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Whit Edwards,
aka Thomas O’doule |
Reenacting
I recently lost a long time friend, Whit Edwards, who was a great reenactor/historian/actor/friend. My first reenacting was with Whit and many other great historians serving in the 10th Kansas Company A. We had a great time. In 2003 with family responsibilities and an ever more troublesome spinal cord, I gave up Civil War reenacting.
With the passing of Mike Adkins a few years ago and now Whit’s passing this fall it just doesn’t hold the same magic as it once did. Thankfully a few members are left that remember the good old days and I dearly love to see them when I can. Unfortunately the last time I saw them all together was Whit’s funeral. They all encouraged me to come to Honey Springs this year.
Reluctant but needing to put the unpleasant feeling behind me I turned the Range Rover east on Friday evening to attend the event.
My core group of reenactor friends today are my Native American friends who you have seen in many previous posts. They man a mountain howitzer for the Civil War period and I fell in with them due to the fact I have a very limited kit for this period. Manning the howitzer also is a little less stressful on my spine, but only slightly as I found out Saturday and Sunday.
It was a great weekend. I took the blue highways out to the event. Blue Highways (Amazon) refer to the secondary highways described by author William Least Heat-Moon. Red highways on maps in America are the interstate highways. They are a quick way to traverse the states. However they are also congested with 18-wheel trucks and the other flotsam and jetsam of road travelers. I like the slower pace of the two lane blue highways. You tend to see more of the country side and the “regular” people traveling the “back roads”.
On the drive I am noticing the headlights on the Range Rover do not “punch” through the darkness. I need to investigate if it is the wiring or if the Hella lamps need to be replaced. They are yellow-ish and quite dim. With the oncoming headlights I find myself using their light to gauge my direction. That is not good. More on that as I start sorting that out. Again I’m guessing the loom is the issue.
With my spine in its current state sleeping flat was very necessary. So like I have in the past I just flipped the rear seats up in the Range Rover and slept in the back. The weather cooperated and only dropped to the high 30’s F on Friday and stayed in the 40’s F on Saturday night. Very comfortable even without the heater on.
I have the Range Rover fitted with electric space heater to eliminate my scraping of ice and frost. I wonder how long that would run if I put it on an DC inverter from a second battery? Hmmmm….
Look for another post tomorrow about the reenactment.
Today is Veteran’s Day
I want to thank all those who have served in our nation’s military and especially those families out there that their loved one paid the ultimate price to keep all of America free. Freedom is not free, and many have gave all they had to keep us safe in our homes while we enjoy that freedom.
This is part one of a four part post.
Part 2.
Part 3.
Part 4.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
