Tuesday: Day 1 of Mule set up

We had planned to be out in Star for the set-up by 10:00 a.m. but Murphy's Law kept us away until close to 2 p.m. The first trip out consisted of the stage on the trailer and most of the lights in the van:

We were told to set up in the field and everyone would set up around us. The organizers of this event trust Rob to make these kinds of decisions. They think he's "The Bomb". We went to several planning meetings before the event so we had a pretty good idea of where we'd be. (Note: this is a dirty, dusty, rock-filled, weedy, bumpy field with absolutely no shade. . . )

Since Dale is on his honeymoon, we hired a friend of his to help us set up the stage and canopy:

After dropping off the stage, we went back for load number 2. The second trip is the truss, the lifts, more lights and other misc stuff:

The three of us put up the stage and the truss for the canopy:

There is still lots of work to do- the stage has to be completely shimmed and clamped and the canopy has to be put on. We were hoping to have the stage and canopy completed today. . .

It's getting dark and the canopy is on but the stage isn't shimmed yet. . .

We finally sent Jeff home when it got too dark to see under the stage. We retired to the motor home, our new home-sweet-home, for the night:

We played 3 rounds of Deal or No Deal (we all seem to have an inability to go to sleep before midnight):

Rob had a million dollars in his case, but took a deal from the banker for $400,000.

We played until well after midnight and fell into bed. We still have a lot of work ahead of us. . .