CASPER, Wyo. — This year, Casper man Bruce Charles wanted to go all out for Halloween. To do that, he spent months building a large float that he unveiled to the community this past weekend.

“Last year I kind of decorated my truck with some skeletons and things, and that was fun. This year I wanted to go all out, and so I decided to decorate my 40-foot trailer,” Charles said.

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(Submitted photo)

In choosing what type of spooky design he wanted to go with, Charles said he weighed several options before ultimately settling on a pirate theme. The decision was made in part for practical reasons, he said.

“I had all of these skeletons. Just so many skeletons,” he said with a chuckle. “I knew I had to utilize them somehow.”

Charles added that the specific idea to theme it around pirates came when someone saw one of his skeleton models wearing a bandanna and called it a “pirate skeleton.”

With a vision in mind, Charles then set to work actually building his Halloween float. Building the float took weeks of hard work, and he said he spent eight to 12 hours every day for a month constructing it.

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The process was a learning experience for Charles, who said he’d never done anything like this before. Progress was slow on many days, and many times he found himself not finishing up for the day until nearly midnight.

Further complicating matters was the fact that Charles works construction during the day, which sometimes made it difficult to find the time and energy to work on the float.

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“I get up around 4 a.m. to go to work, and any time I had a break I was thinking to myself, ‘Man, I’ve gotta be working on my float now because it’s crunch time,'” he said.

Despite the challenge that it posed, Charles added that it was also a fun experience, and he’s already looking forward to making another float.

Charles recently finished the project and showed it off this past weekend, driving it around town and stopping to give out candy at a handful of locations. The finished float turned out better than Charles said even he expected it to, and the public was impressed as well.

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“I got so many nice comments and compliments,” he said. “There was a person who said they assumed there must be a parade in town because of how good it looked; [there were] lots of people telling me how cool it was. It was great.”

Charles said he’s already looking forward to building more festive floats. He said he’d be interested in making them for winter holidays, though he added he’s unsure how the truck and trailer would handle the possible inclement weather.

However, he knows that he wants to turn his Halloween float into an annual celebration.

“I would love to do a new theme each year,” he said. “I’ve already got some ideas I’m tossing around for next year.”

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