I hope I didn’t take away everyone’s attention from all the other interesting stations they had set up under tents.)

Kids and families and adults at the festival learned about all the different parts of archaeology and got to try their hands at different activities under the tents. Here are some photos so you know what I’m talking about. The left one shows my side view all day. And, in the right photo, it’s ok fellas, I don’t bite, you can come in.

I was parked under a nice shady oak tree, right on the grounds of Fort Frederica, which is a neat historical and archaeological site. It was a colonial town founded by General Oglethorpe. He built a fort around the town to protect the settlers and soldiers from attack by the Spanish who lived in Florida at the time. Apparently everyone in the 1730s and 1740s—the Spanish, French, and British—all wanted to own North America and each tried to do so by taking pieces of it. I think I remember seeing some books about it on my shelves, back when I used to be a bookmobile. Archaeologists actually excavated at Ft. Frederica in the past. Today it is one of America’s National Parks.

Anyway, I was parked there, surrounded by all this history, when all of a sudden during the day TWO archaeologists came on board. One of them, Dr. Honor Kamp* actually excavated at Ft. Frederica!! He knew all about some of the settlers that lived there—what they ate, what they did for a living, how they got along with their neighbors in the 1700s, and what happened to them! Then, later, another archaeologist, Real Dan*, came by who did a big archaeological survey just next to the grounds of Ft. Frederica. He was showing visitors how archaeologists use a ground penetrating radar machine to see underground.

(Real Dan is not one of my handlers, but he helps me a whole lot. I think it’s because he is married to Veronica*, who is one of my handlers. So he feels compelled—or gets drafted—to help.) Anyway, it was so cool that these archaeologists who had worked right there years ago, were checking ME out! I even met some of Dr. Honor Kamp’s students, who were just learning how to become archaeologists. They will need lots of practice before they can run projects.

Diary, I will leave you with a few more photos of my old and new friends at Ft. Frederica.

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* Handler’s Note: Abby thought it best not to use real names in many cases, especially when referring to her “handlers”—those people responsible for driving her and administering programs, and to some people she meets in her travels.