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A funny story:

On Saturday night after the ball it began to rain a little.  Knowing how a "light rain" in Florida will quickly soak everything, Claire and I (Jenny) moved all of the camp chairs into the front half of Heather's tent (who was sleeping soundly in the back half).  In the morning as we were in our tent getting dressed we heard the others begin to stir.  From Nikki we heard "Where did all of the chairs go?!" at the precise same moment as from Heather's tent we heard her astonished "...where did all of these chairs come from??"  They realised what had happened and we all had a good laugh.  It was a great way to start Sunday morning.

The Battle of Olustee, FL, February 2007

Jenny Ray, Claire Thompson, Heather Shell and Zack Ray were all of the 76th Ohio that made it for Olustee. (Drat those work schedules!)  They were joined by friends from an Illinois unit- Gene Harmon and his son Brent, and Nikki and Bobby Hughes.  Also camping with this pull-together group was a friend of Jenny's, Mishelle Stafford, who lives in Jacksonville.  The nights were cold- around 25 degrees.  But there were plenty of blankets and the days warmed up to be in the mid 50s.  The girls played a game of graces and cooked.  Heather and Claire joined forces to show the firewood who was boss!  There were over 50 sutlers so that's where most of the time was spent.  There was a sutler there named "Father, Son and Friends" who sold boxes with celtic knotwork etched in them and also an Irish drum called a bodhron, which the proprieter showed Claire how to play.  The song he played had some great lyrics-

Never throw a brick to a drowning man when you're close to a grocery store/Toss him a bar of Irish Spring and let him wash himself ashore

Tur a a tur a lur ai lay/ Tur a a tur a ha a tur a lur ai lay

Well the more man has the more man wants/ the same I don't think true/I never saw a man with one black eye who wished that he had two

Tur a a tur a lur ai lay/ Tur a a tur a ha a tur a lur ai lay

Saturday night everyone went to the ball and had a great time but no one wore their ballgowns because it was just too cold.  Sunday after the battle everyone packed up camp and met at the first Cracker Barrel on I-75 for food and fellowship before heading home.  All in all a FANTASTIC weekend.

Here are the photos:

Jenny (in plaid) and Mishelle (in blue) at the ball.  It was COLD!!!!

Claire is instructed in how to play the Bodhron at the Sutlers.

After a while she really gets the hang of it.

Once back at camp, Heather, Claire, Nikki and Jenny play a game of Graces.

Kill it, Heather!  Show that fire wood who's boss!!!