Nebraska

Time To Leave

Sunday morning and it's time to leave.  We hauled most of our stuff down to the Triangle Shuttle Stop where we instructed on where to put it in queue.  Then we waited to load it up on the surrey and take our ride out to the parking area.

Dry and humid all week, but this morning, when we are packing all our stuff, it's raining off and on.

Fully loaded on the surrey.

Nightstage

Raffle Queens

Lovely ladies stroll about the land selling raffle tickets.  I bought 13 tickets for $20 on my first day.  I won a $30 gift certificate of Festie Wear from the Cuntree Store.

Stage Door

Gretchen Phillips playing with The Butchies, I think.

Donna Arrives!

Donna joined me on Friday.  She flew in to Grand Rapids on Thursday evening and stayed in a motel where she worked until about noon on Friday when I picked her up and took her to the festival.

Me at the Cuntree Store.  Happy to be going to this evening's concert with Donna.

Food, Glorious Food

Three meals a day are provided to all who attend!  These are the cook pots where all the meals are cooked.

Lining up to be served a meal.  

Everyone washes their own dishes.

And most people hang their dishes on these dish racks.  This year, I toted my dishes back to our campsite after each meal.

Workshifts & PortaJanes

Porta Janes

Would you believe there are more than 200 Porta Janes on the land?  I brought some fliers to advertise my Inta Henna business in the Porta Janes, but ran out of fliers after only about half of the porta janes were posted.

An idea of what it looks like inside the Porta Janes.

This was my "flier".  I added a sticker over the "Thanks you" that said Order Henna Supplies Online.  I also added tear off tabs at the bottom with my webpage.

For my Workshift this year, I chose something different.  I worked 4 of my hours in the Womb in the Self Care Tent.  I directed people to the various supplies available for self care such as bandaids, itch relief, and herbal teas.

I had people come in with burns from stepping on campfires, bug bites, infected piercings, hangovers, allergies, bee stings, and some general sore muscles and cramps.

Opening Ceremonies

It started with some drumming.

Honoring Water.

Some great music by Laura Love and a group called "Men"

Home Sweet Home - My Campsite

My Little Gumdrop.  

This year I prettied up the place with some flowers on a couple poles.

This is the view from my chair outside my tent.  That is 2 of my shirts hanging on the handtruck that I used to schlep in all the gear.  They were so soaked with sweat I had to take them off.  I have no idea what the temperature was but it was so hot that I was constantly dripping sweat even with the smallest activities, let alone walking and hauling gear for a couple miles over wood chip paths.

The blue tarp in the background is covering my neighbor's tent.

Stumps and foliage near my campsite.

I was so overcome by the heat and humidity that I actually poured off the icy water from my 2 coolers and soaked my feet in it.  It really cooled me down nicely!

Home Sweet Home

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs...

Time to walk around and find a camping spot.  We unloaded so late last night that I had to set up my tent in the dark.  Today, I'm walking around and seeing if I find a camping spot that I would like better.

This is where Mistake Trail meets Whistle Trail meets Easy Street.

Whistle Trail.

Michigan Womyn's Music Festival 2010

So the 4 of us arrived safe and sound at the gates of the festival.  Right away, R. spotted a friend and ran off to say hello.  C. & H. came in to the box office with me and paid for my ticket upgrade.  THANKS girls!  We unloaded the car in the area near the shuttle pickup and C. had someone take a group photo of us.  I'm hoping to get a copy of it, which I will add when it comes through.

Added Passengers in Grand Rapids

Packed to the Walls

About a week before leaving on the road trip I was reading the Michfest Forum online and found 2 women posting and asking for a ride from the Grand Rapids airport.  Apparently the shuttles were all sold out and they were going to go as far as considering hitch hiking to get to the festival.  I got in touch with them and arranged to pick them  up.  In exchange, they offered to pay the difference on my admission ticket so that I could get in a day earlier as they were.  Then, at the last minute, a third women contacted us and I prepared to have a very full car for the last couple hours' drive.

The Back Seat

Believe it or not, but there were 2 women sitting in the back seat with all of this.

Adding Some "Essentials"

And, of course, we had to make a stop for some more "essentials".

Behind the Back Seat

I was very careful not to have any reason to slam on the brakes.

Road Trip to Michigan 2010

Rest Stop near Kearney, NE. More than halfway to Des Moines already!