Ready to Volunteer at Creation Fest NE-updated Friday

Monday
Up this morning and packing the last few things into the MH for the trip.  We want to pull out around noon.  Dish washer is running and we are tying up the loose ends we can think of.  I have backed up the compute and hopefully packed all the cords and chargers we may need.
One last check, oops almost forgot Bonnie's clothes still in the bedroom (note to self put all the totes in one area).  Time to pack up the computer put the bedroom slide in and fire up the diesel.
We pulled out of the driveway right after noon and I forgot to shut the engine doors but Elizabeth got my attention while still in the driveway and we fixed that.  Then we got on the old 17 in Salamanca and that is a bone jarring ride.  It jarred the screws out of the door that covers the fuel tank and that started flapping in the breeze.  I pulled into an ATV shop and they gave me a couple screws and a screw gun and we were back on the road in 20 minutes.

Just finishing up the repair

  The rest of the trip was uneventful, except we pulled into a Sheetz and they did not have diesel.  But we found a station nearby and filled up 3.99 here in PA.
Arriving at Creation Fest we were sent to our site and assigned a nice level lot.  I had to go to the staff tent and register and then we finally ate after dark.

Not much of a back up and this is just staff

The campground gets quiet at midnight and I had a pretty good nights sleeps.  I am having problems uploading Pictures.  I finally got the system to let me upload pictures.

Tuesday
Woke up to the sound of rain this morning, just a gentle rain.  Breakfast is underway and then we turn the generator off for most of the day  Well it turned into a very hot and humid day.  No events were planned for today so everyone got their wrist bands and then we took it easy.  I worked one of my shifts keeping traffic moving where everyone turns off the highway from 4pm until 10pm.

This was my crew and our shelter

Here are just a few of the campers ready to turn off the highway

We enjoyed the sunset

Then came back and the campground quieted down around 1230 and it cooled off enough to sleep pretty well.

Wednesday
Got up this morning and after breakfast and a bit of relaxing I went on shift again with traffic control.  Again lots and lots of cars.  The once empty fields are filling up fast.  I got off at 4pm and tried to upload pictures again but no luck.  The girls are all in the arena and the bands have starting to play.  Its a ways a way and I can pretty much hear every thing they are saying.  I will post this just to update, so glad I got the pictures to update.  I will try to update more often this week and next.

Thursday
I slept good last night nice and cool and quiet since we could shut the windows.  The folks here are pretty well behaved, I think they are tired by the end of the day also.  Music started at 9am this morning but not as loud as last night.  My shift today starts at 7pm and is a roving patrol.  My shift went well and the groups were fun to listen to.  I was a long way off and it was still loud.  We had a few lost teens and children but by 11:30pm all had been reunited with their family.  Its been hard to connect to the internet but I will keep trying.  Here are a few pictures from today (I hope).

This was the girls view in the afternoon

You can see about half the people in this shot plus the woods are full under the trees

This was my view from the area I patrolled

The girls headed over in the afternoon.

Friday

When technology lets us down it is hard to keep up.  The sheer amount of people here is overwhelming the cell phone systems.  The companies brought in COWs (Cell on Wheels) but even so over 60,000 users swamp the system.  But I will do my best.  I have taken it easy today and will be in the arena again tonight from 730-1130 to watch and report.  This certainly has been an experience.  The weather has been great.  Its was a bit humid the first day but thats it.  Tomorrow is to be in the 90s so that may be a little much, but we can pretty much staying the shade and my volunteer duty ends tonight.  the nights have been cool so we are able to sleep well.  Now if the water in the MH holds out and the holding tanks don't fill we will be in good shape.
The Skillet concert ended well after 11 and we still had about 6 people missing, but by 1145 everyone was reunited and we were off duty for the night.  Again a cool night and we slept good.

Saturday
I was able to sleep in until 9 this morning and it was still quiet in the campground.  Today is the last day of Creation 2011 here in Shirleysburg, PA.  Not many pictures because its all mostly people, tents and campers.  The weather has been dry and it is now very dusty with so many people walking around.  We have enjoyed our time here and tomorrow we will head southwest for Tennessee.
Once the tent dried we took it down and then it really got hot.  It was up to 91 in the shade and of course very humid.  I played an Amish game with Alexus and then read some.  Then we all started a game of Trivial Pursuit.  Then it started to sprinkle and the then a downpour.  We stayed dry and it did not last long.  Elizabeth decided it was too wet to stay for the concert and so left for home around 6, its about 5 and a half hours.  We had supper and Bonnie decided to take one last walk around the grounds.  Oh we ran low on water today so we carried 5 or 6 gallon and dumped into the tank for the trip tomorrow and have been conserving most of the day since then.  It is starting to cool down so we should be able to sleep well tonight after a quick shower.

Liz cooking lunch

Part of the Extreme games area they had a climbing wall also

Chill-in after lunch

Sunday
The girls made it home safe last night so we slept better after hearing from them.  Around midnight the festival was closed with fireworks that we were able to sit under our awning and had a perfect view.  Enough of the campsites around us cleared out by 9:15 this morning and we were then able to back out and head down the road.  We cut across the mountain and some pretty narrow roads to connect to I 81.  We made a brief stop at a Food Lion to resupply.

Resupply

Then we were on I81 and headed for the Cracker Barrel near Christianburg, VA.  We had plans to meet our long time friends Frank and Shirley.  Frank and I met when we first were in the Navy and Basic Electronics School.  We have kept in touch over the years and now hope to be able to RV some together.  We met them around 4:30 and had dinner and it was like we had seen them last week instead of several years ago.

Frank, Shirley and Bonnie

Frank and I

After Dinner we high tailed it for Bluff City, TN and the Lake View RV Park.  We arrived around 8:45 and had to hurry to get hooked up before dark.  While I hooked up Bonnie did some wash.  At 9:40 there was a nice fireworks display down by the lake put on by the campground.  I belong to Passport America for discount camping and this full hook up site was on $19.00 on the night before the 4th of July, you can not beat that.  We are just a mile or so from the Bristol Motor Speedway and this campground was build for the race weekends.  It is really nice and it is very clean.
Tomorrow   its already the 4th.  Happy birthday America.

Thanks for checking in.