Mackinac- August 4, 2014

The fire alarm went off in the hotel last night.  It was only 11:00, but it felt like the middle of the night to us.  Our building was evacuated, but it didn't last long.  Someone was cooking an egg and forgot about it, and it started smoking.

We left the hotel to go to the fort early.  It was foggy and overcast, and even a bit cool.  Scott wanted his picture in uniform by the Niagara at the dock.  Julie's hip was hurting her, and she didn't want to climb the hill to the fort.  We called a horse taxi, and we were joined on it by several other re-enactors. Once we got to the fort, Scott went to the Americans drilling on the parade ground in order to find the people he had to check in with.  It turns out that these were the very people he needed to talk to.  We then had time to explore the fort a little bit.  We didn't see everything in it, but the displays we saw were cool.  Scott found the soldier's bar and pool room where there was a mandolin and a squeeze box on display, and Julie pointed out a zither in the barracks.  The displays were pretty well done, and meant to show the soldiers of the 1880s and 1890s when many of the fort's buildings are from.   There  was a battalion drill at 11:00, and Scott was expected to take part in that.

Scott didn't think it was going to be that hard of a re-enactment because when we were clarifying registration last week, we were told that the re-enactors were going to ride a shuttle over to the battlefield.  in fact, it was a march straight across the island, up one side and down the other.  The soldiers were marching at quite a quick pace, at least when they didn't have to get out of the road for the horses.  Julie was fortunate enough to take the shuttle.  We met again at the golf corse where the re-enactment was to take place, and ate together with the lunch that was provided.    By this point, the sun was shining and it was certainly starting to warm up.  There were two hours to cool off and rest until that battle was to start. 

In site of being on a golf course (or maybe because of being on a golf course) the battlefield was very similar in appearance to the way it was 200 years ago.  The British line of defensive works that they had used for their artillery in 1814 could still be seen and was the place where the British re-enactors were positioned.  The Americans went to the bottom of the slope and had to fight their way uphill again, knowing it would be a loss for them today.  Scott was pleased that the commemorative medals were handed out before the fighting started.  Scott had been looking forward to adding it to his 200th anniversary collection.  Julie got one today too because she was wearing her new re-enacting dress.   There weren't many soldiers in the battle, with only about 30-40 Americans.  Scott's musket was misfiring a lot  (He thinks he found the problem-  The flint isn't letting the frizzen go closed, so he was losing his priming charge before firing.  He'll try to get that fixed before the 200th Anniversary of Fort Erie next week.)  When the Americans went into the woods, as per the script, the Indians ambushed them.  Scott didn't come back out, and Julie told the people next to her that he had been massacred.

After the battle, Scott wanted to get some pictures on the battlefield, including a picture at the "witness tree" that was there at the original battle and had stood until a storm took it down in 2012.  We trudged back up to the golf course's club house and tried to cool down there, hoping to get a ride on the shuttle back to town.   It seemed like it was going to take a very long time, so, remarkably, we decided to walk back across the island, up one side and down the other again.  Fortunately, Julie's hip was feeling much better, but she killed her ballet shoes that she was wearing.  We trudged back to our hotel room and both took a shower to cool down and feel halfway normal again.

We were moving pretty slow but had reasons to walk back to downtown.  We got some souvenirs for Scott at the Visitors' Center before it closed.  We then went to the Pink Pony, which was Julie's choice for dinner.  We got some Mackinac fudge for Emma, and trudged our way back to the hotel.  We were both exhausted and will call it an early night.  We plan to catch the 8:00 AM ferry tomorrow and then face a nine to ten hour drive to get home.  That's Mackinac for you.