May 4-7 saw me at Our Haven Nature Sanctuary’s Beltane Gathering in French Lick, IN. The weather was cooperative, although the evenings were cool. I battled with my covers most of the weekend as they slipped off of the air matress more often than not. Brrrr…

I managed to find the campgrounds with only a minor wrong turn that ended up being someone’s driveway instead of the gravel roadway. The grounds for Our Haven are lovely and if I hadn’t been working all weekend, I would have liked to wander off into the woods and gotten myself lost there.

The organizers, Roger and Michelle, (see photo) were very gracious and set me up in their own campsite where I promptly became a source of endless amusement for their two elder children, a three year old and a five year old boy. I felt like a mother duck with the two boys following my every move throughout the event. I also got to hold their newest child, a lovely daughter, for small snatches of time. As with all new babies, she was subject to lots of oooing and aaahhing from many folks who go gaga over little ones.

Late Friday night SJ Tucker, aka Skinny White Chick, and her crew showed up after a hair-raising drive from Denver. SJ, as always, put on a magnificent performance and even told folks to buy my books during her show. Thanks SJ! You’re the best!

After the music there was the nightly fire circle with drumming. Drumming and dancing went on all night, every night until the sun started to rise the next morning.

Sunday before I left, the presenters and the performers were interviewed by the Pagan Radio Network (Interview at Our Haven). It was my first interview done on a mike, and I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t be “loud” enough. I did fine though, said my bit and hit the road for home. Sometimes trying to coordinate the schedules of four people can be a bit overwhelming, my husband’s traveles and mine coincided this particular weekend and I had to rush back to Missouri to be in time to have my X drop off my daughter for bedtime, since the next day was a school day! On the way home, I did indeed get lost finding the highway and ended up going about 10 minutes out of my way before deciding to turn around because nothing looked familiar. I was exactly 20 minutes later on arrival than I had planned and the X and daughter were sitting in his car waiting for me. Oh well. You do what you can.

Manelqua, the head man at Our Haven, invited me back for a future date, but when is at this point undecided. I had a relaxing time and enjoyed the people I came in contact with.