Pirate Invasion Weekend - Granbury, Texas

[tiberiusflynn]

Apparently, last year Granbury, Tx. had a Pirate Invasion weekend, even hired a professional pirate crew in from California. They're trying to get it bigger. It's dated right now for the last weekend in August.

Not sure if they have a real website, but the city website might mention it eventually..

It's nice little historic town, Davy Crocketts widow settled there...supposedly, town legends suggest that Jesse James and John Wilkes Booth hung their hat there too (after they were supposed to be dead....)

[Blackbead]

Blackbead's Treasure Chest has signed on to be there . . . in some capacity!  I am in contact with the organizers and they say they are planning on a mid-September show now.  I went last year and it was small but well done.  I think they want to grow this since the local high school mascot is a pirate.  They want me to:

a.  Bring down me pirate's market and set up shop.
b.  Come and do "Devil's Tavern", our poetry and trivia show
c.  Come down and walk around and do a sort of lane act
d.  All of the above

It was a blast last year and I'm looking forward to taking part this year.  See you there??

Blackbead

[tiberiusflynn]

Yeah, we stayed in the Bed and Breakfast of one of the organizers. Excellent cook by the way.

He mentioned it and told us all about last year. My gf would love to go back to granbury and I will use any excuse to throw my garb on.

Mid-sept? I was told late aug. Keep us informed!!

[Blackbead]

That I will, mate!

Where do ye hail from?

If you are near Granbury, try coming out to the Texas Pirate Festival on May 1-2 in Hillsboro.

[SandrineDeLaTombe]

There are a lot of random pirate festivals in North Texas. Isn't there also one held each year up in The Colony? I'll definitely be checking out the one in Hillsboro.

[Blackbead]

Aye, shipmate.  This year there be The Texas Pirate Festival, Pirate Days in The Colony, and the Granbury Pirate Invasion, that I know of.  A'course there be special weekends welcoming us at both Scaroborough Faire and the Texas Renaissance Faire but these others are ALL ours!

[tiberiusflynn]

That I will, mate!

Where do ye hail from?

If you are near Granbury, try coming out to the Texas Pirate Festival on May 1-2 in Hillsboro.

Sadly, not close enough to warrant sailing that far on May1-2. I'm in Houston and will watching some friends dogs that weekend while they go to my ex-gf's wedding.....and I'll probably be drunk as hell on rum due to that wedding.

[Blackbead]

Ah, 'tis a sad situation, indeed!  Me ol' heart breaks to hear of your pain.  But, here's a ditty to read as ye toss tears into yer rum!  It, too, is a tale of lost love.

Farewell, Brave Lion

I took you from a Spanish captain
Back in seventeen-oh-two.
I knew it was your maiden voyage -
Your sails were still brand new!

You handled like an Irish racehorse,
Headstrong, but steady and true,
And with the slightest breezes,
There was nothing I couldn't ask of you!

You managed fourteen cannon
Without giving up a knot
And in every fight but the last one
You gave better than you got.

It was my mistake to fight a carrack
With a twenty-four gun array
And now you lie forever,
'Neath the blue of Santiago Bay.

It's been years since first I boarded you,
Now your sailing days are through,
Your guns have all gone silent -
I finally asked too much of you!

          Stephen Sanders
          (c)2008


This ol' seadog will be thinkin' of ye on that fateful day and wishing you the best of rum and a NEW AND IMPROVED girlfriend!!!

Blackbead

[tiberiusflynn]

LOL, thanks for that! And me new girlfriend is much nicer and trustworthy, lol. Cept she hates me drinking (and being a pirate) oh well, can't win them all.

Love your signature quote, btw.

[Blackbead]

Sounds to me like she needs to have a couple more rums herself and put on the trappings and see if she can find her sea legs!  Who can hate being a pirate after taking your first prize?  And who can hate drinking when ye have a few glasses of bumpo running through your veins?!?!

As for me quote, it comes from another of me pirate tales.  It's called "Raising the Black Flag" and the final stanza goes:

A pirate's life is most likely short,
A pirate's death is most likely sharp.
But we are not slaves to any wage
And we call no man "sire" or "squire."
In the end, it's not the gold that sets our sails;
'Tis freedom and the promise of a better life
That raises our black flags.

          Stephen Sanders
          (c)2008

Fair winds, dry powder, and a full treasure chest to ye!
Blackbead