October 4, 2009

Sunday 4~~~~~We decided to go to Port Townsend this morning to the "Kinetics Race", i t was sure a fun thing to do. A Kinetics race is things people build and use man power for the energy. Their was a lot of bicycle chain used for pedaling on the entries. The race has 4 legs to be completed, starting with the 1st leg in the bay, the entries have to get their entry across the bay by paddling or what ever way they can get their float to move. (some used big plastic jugs tied together). The theme was "Alice in Wonderland" and they were all dressed like the characters in the show. They all received a small pink flamingo for proof they did that leg of the race. Next (#2) they all lined up on main street and raced to see who could run the rest of the race the fastest, the hill they had to climb or drive was very steep and it was fun to see how hard they worked to get to the top of the hill and go the the next leg of the race (#3) which was a sandy beach they had to pedal or get through with their hand made mode of transportation. The 4th was the last leg of the race and the most fun to watch of all, they had two long trenches all dug out and filled with water that they had to get their entry across. The guy that did the watering, must have fell asleep doing it, as their was so much mud and water, the men sunk up to their waists in it trying to get their entry across it to the end. Of course by the time 3 or4 floats plowed through or tried to and had to be pulled out, it was a real mess for the next person or persons. Some entries and several people on it and they had a lot more Man power to work the gears. They have this every year and we had so much fun watching it all day. Of course there was a lot of bottled cheer to make it even funnier. I would like to see something like this done at Rockaway or Keizer some time for one of the holiday festivals where they want to draw a crowd and bring some money in to the area and fun for the locals. There were two Oregon entries in the race, one from Eugene and one from Independence. Kent had a lot of fun helping the ladies load their entry onto their trailer that they brought it to town on. (top picture) The picture of the "Octobus" won 1st. place and they were one of three who made it all the way through the mud trench. They had about 6 people pedaling their float through that muddy water.