The radio alarm clock clicked to life at 5:30 this morning. Snooze. Snooze. Snooze again. I pulled my worn body out of bed shortly after 6. I could barely stand up and every square inch of me throbbed in a dull pain. But the grin was still there, stuck on my grizzled, exhausted face...
After 3 solid months of late night prop building and prep work, the high holiday had arrived. Halloween was finally here. And it rewarded us with perfect fall temperatures, calm and dry air, and a record-breaking horde of excited trick-or-treaters and their curious parents.
The setup began in a flash at 10am and the last tea light candle was turned on at 5:50 pm, giving me roughly 10 minutes to come up with a makeup that would render me frightening.
And somehow, it all worked. Every light, every sound, every scream, every glorious veil of fog that hung ghostly in the still night air. I even managed to come up with a decent and frightening makeup!
Halloween 2016 will go down as our best one yet - not bad, considering we have now been doing this for 13 years! We had more people come over to help set up, more people to come over and help act, and more people to come over and help tear down. I don't think I could have asked for a better show from a better group.
The last prop was placed back into the garage by about 9:45 and that was it. Halloween was over. The once-a-year extravaganza was complete. We were all completely spent, but we were all buzzing with the energy from the night's show. We ended up staying out until about 10:30, talking excitedly about all the great scares that we had just gotten and all the plans for Halloween, 2017. Only 364 more days to go. Are you ready?
Stop by in the next day or two, as I'll be posting a full review and a slew of great photos from this year's haunt. I had a chance to preview them all and I think I was able to capture all the wonderful things from the night's show! But for now, I think it's just time to catch up on some much-needed sleep...
See you in a few days.
