The Nauvoo Pageant, Part 2: Taking care of the Basics

Our first week at the pageant was very hot with highs in the 90's and lots of humidity.  It was challenging to stay energetic.  Thankfully our tiny house at Camp Nauvoo had reasonably good air conditioning.  Another thing that really helped was that I brought frozen meals which I stuck in the crockpot every morning and which we ate at lunchtime along with salads or other sides.  We enjoyed quiet time until 2pm when we had our afternoon rehearsals, unless I needed to do laundry at the laundromat or do a little shopping.  We ate sandwiches around 5pm along with fruit and any leftovers people wanted to eat.  Then we would take snacks like popcorn to eat while we watched the pageant after the country fair.

There is now a "dollar" store in Nauvoo which has some much-needed food items along with non-perishables.  I had to go into Keokuk a couple of mornings really early to do real grocery shopping.  Our biggest challenge with the tiny house was the tiny fridge which had essentially no freezer.  We had to keep our large cooler well-stocked with ice to keep our perishables reasonably cool.  It was doable but not ideal.  The nice thing about the tiny house was that we had enough space for everyone to spread out in.

These pictures don't really give you a feeling for how cramped we felt when all our food and clothes, bedding, etc. were crammed into this cabin.  A nice cabin but not for 7 people.

This was inside the tiny house which would have been a better option for us to stay in the whole time but wasn't available the second week.

 At the end of the first week, we moved out of our tiny house and moved into the Nauvoo Log Cabins.  In the past, we have stayed here and enjoyed ourselves with enough space for everyone.  Unfortunately, I booked a smaller cabin this time because we were only planning on bringing 5 people.  It would have been okay with 5 people, but we ended up bringing 7 people and it was way too small.  At first we tried putting our two boys outside in a tent but they did not sleep well so we moved them into the cabin and it was very crowded.  The kitchen and eating area was also very inadequate.  The only thing that saved us was that the weather cooled down that week so we could eat outside fairly comfortably.

During the first week we were assigned to run the stilts station at the Country Fair.  Everett and Susanna helped us a little but also roamed around a lot.  Camille decided she really wanted to do the puppets again although towards the end of the week she went rogue when she was assigned to read the script probably because she had heard it 100 times.  So she got relegated to a different job.  Talmage and Mindy were dancers, assigned to teaching the dances to the visitors.

I have to admit, the rehearsals during the day were pretty tiring so I didn't have as much energy as I needed for the Country Fair in the evening which was only a little less hot than the middle of the day.  The stilts got pretty overcrowded at times with the teenage visitors so I sometimes just sat on a bench and took a break.  The Country Fair is a pretty fun atmosphere though and I really love it.