7:30 AM- After a "Let's-get-DKA-high" breakfast of waffles/syrup, yogurt, 3 glasses of oj(what can I say, I was thirsty) and the subsequent bolusing of 15 U Novolog(not enough), my fiance and I take off for the "Yellow" lot, where we'll catch a bus to Jamestown.
8:45 AM After driving aimlessly around a seemingly deserted Eastern State(mental facility, twin cousin to Western State(joint on my side of the state) we arrive at the Yellow Lot(an empty field). Still early, we're only the 4th line of cars. Directly ahead lies a fleet of school buses, from every district in the Richmond-VA beach area. It begins to drizzle, and its a relief to board the Newport News bus.
Our driver greets us with a cheery "Good morning!" as we file in and fill the seats.
3 minutes later, as we're going down the road, the driver makes an unexpected lurch into the left turn lane.(did I mention there were no seat belts on the buses?)
The guy of front of us frowns. "Hey, you need to go straight here."
"I do?"
"YES."
"I don't know, I'm not from the area and I'm just doin' what they tell me too."
The hair on the back of my neck prickles at the news. Not good, a driver who has no clue where we're going...
The guy in front, though, has the situation well under control. "I know where to go-just keep going straight."
Audible sigh of relief heard. (by 60+ inhabitants of bus)
10 minutes later, we arrive at the Jamestown Anniversary site and unboard, as Marines direct traffic and assist little old ladies off buses.
It's still sprinking, and a bone-piercing chilly wind is blowing, adding to the uncomfortableness of the situation. The security lines are very long,as every handbag/backpack/etc. is throughly searched.
Metal detecter. Gulp. Lambo JR. frequently sets them off, and that's really not something I need today...
But when it's my turn, I pass through(uneventfully).
It's 10:30 by then, so we head for the information booth to buy "Script", the official currency of the festival.
Buy lunch, and head over to the main stage, where various dignitaries are warmin' it up with the expected long wided speeches. State delegates. The Secretary of the Interior. Sandra Day O'Connor. (who has been famous since before I was born..talk about history!)
Suddenly, a pair of fighter jets scream overhead. (giving us all mild heart attacks)
Finish lunch. The sun comes out, it quits raining. "Hail to the Chief" starts up, and we all stand up. (the sea of blue is the 10,000 member choir)
The governor is being quite cordial (remarkable, considering they're on opposite sides of the political spectrum)
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States!"
In the interest of PC, I won't delve into what he said, as you can (or did) read about it in the newspapers. Gave speech, directed the band for about 3 minutes which got a big laugh from the audience. Then the director of the festival, him/First Lady, 3 local kids stood around this Time Box and put some stuff into it(No telling what they put in-that's for tonight, boys and girls)and as the band still played, they left the stage. (followed by the dignitaries)
People begin pouring out of Festival Park, toward the Ship Area. One or two SS agents remained around the Secured Area, as the various helicopters took off. You could tell they were Secret Service from the microphone thingies in their ears(they didn't look like Men in Black). Having never seen a Secret Service agent in person, it gave me a weird weak feeling in the knees.
I'm feeling high(and thirsty). Meter reads a cranky 350, so I shoot 6 units(rather then worry about changing my infusion set(I'm way too busy for that). Combining that with walking around all afternoon should both take it down and take care of the basal
rate(I won't need much).. Get a diet pepsi. Head for the Ship Area.
Went on board the 2 larger ships. (the one was so tiny it barely could be called a ship...)
The Anchor(on the biggest ship):
We then head over to the reconstructed Fort area.(not the actual site-that's being dug up)
Stop #1:
This was a canoe making demonstation- after the Indians had cut down a tree, they'd set a series of small fires of top of it(burning the inside out). Then, they'd use clam shells to scrape out the ash and shape the canoe. When the settlers showed up(with metal tools) the Indians just about went nuts with happyness(they're clam-scrapeing days were officially over). Pretty interesting.
Stop #2. (The Fort)
Splitting boards:
How they amputated someone's limb:
(they were very good at this,the person lost less then 1/2 a pint of blood) The person had to stay in bed for awhile afterwords though.
Curing tobacco:
(Marlboro Light,anyone?)
A house:
Various other things, we didn't have time to see it all. Went back to the Visitor Center where we caught a bus for the original site.At the original site, we viewed a short documentary on the graves they'd found, saw the reconstructed church, saw the
dig site,and stood in line for 1.5 hours for the artifact museum. By then, it was hot
and people were not in the best of moods. The Archiological president + someone else came around to cheer us up, pass out water + sunblock,tell us that it was well worth the wait, and apologize for it being so long. And to tell us stories of how the Queen of England(the week previously) could go all over the area in high heels(at 82, that's pretty good) but then again, the Queen of England didn't have to wait 90 minutes on a moderatly hot summer day. Blood sugar was dropping, so I set a temp basal of 0.0 for an hour and hoped it would stay stable.
We finally got to the museum, and I was low, there was still a line(it would have taken another hour to see the graves) so we did a quick walk around and got out of there so I could drink juice.(nothing was allowed in the museum,and I wasn't about to get kicked out after waiting all that time) Saw a few things of interest.(the graves were just the big attraction)
Got back on the bus, for Anniversary Park. It was after 6 pm by then, so we got some supper, hung around the main stage area.
At 7:30 pm, there was a play about the founding of Jamestown. Very well done.
8 PM- My cellphone and digital camera both die.
At 8:30 pm, Govornor Kaine reappeared for the grand finale- to tell everyone what the president had put in the Time Box(some cds,a cd player, and a power cord + some stuff from Queen Elizabeth) In 50 years- cd players might be obsolete...
Then the govornor,his wife and 3 kids put some more stuff in the Time Box.They told him just 1 thing, but being the govornor, he chose to ignore that advice.
#1 A Virginia Tech hat
#2 I forget..
#3 Happy Birthday helium balloon, which didn't quite fit and they had to really push + scrunch it in there.
The grand finale was the fireworks, which were beyond description (REALLY awesome). The Virginia Symphony Orchestra played the theme music(Star Wars, Stars and Stripes Forever, some other stuff) for 30 minutes and I wish I could have taken some pictures of them. They (the fireworks) were the best I've seen in 22 years. After that, we reboard the bus back to the Yellow Lot, the end to a perfect day. And the driver, knew where she was going.Getting out of there wasn't so bad, they really planned it out well.(with people being designated to park in a certain lot, it wasn't a traffic disaster for any certain area)
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