Summer Vacation?- Hill Cumorah Pageant

This year, Heidi, Katie and I were accepted to be

cast members in our church's Hill Cumorah Pageant.

The pageant is located near the town of Palmyra, NY,

in central New York state, south of Lake Ontario,

and just north of the finger lakes.

It's quite a process to apply and not the easiest to get accepted.

Anyway, it's an all or nothing ordeal for everyone

in the same household if you are accepted.

In other words, it's a family acceptance, so even though

I have no desire to do this sort of thing, we decided to go.

This is also a two week time commitment

as well as sacrifices in other areas.

This is the largest outdoor pageant in America, and it is pretty big.

There was a cast of around 700, a support staff of about 120,

a work crew of over 24 young men, and several directors.

In eight 70-75 minute performances at night, we had a total

of over 33,000 people come to watch the free performances.

The whole experience lasted from Friday, July 2 through

Sunday, July 18. The first evening after dinner, all 700

of us were cast in various roles- all in a few hours.

We practiced for only four or five days before the

first performance. That first performance was 'Media Night',

for the regional media and local population.

The directors told us that their peers tell them that

they are nuts to gather 700 amateurs, cast them,

and within a week have performances.

Here are some pictures of our trip, with some

side-trips we also took while in the area:

We left early on Friday, July 2.

It is about a six hour drive north of our home.

Here is a picture of Katie trying to stay awake,

since this is her summer vacation and she is

not used to being up when the sun comes up.

Heidi, driving the first leg of the trip.

We took the van so we could fit all of our stuff

for the two weeks.

We stayed here at the private campground right

at the Hill Cumorah. This camp is exclusively for

cast members and staff.

Through an email mix-up, we were accepted late,

so the campground was full. We were put on the

wait-list for our pop-up tent-trailer and a tent campsite.

As you can see, a tent-trailer site never opened up,

but a tent campsite did.

Here is our camp with the main tent for sleeping,

the one on the left for all our stuff, and the

awning over our picnic table.

There were plenty of wood pallets made with sheets

of plywood that you could lay next to each other,

and then put your tent on top. That way, when it rained

things would stay pretty dry on the bottom.

The view from our camp toward the rest of the campground.

People that brought tents would bring small

refrigerators, portable air conditioners and

other things for comfort.

We just brought electric fans and an ice chest.

There was free ice that you could get for

your ice chest each day.

Most people pre-purchase the lunches and dinners.

This is a line to one of the meals.

The meals had great variety, and plentiful,

and pretty good for the most part.

We ate breakfast each day on our own,

at our own campsite.

Heidi and Katie eating dinner in the Study Shelter.

This is an open-air building that all 700 people

fit into. We came to call it the Study Swelter,

as it was very hot an humid most days,

and the air circulation in there wasn't too good.

A wide view of the Study Shelter.

We are all wearing our official t-shirts because

it is Media Day.

The first night, after dinner, everyone went out

into the 'bowl' to be cast.

They broke everyone up into smaller

groups and had them audition for certain parts.

The 'bowl' is where the audience sits to watch the pageant.

This picture shows how big the 'bowl' is.

In the 'bowl', the sun never sets, and it is very hot.

We have a little say in what part we want to have.

We basically get to choose a 'movement' part,

(dancing, etc.) or 'non-movement' part.

A side view of the stage.

The stage goes up the hill and is actually 7 different

stages, each with several levels and areas.

The pageant has a scene where Jesus descends out

of the sky. If you look close, you can see the person

that plays that part is being lowered just in front

of the pine trees in the background.

Here is a more isolated picture of the contraption

used to lower the actor in the scene.

That's me in the green shirt and hat on the right.

I would have been perfectly happy doing something

behind the scenes, but that didn't go so well for me.

Lucky for me though I got a few crowd scenes,

so I could blend in and not be noticed.

Unlucky for me, my first scene is on stage 1

up front and right in the center!

Here is a picture of Katie practicing her dance

on the first day of rehearsals.

Katie in her dance costume, with one of

our new-found friends, Meleah.

Here is the view of the stage and the 'bowl'

from the top of the hill.

This is before we all set up the thousands of chairs.

(More on that later.)

This is the Hill Cumorah monument at the

top of the hill. You can either hike or drive to the top.

We hiked up with some new-found friends

on the first Sunday we were there.

These are 'cast-team' tents.

We were all assigned cast teams by age.

Any time during rehearsals that we were not

on stage rehearsing, we were supposed to meet with

our cast team. Uh, that didn't always happen,

sometimes we ditched to do other things.

Anyway, we would have different people speak

on interesting topics and also learn about the

different people in pageant.

More cast team tents.

We met people from all over the United States.

There were also people from Canada, Viet Nam,

South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and other places

all around the world.

There were even others from tiny Delaware!

During the first full 'run-through' (rehearsal of

the play from start to finish), if we weren't on

stage, we could watch. Here are a lot of the cast

members watching the run-through.

Oh boy! Chair day!!

In the early part of the first week, we had to unload

three semi-trailers full of chairs, haul them out to the bowl,

and line them up. There were only 8,000 chairs

to set up! That took a couple of hours to do.

Taking chairs out of the trailer.

Nice chin that came into the picture.

Beginning to set up chairs.

More and more chairs.

We thought this would never end.

Some of the rows beginning to take shape.

Heidi hauling chairs.

Me hauling chairs.

Hey! Where was Katie?

Katie and Heidi getting ready for a rehearsal.

Most females that had wigs or things to wear on their heads

needed to put their hair up.

Here is a view from stage 1 of the bowl

with all the chairs set up.

(Did I mention there were 8,000 chairs.)

Katie in one of her two costumes.

This is her dancing costume.

Me in my costume.

They don't have us old-timers change costumes,

probably because it would take us too long.

All three of us in costume.

Heidi was a dancer.

I know, we all look like hippies,

but hey Heidi's wig was made with real hair

and my skirt was nice and airy in the heat!

Here is Katie in her second costume

for her non-dancing role.

Here is another shot of us all in costume

before one of the performances.

I stole this shot from Katie's camera.

Here we are backstage.

This is the prop shop.

All the weapons, torches, banners, etc.

are stored here during the pageant.

This is one of the waiting areas backstage.

Those poles have all the lighting in them.

There are 12 of them and each has a lighting

crew operating them.

It was so hot there we thought we would melt.

It rained part of two days, and when it rained

it RAINED!

When it rained, there were instant creeks that formed.

Katie eating again!

(I don't know why she is hungry, I didn't see her set up

any chairs. Did I tell you there were 8,000 of them?)

During the day of one of the nightly performances,

Katie's cast team made tie-dye shirts.

That's Heidi helping them in this photo.

Getting ready to dye the shirts.

Lots of shirt dyeing going on here.

Katie's cast team picture.

Katie is on the bottom row in the center.

Our cast team picture.

We are in the middle toward the back.

Heidi is on the top row, and I am on the second row.

More pageant pictures after these side trips:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Side Trip To Grimes Glen

On the second Monday there, we got the day off

so we could explore or do laundry. Tough choice,

uh... I think we will bag the laundry.

We drove south for about 40 minutes near the

southern end of one of the finger lakes

so we could hike up a creek to see some waterfalls.

We went with about 6 carloads of people from pageant.

We went to a pretty, shady and cool place called

Grimes Glen. I didn't know it had its own fame.

The sign says:

Grimes Glen, Home of the oldest fossil tree found

and mounted by D. Dana Luther of Naples, N.Y.

Now in state education building, Albany, N.Y.

The creek-bed was mostly rock, so these little

falls were all over on the way up the creek.

There wasn't much trail, so we walked straight

up the creek.

Heidi and Katie in the creek.

Here is the first waterfall, from a side creek

spilling into the creek we were walking up.

That's Katie in the blue climbing on the waterfall.

A picture of me at the waterfall.

If you look close, you can see Katie on

the top of the waterfall on the left.

Another picture of Katie on the waterfall.

(Yeah, we didn't see her while we set up

the 8,000 thousand chairs- but we see her

plenty of times in the cool water.)

Ah, my kind of picture:

Nature without any people in it!

Here is the second waterfall.

This one is on the main creek, so this is

as far as we go. There is a shallow swimming

hole at the base of these falls.

A close-up of some of the moss and ferns

on the waterfall.

A group shot of us at one of the waterfalls.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is very close to the pageant location,

so we did a few things on portions of the canal.

We had an afternoon trip to the village of Palmyra

one day. Heidi and I took some time to walk along

the canal's tow-path. (The trail along the canal

where the horses towed the canal boats.)

Here is a picture of Heidi walking on the tow-path.

The canal is on the left, though you cannot tell

because all the brush has grown up tall.

On the right side of the canal where we walked

is a very swampy area. If you look close,

you can see a large bird in the base of the dead tree.

Here is a view across the canal looking at the small

marina in Palmyra. There are small towns all along

the canal, and a lot of them have little marinas or

other places to tie up a boat.

This sign at the Palmyra Marina tells

about the canal.

On our walk through Palmyra, we saw this

building across the street that was decorated

with hundreds of small stones.

Here is a close-up of the same building

so you can see all the stones.

Our cast team stopped at the local ice cream store,

called Chill and Grill. They make HUGE ice cream cones.

Even the small cones are big!

Here is the sign for Chill and Grill.

If you look close, you will notice the street is wet.

That is because the sky opened up and it poured rain

on us while we were in town. The walk back here

was very wet and we were soaked to the skin.

On another day, Heidi and I went to a town called

Fairport and rented bikes to ride along the canal.

This picture is of an area in the middle of town

where we had a picnic lunch before bike riding.

Heidi on the tow path.

We rode 8 miles to the next town and 8 miles back.

Here comes a barge. The canal is mostly used for

recreation now and these barges are rented for 3

and 7 day trips. The barges are fully self-contained

with a kitchen, bath, bedroom and fuel.

You can tie up overnight at the local docks and marinas.

They have electrical hook-ups to use overnight also.

I found out that this is a gate that can close off

part of the canal in case there is a leak, or if

maintenance is needed.

Me on my rented bike, talking to Shelly.

Man, the kids never leave us alone!

(Just kidding.)

We came upon this group from a summer camp

that was practicing on the canal.

A picture of me at the half-way point at Pittsford,

before we turned around to ride back.

Here is a picture of a larger tour boat

coming down the canal.

This was probably just an afternoon tour.

On the way back after bike riding, I told Heidi that

I wanted to stop at a lock on the canal to check it out.

We stopped at Lock 29 in Palmyra and actually lucked out.

Just as we showed up a tour boat stopped and was giving a

tour of the lock to the passengers. The tour guide asked us

if we wanted to tag along and learn about the lock.

This sign tells about Lock 29.

The difference in water levels here is 16 feet.

The present canal was completed in 1918, so

all of the equipment and buildings were from that time.

This photo is of some of the machinery

that controls the lock.

A view of the lock from the upstream side of the canal.

A lot of the cement is in poor shape, but hey-

it's from 1918 and been through dozens

New York winters.

This is the generator building. Most of the locks

were in the middle of nowhere and had to generate

their own electricity back in the day.

And since a lock was at a place the canal needed

to go to lower ground, it was also a great place

to put a generator to make the electricity.

So part of the water was diverted to spin the generators

to make the electricity as it descended to lower ground.

The present canal is the third generation of the canal.

Here is a picture of part of the second generation of the canal.

That bridge in the background is the tow path that spans

a creek. The water here is part of the second generation canal.

In between the tow path and the cement in the foreground,

there used to be a wooden sluice that held the canal

and it also went over the creek.

A long view of the lock with the upstream gates open.

Some of the gears and other machinery

that open and close the gates of the lock.

Here comes the tour boat entering the

upstream part of the lock.

The boat is in the lock and the gates are closing.

The gate on the other end of the lock is already closed.

The gates are almost shut.

Wood is used at the end of the gates for a

water-tight seal. They have tried rubber

and all sorts of other things before they

came back to using wood.

This is the gate on the downstream side of the lock.

The lock is beginning to empty out

and the boat is descending in the lock.

Look at the bathtub ring starting to show

on the side of the canal.

Here you can see the boat descending even more

and the bathtub ring getting larger.

The lock is empty and the boat will start

to go forward when the downstream

gate opens up.

The downstream gate is opening up

to let the boat out.

It only took about 10 minutes to drain

the lock. The tour guide told us that the locks

are designed to move water very quickly.

This is what the downstream area looks

like when the lock is emptying out.

A view of the downstream gate while I

am waiting for the boat to leave.

Heidi on the catwalk over the downstream gate.

Here comes the tour boat.

And there it goes... on to another lock downstream.

The downstream gate is closing.

Some more machinery.

This stuff opens the portals that let the water out.

(I guess you can tell by the number of pictures

that I was intrigued with the canal.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Katie and one of her friends she hung out

with during pageant.

It looks like they are wearing more ice cream

than they are eating.

A couple of Heidi's friends that she hung out

with during our two weeks here.

Time to take down the cast team tents.

Folding up one of the tents.

Heidi helping to fold another tent.

More cast team tents in various stages of

coming down.

Remember those 8,000 chairs?

Well, we had to put them away too.

We put them away around midnight after the

last performance before we could have

our cast party.

Believe it or not, all 8,000 chairs

fit back into the 3 trailers.

Here is a picture of all our stuff ready to be put

into the van for the ride home.

This is a good view of the platforms that we

used to put the tents on to keep them above

the ground.

One last photo of our camping area.

A view of the 'bowl' after the chairs are put away.

(There were 8,000 of them in case you forgot.)

The grass is pretty hammered after 33,000 people

trampled all over it.

The End

Ewe, gross- Katie what did you get on you shorts?

We had a great time even though it was VERY hot & humid, and

we were exhausted many days. The rehearsal days were long

and the nights were short. We met a lot of great people

(and I got to corrupt, I mean meet, a lot of nice kids).

It was quite an experience and one we will not forget.

We are thankful that we were invited to participate

and have lots of great memories.

Would we do it again? I think right now it is

too soon to answer that, but who knows

what will happen in the future.