Noah, build us a boat.
Noah, we're going to need a bigger boat!
Friday was a perfect day to set-up camp and settle in.
Nice and warm, lots of sun. We all knew there was the threat
of heavy storms on Friday night and it was going to rain on
Saturday. However, nobody really figured out what that meant
to the entire group of military re-enactors and vehicle owners.
So, everyone just went on about their business.
Toby C, Scott S and Danny K arrived about the same time Friday
afternoon. Toby brought his M170, Scott brought his M38A1
and Danny brought his M151A2/M416 combination. Glen V was
already there with his CJ2A as was Web S with his 1-1/2T
Chevrolet. Barry F was in place as was Don C. The
set-up went smooth with the trailers/tow vehicles in a designated
area of what we described as very soft dirt. We knew it was
going to rain, but most of us didn't figure much past that.
After all, we had Toby's enclosed trailer to stay in should it
really turn ugly.
Well, Friday night, the skies opened up and it poured, and
continued to rain for quite some time. Saturday morning, the
soft dirt field turned into a vehicle sucking black-hole vortex
kind of thing. We counted seven stuck vehicles of which four
were 4-wheel drives including Toby's Suburban. And the field
just got worse as the rain continued. To top it off, the
temperature had dropped with the front to around 50 degrees and
nobody in the group thought to bring warm weather gear. By
now, Glen had figured out it was fun to drive in the mud with the
CJ as well as others in their MB's. Those little vehicles
really are amazing in what they can do. Tim W and Jeff McD
made their appearance as did John K and his MB at this time.
Club co-founder Milburn L was also seen floating around.
Bundled up in rain suits, most stayed under cover for most of
the low-level Saturday show. The clouds did seem to break
about 2pm or so and a gradual clearing began. In the
interim, Scott fired up his bbq pit and cooked some ribs, beans
and buffalo sausages brought by Toby. A bit later in the
afternoon, Toby decided he had to get his trailer out of the
quagmire to insure he could get the trailer home and reloaded by
Monday morning for a road trip. Don C was handy enough to
bring over the tractor and with a bit of engineering and work, was
able to get Toby's Suburban hooked up to the trailer and pulled to
concrete. John and Glen were smart enough to leave theirs on
concrete and Scott and Danny simply left their trucks/trailers in
the field.
The show ended with very few spectators at the event and many
cold, wet re-enactors. Sunday was however quite a different
story. The stiff winds really did a job on the mud and the
sunshine with afternoon temperatures approaching the mid-70's took
most of the moisture out of the mud-hole. Scott fired up the
grill again and finished cooking the sausages and tossed on a few
steaks while Toby loaded up. The show was fantastic and
there were a tremendous number of people in attendance. The
air display was quite spectacular and the Blastards did a fine job
as usual with the pyrotechnics.
One of the more interesting vehicles present was a recreation
of a Vietnam era gun truck, Psychotic Reaction. The truck at
the gun show was based on one of the first 2-1/2Ton gun trucks and
was built based on pictures of the original. Psychotic Reaction
was complete with steel plate sides and two M60 machine guns.
Future plans include armor of the cab and engine area.
Following the normal show pattern, ToraToraTora started the
event. About mid-show, Scott and Danny moved their
truck/trailers out of the field with relative ease and began the
loading process. About this time, the European Theater
re-enactment was beginning. Scott departed and the
re-enactment continued as did the air-show. The show
continued with various aircraft displays and a fly-over by the B2
Sprit bomber.
Sure it rained and created a mess. But it was still fun
and we are all looking forward to next years show.