Kevin: This will be another short update due to all the things to be done before the 24th.
We continue to unload the RV of items needed for the parade and encampment. There’s cleaning of items to be done so they look proper. A couple trips to our storage shed to pick up items we need for the events.
The main time hog resulted from realizing we didn’t have enough sun protection for the encampment. When we moved from Michigan a lot of items we used for living history events there were either given away to others or sold. That included a couple of large awnings under which the ladies would cook, tell stories and teach pioneer skills. Here in Utah we’re over 3,000 feet higher in elevation, have much lower humidity and hardly any cloud cover. Those facts allow for 25% to 40% more solar energy to cook our skin and brains (by various estimate methods). Add dehydration dangers and it became clear I needed to create at least one more large sunshade. It took literally all-day Wednesday to shop the parts, cut the wood, then install the reinforcements, grommets and pins.
Denny was busy preparing food, games, getting the recording equipment ready for the symposium presentations, and communicating last minute instructions to participants.
Wednesday evening Denny and I, Mark Woodbury, Carrie and Don Trimble from Pueblo met up at This Is the Place Heritage Park (a Utah State Park) to erect our encampment. Up went the two period tents, one a standard issue ‘common tent.’ The other is my interpretation of Lt Col Cooke’s field modification to the common tent which he created when the Willis detachment was created. Back in 2008 I purchased two common tents from Steve Allie, the late director of the Frontier Army Museum at Ft Leavenworth. When discussing the tents, I told Steve my plan to modify one based upon Cooke’s description. “I’ve never heard of that modification”, said Steve. Thus, my modified tent is probably the only example in existence. Living history people get jazzed about their equipment. (grin)
There were three sunshades to put up. The new 15 by 12-foot awning, an 8 by 8 foot and the 10 by 12 foot. All told, it took us about two hours to get it all up. The biggest frustration was the difficulty we had getting the stakes into the ground. The area was so rocky it took an inordinate amount of time and effort. Truth be told, the tent stakes never really got deep enough so we hope they hold for the encampment. Finishing about sundown, we congratulated each other and headed home. We have to be back for the parade at about 6 AM to park our vehicles and get to the starting point.