Bilbo’s Story
Welcome to the latest edition of my ongoing series of boring, long-winded stories about just what I was doing at Ring Game. This is the first time since I've been writing these that I'm recounting the tale from the point of view of a character that I have written about before (I also played Bilbo at the ill-fated "snow game" in the Spring of 2002). So this time I'm going to do something a little different. Rather than simply recount the story, with links to photos found elsewhere on the site, I've taken the liberty of capturing some images from the video I was taking, and so will tell my tale in the form of captions to pictures exclusive to this page. Got that? OK then. By the way, this is as large as these pictures get—if you want to see larger images, you'll need to watch the video sometime.
The reason that I selected Bilbo when my number came up at the picks meeting was because I knew my nephew JOE would be flying out from Seattle to attempt to recapture his record for most kills by the Menace. His previous mark of 97 had been broken last Spring by a young punk who managed an even 100, you'll recall. Since Joe was "going for a record," I figured I might as well make another attempt at setting the record I failed to get back in 2002 (due to the nasty weather) by seeing how many times I could get captured as a hobbit. This was a record that hadn't really been kept track of, but I recalled "back in the day" that Dennis Dillman (playing Merry) had been captured something like six times. So I figured, if I got caught six times, I'd claim a piece of the record, and if I got captured seven times, I'd claim the record for my own.
The other reason for choosing Bilbo was that I had been threatening since July that if I ever got Bilbo again, I'd make a music video based on Leonard Nimoy's cheesy "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" song (more on this later). So on the day before the game, Joe and I got out to the park very early, I got into my costume, and we shot those "scenes" for the video that didn't require other people. This included a trip up to the top of Mt. Doom, where Joe and I reminisced about the last time we'd been there. If you listen carefully during this part of the video, you'll hear Joe say, "bite me."
In order to avoid the "walk around Site H" syndrome, I moved the pre-game campout from Site A to Site H. Joe and I finished up the video shoot about 3:00 PM, and shortly thereafter, people began to arrive. Here we see Stewart and Chuck checking out Reed's new sword. Oooh, new sword!
I always ask people coming to the campout to bring firewood, and luckily, a few people actually do. Chuck and Kaydi had a truck full of it, plus we learned that they had stashed a bunch behind the privvies a couple of weeks before. So we had plenty of wood for the fire!
Even though he was playing a wizard (Saruman), Chuck carried his own stuff to the camp site.
I had been somewhat worried that there wouldn't be many people camping, because I'd received quite a few messages from people saying, "it's going to be too cold!" But I was relieved when people started arriving… and arriving… and arriving! We ended up with so many people that I couldn't get an accurate count!
We were short on kindling and paper, so I used a tube of cardboard to try and get the fire started.
I was only moderately successful. True credit for getting the fire to a self-sustaining conflagration goes to Sarah L.
Traditions are funny things. It wouldn't be a Ring Game campout without Peeps to destroy.
I brought leftover 4th of July "Peep Stars;" but Rachel, Liz, Eva, and James brought something like four different varieties of Peep!
"Die, you Peep bastards! Die!" This was just before Joe accidentally knocked this log over, sending the slowly-melting Peeps into the fire where they were consumed by flames almost immediately.
Shanda, Megan, and Nick gaze in wonder as the Peeps go up in flames.
Despite the dire predictions of the wimps who didn't show up, the weather was not bad at all. There was a little hint of mist, but no significant rain. And while it was cold, it wasn't nearly as freezing as it had been at the Second Age campout the month before.
This is just a few of the many tents that were pitched. I almost wish I had been able to get an accurate headcount, because that would have been one more record that this game could lay claim to: most pre-game campers!
Bondo makes it easy to tell which tent is his. 
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