The Shelter Gets Some Legs

Oh my, what's this?

Why it's the truck delivering the poles for the shelter.

It even came with its own forklift.  That is just so cool.

I really need to get out more.

We had to have the poles delivered to Tree Ring after making the mistake of thinking  we could get them there ourselves.

Unfortunately, it was just about as hot as it gets in Florida.  I just wanted to go up to Tree Ring, make sure the poles were delivered, and then come home.  But Retro Man thinks he is 20, and decided he would meet the truck, camp for three days and put all 8 poles in.

I said no thanks, I learned my lesson the last time we were stupid enough to camp in this weather.  But please take lots of pictures and tell me all about it.  

So he did it all by himself.  It was 95.  And hot.  And humid.  Did I mention there are snakes, no A/C, or electricity?

The truck unloaded the poles,  and he began cutting them to size.

He got the front right one in (as you're looking at the shelter) and called me.

It was around 2:00.  He said it was really hot.  He was sitting in the truck with the A/C on, trying to cool down.  Thought he'd take a break and eat some lunch.  It took about two hours to get that pole in.  I told him to stop and wait until 6 when it was cooler.  I'm picturing his blood turning to sawdust.

Nope, he was going to keep going.

At 9:00 he called me.  He'd gotten 4 poles in.  That was about 3 more than I thought he should put in.

All of the poles were supposed to be 5-6s.  Meaning they were 5 to 6 inches in diameter.  But one of the poles clearly shouldn't have been in the pile. 

It was an 8-9.  He said that thing weighed about 300 pounds.  

Note to self:  Always double check your purchases.

He knew once it went in the hole, it wasn't coming back out.  Fortunately, his setup was good.

I asked him how he was feeling, and he said he was tired.  And REALLY dehydrated.  He took a shower with a  home made contraption connected to a bucket of water.

The next morning he called after he got up.  It had rained and thundered until 3 in the morning.  Yuck.  Thankfully the sides of the pop up stayed in place.  

We agreed that he would do what he could until noon and then break camp and come home.

Around 2:00, since I hadn't heard from him, I gave him a call.   He got  two more poles in. 

On the last pole, he got a little delirious and stirred the concrete so long it started to harden.  He figured his body was about to give out, so he finished up to come home.

Next time we'll make it a day trip.