Fort Delaware - Day 45

I'm back with raven 4. Take it or leave it, but I'm stuck here :)

Let the crazy shenanigans commence...

My MRE! not the best, but I would eat it again

 
 

Fort Delaware

Part 1 of spike. Ever since I rejoined my team after fire training, I have been in Delaware city.
Here we have been cleaning and setting up fort Delaware for its opening in may.

Here's my typical day:
•get up at 5:15am
(It's early since I have to share the bathroom with 10 other people)
•leave the house at 6:20am
•take our boat ride to the island at 7am
•take a short jitney ride and arrive at the fort!!



Our team has been scrubbing bat poop and mildew off the slate floor and walls (like cinderella), power washing the wooden features, painting the gun shots (aka cannon balls), cleaning the guns (cannons), building a new fence, sweeping, cleaning, cleaning, removing invasive species (weeding), cleaning..
AND setting up all the props slash rooms so it's ready for the visitors. Did I mention we cleaned?

Just kidding.  I made it sound like the fort is horrible but it was actually a lot of fun.

"Fort Delaware, the Union fortress dating back to 1859, once housed Confederate prisoners of war. It was originally built to protect the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia."

I don't know much about the civil war, but our sponsor definitely LOVES his job and would tell us random facts or jokes about the fort.  For example, did you know that there are no cannons in the fort. No matter how much they look like it cannons are on ships not in a fortress. What the fort has are really really big guns! And one, named Babs (our sponsor refers to it as his girlfriend), still works. They fire a blank shot (not a cannon ball but it looks just like it) everyday for the tourists.

"Visitors take a ½ -mile ferry ride from Delaware City to Pea Patch Island. A jitney provides transport from the island dock to the granite and brick fortress. Here, costumed interpreters take you back to the summer of 1864."

I LOVE fog!! It was foggy most days, which made the fort look like Hogwarts

Did I mention that the fort is haunted? Yeah, there are ghosts. Legit ghosts. I guess the ghost hunting show had come and featured the fort one time. Rusty got so spooked today by a trumpet sound coming on with no one pressing the button...
All the staff have creepy ghost stories that they'll tell you.


There are also creepy pictures of people who lived in the fort. You know the ones, where no one ever smiles or looks at the camera. Yeah those. There are also creepy pictures of dead people since no pictures were taken went the person was alive so they just take one after they died... There was one of a baby laying on the couch. Creepy!

So tomorrow is our last day working for fort Delaware so we are having a BBQ with the sponsors. It's going to be great. And the fort really does look a lot better than when we started.


So then Saturday we road trip to our next project... City year in Washington DC!!

I already have plans for lunch with all my dc sisters on Sunday! It's going to be great!!

Scrubbing bat poo and spray painting artillery shots

Rachel power washing the fence like a beast

random props that we set up in the rooms

creepy room that I found through a tunnel...

Babs.  The only working gun left on site

I got caught for trying to desert the army...

Firing a musket actually from the civil war!

We had a bonfire with s'mores for our last night in Delaware

Justine.  She sleeps anywhere and everywhere... We are seeing how many sleeping photos we can collect of her and make an album.  It's going to be great!

Off to DC!! Our van named Blue Bell is packed to the brim!