Greenville, SC Scottish Games

[katmills2005]

You will be missed... but I understand. That is a lot of driving.

Say hello to the kids for me.

Kat

[katmills2005]

HOT - HOT - HOT - HOT

That pretty much sums up the day. We were able to keep the athletes cooled down yesterday with buckets of ice water and plenty to drink. Unfortunately the heat was too much for Kay Cummings, who is recovering from cancer. He had to be taken to the hospital. His son continued the games in his absence.

I had the chance to meet a lot of new athletes as well as socialize with ones I've known for years. We are working towards forming a local group of highland athletes to train together.

Amator was a big help to me as well as our friend Doc who was totally amazing and worked his butt off delivering water and cool wet towels to the field at regular intervals. I was fortunate to get family members to join me yesterday. I'm pretty sure my brother's girlfriend will have him kilted before long.

I did not have a chance to visit any of the tents. Mom was able to get by and see Clan McBubba and the Tartan Museum. The kids stayed busy all day and Carlie got a face painting that looked awesome.

I'll post what pictures I have soon. Mostly the pics are of the parade. I was just too busy at the game to get many pics.

[IrishGodfather]

Oh man, it was HOT! I was sweating buckets the whole time. When I got home yesterday my undershirt was soaked. My sportkilt was nince and airy though, and very light a cool.

[Balaamsass51]

We had a great time at the games. Camped about 15 min away at a place called Flowermill RV park. Missed the parade but caught the concert Fri eve. Emerald Rose, Hunting McLeod and Albannach. Heard them all again Sat at the games.

Sure it was hot, but wore a big straw hat, drank plenty of water and IronBru. Most of the vendors were under one big tent. The facility (Furman Univ.) is very nice, the games cover quite a bit of area. Saw Matt Newsome at the Tartan Muesum tent. They had quite a few portable viewing stands scattered around as well as tents to get under and out of the sun, quite well organized and run, the garbage was picked up regularly. And my wife liked it that the staff (volunteers?) all had on identical t-shirts so it made them easy to identify if you had a question, instead of a tiny name tag which are usually hard to read.

These games are three years old. Somewhat different because they included sheep dog trials with about 33 different entrants (not the usual sheep dog demonstration, this was serious business). And they have quite a few pipe bands competing, class 3, 4, and 5. Think they had about 400 band members on the field at the end of the day. Awesome.

Someone told us they moved the games this year up 2 weeks to try and beat the heat, but it didn't work out. Still, we were impressed and intend to return next year. Picked up some stuff at the Tartan Muesum and Clan MacBubba, a few CD's etc.

They also have a very large area for children which we did not explore but it seemed to be very successful. That reminds me, a young boy got up the courage and asked me what that thing in my sock was. That's one of the things my wife and I like about Scottish Games, the kids seem to have a great time and are well looked after.

This is going on too long. Thank you Greenville!

Matt

[IrishGodfather]

Yeah, next year they need to move it up another two weeks. I'm so tired of hotness already.

[heartofglass]

If it's the Greenville Festival, it's going to have record temps! Three years running and all of them have had records set! At least it didn't rain this year.

[katmills2005]

If they continue to host the event at Furman, then moving the date up probably won't happen due to Furman's schedule. Glad to hear ya'll had a great time.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I'm back here and recovering from the heat and getting ready for Kilt Kamp to begin this morning, so I'm a bit rushed. But just a quick note to say that for it's whole 3 years these Games have been the same date -- first full weekend in June. I know because they always seem to fall the weekend before our Taste of Scotland festival (coming up this Saturday!).

Good to see so many of you there (including one X Marks kilt!)

[AcuteEnigma]

Kat I'd love to see your pictures!

I went last year but could not go this year. Very nice games, but they need to have more sprinklers.