Mississinewa 1812 (part 2)

Welcome back to read more about my awesome trip to Marion, Indiana for the events of Mississinewa 1812!  I'm still feeling a slight hangover from my trip and a bit of trouble adjusting to modern life again.  Some of you may read that and laugh, who would have a hard time adjusting to modern convenience.  Well, ask any reenactor and they can attest to it.  Putting the blue jeans back on and getting into the daily grind again can be tough after living 200 years in the past.  Thankfully, the wonderful teas I bought while away have been helping to soothe away some of that pain.

(Sunrise as we came up to Mississinewa)

So, it's Friday morning and JM and I have finally arrived at the Mississinewa 1812 site.  The place is vibrating with excitement as several hundred school kids are unloaded from their busses and filed into the site.  We managed to get in via the side gates promising the attendants that yes we were in fact here as participants and not general public sneaking in for free.  Although, I'm sure that there was little doubt in their mind given our disheveled appearance and how tightly we were clutching our cups of coffee.

After finding our group, locating our camping spot and a mini melt down on my part, we crammed ourselves back in the car and headed into town to the YMCA to shower and change into our costumes.  These were the nicest public showers I have ever seen with as much hot water as one could want.  It was glorious to put it mildly!!

Back at the campsite, we still weren't able to put up our tent.  Vehicles were prohibited between 7am and 4pm due to foot traffic from the public.  To pass the time, JM and I went and found some food and did a bit of shopping.  I stopped at one vendor in particular, Jas Townsend & Son, to put in an order for Mr E and C and pick up a lantern for myself.  I believe I forgot to mention, but Mr E and C were nice wonderful generously amazing enough to lend us not only their walled tent, but one of their vehicles so we could go to Mississinewa.  Their request for us to bring back a few things for them that were too heavy to mail order from Townsend was definitely something we had to oblige given their generosity.  After that was accomplished, I took my leave and had a nap in one of our friends tents.

A couple hours later, JM woke me as it was time to bring in the car and start setting up.  We were both surprised with how easy this tent was to put up.  We didn't have a fancy tent like some of our group with room for a receiving area, but we did manage to make ourselves a "kitchen" and a "bar" so we had some level of class.

The little bar made on the upside down wash tub

The little kitchen area complete with plates, bowls, cutlery and two pots for boiling water on the floor

The tent setup, my stuff on the left, JM's stuff on the right.

Now that we had a home, everything was right in the world.  We found some food and headed over to visit with friends Barb and Dennis.  JM met them about 5 years ago when he was last at Mississinewa.  Barb makes the most wonderful hot butter rum totties and we sat there most of the night enjoying those.

My new lantern behind my little mug of rum tottie

The company of new friends and the rum totties were the perfect way to end that day and to put me into a nice sleep.  JM and I borrowed Big D's propane tent heater which was much appreciated that first night.  We didn't preheat it the first night so it was chilly when we went to sleep, but it did take the chill off so it was comfortable after a bit.