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17th Annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War

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January 24th through 27th, 2008

Friday's moonset was just under an hour away as we put on our hats and journeyed onto the ice to start building snow forts. The ice was 16 inches thick, the air cold, and the sun dazzling when the location of the first fort was determined. The fort forms are showing signs of ware, but continue to produce quality walls. All the forts had their unique qualities. The Southeastern stronghold's virtues could be summed up in two words "Baltic Avenue". The northeastern fort was more traditional in decor and it's Iowa class launcher. Our fort, in the northwest, was tastefully decorated and heavily armed. We had 3 of the new Krispa class launchers capable of firing a dozen rockets at a time. In the Southwestern corner was XLt's rampart. Known as the Boardwalk and Park Place of the forts, it had an igloo and extended walls. The backwall wind break turned out not to be necessary during the war but did make a delightful target. The sculpted bastion had through-the-wall firing ports. At the end of the day, Krispa's leaderless squad carefully lined up the tubes for the impending battle. Mrs Nemo reciprocated. At 6:30 PM a few ranging shots were unleashed. The battle raged a short while after. Propane torches worked adeptly. The air was not all that cold (low 20's°F) so even lighters worked well. During the height of the war, it was best to fire and cower behind snow walls. I could not resist the temptation to watch a well aimed bunch of shots stream to their targets and got shot in the noggin. Flaming shots put out the ringing in my ears afterwards. The "Great Stick Pickup" started early on Sunday. Some of the 2000+ sticks were easier to pickup than others. It would seem that Mrs. Nemo had the correct range for this fort. Minions were spoted picking sticks for several hours. The webcam worked very well during the war. I'll move and link to the war pictures it took before cleaning out the January images. The war turned out to be the best ever. Can't wait till next year!<br><br><br>-Nemo

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