While we were staying in Fort Wayne, Indiana, we happened upon the Three Rivers Festival. It appears that both locals and any traveler, like my husband and me, could not only experience the week long festival, but participate in it if we so wished. As we left our room at one of the hotels Fort Wayne offers its visitors, we headed straight for the main part of the festival and searched for the food alley. It was hard to figure out just want we wanted to eat. The food alley, which we like to call the grease and fat alley, had a great array of carnival food to choose from. Everything from pulled-pork sandwiches to Wisconsin cheese to elephant ears. Yes, elephant ears. That did not sound appetizing to me. So, we went for the pulled pork sandwich instead.
As we walked through the crowd, we noticed they were all waving bright, red Carthage flags. We got a good educations by those around us at the festival, all about Carthage College. We actually had the privilege to talk to a parent of one of the students. But, what was the best part about the festival was the Bed Races. Every team had five members. The teams must provide their own decorated bed, which has to be on wheels. Then they race against the other competing teams for the length of two city blocks. All the while, one team member has to me on the bed itself while the other four team members have to push. I never knew bed racing could be so intense and competitive. We were lucky to be sitting right at the finish line. They had heats set up in a bracket system. So, the losing teams slowly got eliminated and the winning teams could continue to race until only two bed racers remained. So, the winner not only has to be the fastest, but also has to have the best decorated bed. This was definitely the highlight of the festival and the highlight of our trip.
Related posts: