32nd Annual Bottle Rocket War

Last week started off foggy, still, and mild. At the beginning of Bottle Rocket War Week there's usually a foot or so of snow, but not this year. We have plenty of ice but the lack of fluffy white stuff had us concerned. Plans were made to mine snow from the large lawn deposits, but this was probably going to require more effort than the men were willing to put out. Fort size and quality were set to suffer.

Whether we were going to use snow from the sky or lawn, the wall forms were unpacked and made ready to ship to the northeastern corner of the lake. Traditionally, the war was fought in front of Knott Lane, but this year it was moved closer to the bar to make viewing from the deck better and the after battle trek to the bar shorter and easier.

On Wednesday, the lake area had plenty of ice, but little building snow. If you had big honking spikes attached to your boots, Knott Lane's condition was not so bad.

The bar's many wild turkeys watched as we moved the forms, but didn't help much.

Huzzah!

On Wednesday night, we got snow. The fresh 8+ inches was both heavy and timely.

The first fort wall was started on Thursday at 1:25 PM.

Almost exactly 24 hours later, the first fort was just waiting for its windows, firing ports, and aesthetic touches.

It was decided to add only 2 firing ports, one through the west side of the main wall and the other around the east side.

Two polycarbonate windows were also added for each gunner position.

The wind can cause issues during the fight, so a large wind wall was put into place.

Aesthetic touches included green ice jewels, 2 red "Orbs of Terror" and some big icicle spikes.

The north's fort had 4 Krispa Class launchers, a centrally located polycarbonate view port, and seven "Knobs of Color"

The north's firing tubes used the effective and economical wall and post mountings.

Its western wind wall would keep the 7 mph wartime wind from interfering with lighters and torches.

The viewing area on the bar's deck was set just hours before the event.

The first shots from the north's fort launched before I had the cameras set.

The southern fort responded a short time later.

We started with over 4,000 rockets. We almost lost a 1,000 of them when a spark fell into one of the south's ammo bunkers and lit the fuses of about a dozen rockets. After a bit of excitement, the sparking ordnance was grabbed and expelled at the cost of only 2 burned fingers. It was sort of like the Statue of Liberty shot but with no Sambuca and more report. I can still type though. Shortly afterward, one of the south's torches quit. For the rest of the conflict, after loaders would fill a tube, they would call for a light from the remaining torchbearer.

After about 20 minutes, a drone was launched to get a few movies and images.

A few may have tried to peg the floating camera, but none came close.

The images were better than I would have expected.

Also, operating a small drone with a few toasted fingers is not that hard.

The after party was well attended, festive, and, unlike the 22nd Annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War held 10 years earlier, strangely devoid of flaming shots.

With the morning came the battle damage assessment. The two large icicle spikes on the south's fort did not seem to be hit.

The north's "Knobs of Color" were also unscathed.

A few rockets littered the ground between the two ramparts.

Picking up all those sticks will take another day or two.

We didn't get an ice thickness check last week. We'll get one next week for sure. With the warm-ish winter weather ending last Wednesday, I'd say it's over 8 inches thick. The snow on the lake is starting to compact. There's currently no slush layer in between the lake ice and its covering. The 32nd Annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War had its issues (last minute snow, failing torches, crispy fingers) but over all was a complete success. The new venue turned out to be every bit as good as the old for the fight and better for the logistics. Stick pickup is going better with the introduction of some new technology. It's called a rake and it's saving backs all across the north end of Lucerne. Huzzah!

-Nemo's healing nicely, raking up sticks.

32nd Annual Bottle Rocket War

January 16th through 22nd, 2023