept my feet warm and dry during this very wet music festival.
These men helped to make my experience bearable and fun! I am actually considering going to another music festival again someday. (Plus, I got lots of compliments on the cute design I had chosen for the gumboots.)
Cheers,
Dry Feet Kate
