Saturday, February 7, 2009

2/7/09 Running of the Gourds, Part II

This is part 2. If you haven't seen part one yet, scroll down to see that first.

There's more photos if you can imagine that? Are you gourded out? Too bad, the best is yet to come.

A few random shots of gourds that don't really fit into a particular category.

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All of a sudden we heard a trumpet playing the call one hears at the race track. It was time for the RACING of the gourds!

We followed the noise and the crowd to the back of the building to find the track all set up.

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The race cars brought back memories of my brother Billy and his Soapbox Derby when he was in the Cub Scouts. The cars, made of gourds, of course, were homemade and most of the kids had help from an adult. Some husbands even admitted to help from their wives.

The "officials" of the race had to wear these really dumb looking hats.

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This little girl, I think her name is Megan, (hey, it was a week ago, you didn't really expect me to remember her name did you?) made her car with the help of her dad and named it the Purple People Eater.

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Her gourd made it to the finals. They're off!

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She was so excited! It was more fun watching her than the race itself.

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She won by a mile!

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Some of the gourds were really detailed. Take notice of the flying scarf.

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The one above didn't too well, I think it was too heavy.

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As I said, some of the gourds were really decorated for the race.

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It was quite the show to say the least but it was time to move on, there was lots more to see.

Remember one of the very first pictures I put in here, the one with the line. Well, it was time for us to go into that building and since it was late in the afternoon the line was gone. We walked right in but if we had had to wait it would have been worth it. What was housed in this building was the gourds that were being judged, the best of the best. Wait till you see these! One of my personal favorites was the one in the lower left corner, the one with the blue birds. The colors were magnificent in this piece.

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A chess set! Can you imagine playing chess with gourds? It took the blue ribbon in its category. We weren't surprised at all.

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This next one is carved. Can you imagine the patience this had to take? It took second place, I would have given it first.

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Bob really liked this one.

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Now this next one was different and it did take first place.

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A close up of the one I liked so much.

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A Quail and its baby.

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FISH!

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Aren't these beautiful? All hand painted. I can't even imagine doing this!

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This is called an "apple" gourd and you can see why.

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Another deserved blue ribbon, in my eyes anyway.

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I'd like to have this sitting on my table. (But not at the prices these puppies sell for!)

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So cute....

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So that was our afternoon at the gourd festival. It was an interesting afternoon and we're glad we went.

It looks like we left at just the right time, the wind was starting to kick up.

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The fields are all planted but I don't know with what crop.

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A view of some hills on the way home.

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Another day in the life of these full timers.

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