Erection Party

Well we successfully erected something this weekend, although it wasn't actually an LME (Lightweight Maintenance Enclosure). Instead it was a pair of smaller lightweight tents with a TENT: GENERAL PURPOSE, MEDIUM awaiting additional poles for later erection.

Quite the crowd assembled at Josh's Ossipee land, including the A-Side, Josh & Erin, Scott & Ehren, Brad & Delphin, mdakin, eahearn, Beth Dakin and her friend, paladin, lael, lindsay, mbroxton, greddy and kailas. We sort of arrived in bits and pieces on Saturday. I was originally part of the main car convoy that had departed from Cambridge/Somerville/Revere around 12:30 on Saturday. While we were stopped at a WAL*MART in southern NH, however, we received a distress call from the bicycle party in Pittsfield, NH. Scott and Ehren had left at 6AM to cycle the 135 miles from Boston to Ossipee.

MRhé and I diverted from the rest of the group to go fetch Ehren, who's body had given out on him after 90 miles (which is approximately 85 miles farther than I would've made it). Because my sense of direction is so abysmal we first of all cruised right by Ehren at 50mph before realizing it 5 miles later and doubling back to get him. Then I absentmindedly took the wrong route somewhere in the vicinity of Wolfesboro and wasted another hour heading back and finally getting on track. In the end we arrived only 10 minutes before Scott did on his bike.

Saturday was a lot of brush clearing with the string-trimmer and reorganization of vehicles before dusk fell. Josh, greddy and Brad (with a little late help from me and Ehren) felled a dead tree in the nearby bog (yay, ticks!) and there was much drinking and grilling and revelry into the night. I woke early on Sunday and puttered about the camp site (it was fixing to be a gorgeous sunny day). At around 8:30 I dragged Josh out of bed so we could head to the Indian Mound Hardware Store to purchase a machete for some more heavy-duty brush removal than the string-trimmer was capable of. We arrived just as they were opening (most of the aisles were still clogged with the wares they wheel out front to lure customers in) and the entire store was populated by crochety old men wearing shirts with "INDIAN MOUND" and their names embroidered on the front. Eventually we escaped with a spatula, baking pan (poor man's griddle), bow saw, machete, scythe stone, honing oil, sheath, 100' tape measure and a bottle of syrup from the Valu-Land next door.

Upon our return to camp we had a few people get the fire going to make pancakes while others finished the clearing, measuring and demarcation of the tent site while still others begin inventorying our parts. This last group came to the conclusion not too much later that we did not, in fact possess an LME, but rather a mish-mash of other tent assemblies. After a bit of disappointment we decided to build what we had and ended up with something which could at least shelter the two boats.

Anyway, some photos to come soon, although Amrys's are more plentiful anyway.