Return to The Show Page

Peoria Page 1     Peoria Page 2     Peoria Page 3     Peoria Page 4     Peoria Page 5


Don Williams writes:

Groopsters

I am delighted to report in from Peoria, Illinois, where
due to the heroic contributions of several Groop
members, the 10,000 Springs Pavilion is now safely
ensconced in the gallery of the Lakeside Museum.
While we were disappointed that our beloved friends
Sally and Roger Johnson were unable to join us, we
nevertheless rejoiced in unison on the good news from
their camp about Sally's prognosis.  We continue to
pray diligently for Sally's health and Roger's strength in
the coming days, weeks, months, years, and decades.

Bob Klein and I arrived at the museum at 8:30 (AM!)
Friday the 28th of March and opened all the crates to
make sure the contents were unharmed and where they
were supposed to be.  Thanks to the jewel-case box-
in-a-box-in-a-box packing system derived with our
crating contractor, the job of unpacking was made
immeasurably easier than the jumble of parts we
remember from the DC installation and de-installation. 
Each part had a protected place, and arranging the
contents around the room for easy assembly was a
snap.







On Saturday Bob kept me company most of the day
as I had set up shop in my hotel room to continue work
on a 1/2 scale model of a Chinese architectural bracket,
a subject about which I'll post a piece in a few days.



I worked alone on Sunday, and then every evening
until about midnight before installing the model on
Thursday, literally on my way out the door to the
airport.  Speaking of which, I managed to have flights
canceled from Chicago on both trips, with the requisite
loss of luggage both times.  At the moment I have no
knowledge of my suitcase's whereabouts, and it has all
my best tools from the trip.

On Monday we were joined by Bill Balsiger of
Milwaukee, who showed up with his entire Road
Warrior arsenal, which saved our hides big time on
Wednesday (a big shout out HURRAY! for Bill, who
currently has an unlimited line of credit in the Bank of
Don), Tredway Childress of US House of
Representatives finishing shop fame, and Frank Weber
and Russ Chavie from DCTC.  Somehow they talked
Mitch into letting them go for a few days in the middle
of school.   Thanks to Frank's indefatigable efforts we
have a definitive photographic record of the week's
events.

First thing Monday morning was a PowerPoint pep
talk from Don Libro walking everyone through the
entire process, followed by the placing of the pavilion
bases.  Then came the first of the assembly challenges
as the lower post-and-beam structure was laid out and
assembled with alacrity.  It went so well I thought for a
moment we might be done by lunch time on Tuesday. 
Unfortunately reality had a fierce lesson for us awaiting.


















Peoria Page 1     Peoria Page 2     Peoria Page 3     Peoria Page 4     Peoria Page 5

Return to The Show Page