Hurry for really huge posts!

Good day everyone. My post this week will be HUGE!!! Because I need to do a lot of explaining about my weekend that you all have probably heard a little bit about.

First, that picture up there is the machine I was following around and yelling at all weekend. I spent all weekend helping at the Kinetic Grand Championship. Just to explain it all I'm going to copy and paste about the race from the site and then I'll explain what I did.

The Kinetic Grand Championship is a 3-day, 42-mile bicycle race over land, sand, mud and water. Many refer to the Kinetic Grand Championship as the “Triathlon of the Art World.”

The race began 40 years ago in 1969, when world-renowned sculpture artist Hobart Brown challenged Ferndale artist Jack Mays to a race down Ferndale’s Mainstreet. In their kinetic contraptions they started a 40-year Humboldt tradition that has spread to Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Baltimore, Maryland and all the way to Perth, Australia. But it all began here among the majestic redwood groves of Humboldt County.

Day 1 of the Kinetic Grand Championship starts on the Plaza in Arcata, California at the noon whistle every Memorial Day weekend. The racers take off to the Manila dunes, where they race through miles of sand to the great and inevitable “Deadman’s Drop.” Then on to Eureka’s downtown gazebo.

Day 2 starts in Eureka at the waterfront on the Humboldt Bay, where brave Kinetic Pilots race their crafts through the water (most float). Then back on land where kinetic sculptures go up Hookton Hill, a 1 mile-7% incline and decline. Day 2 ends with a private campout for racers and volunteers only.

Day 3 starts from the mouth of the Eel River, through Morgan slough and onto dry land. Racers cross the finish line on Ferndale’s historic Mainstreet, where racers park and head up to the Final Awards Dinner at Ferndale’s Fireman’s Hall.

What is a Kinetic Sculpture?

Kinetic Sculptures are all-terrain human-powered art sculptures that are engineered to race over road, water, mud and sand. Kinetic sculptures are amazing works of art; many are animated with moving parts like blinking eyes, opening mouths, heads that move side to side and up and down.

Kinetic Sculptures are usually made from what some people consider “junk”. But one man’s junk is another racer’s raw material. Each Kinetic Sculpture is a work of art and each racing team has its own theme.

The teams consist of pilots, pit crew and pee-ons. Kinetic Pilots pedal the sculpture and steer, the pit crew assists the pilots in transforming the vehicle for the various elements and fixing mechanical issues, and pee-ons, well, they do whatever is needed for the team to get glory. The teams give out “bribes” to their adoring spectators, judges and Rutabaga Royalty.

Spectators are encouraged to follow the race on their bikes (obeying all traffic laws that apply please). Seeing these marvels of art and engineering turns many people on to bike culture and reminds people how much fun riding your bike can be!

Ok I woke up on Saturday and had to rush over to my friends house because, like normal, I woke up late. Then we left to go to the plaza. Once we got there I had to carry around my marching band drum around and play the cadence for the pageantry judges. After all the art and engineering and drunk test were over we had an hour to kill before the start of the race. We got strawberries and ate. Here are some pictures from before the race of some of my favorite sculptures.



Ok this is more funny than weird...So there were 10 people on the machine dressed up in nude suits while the entourage ran around in nun costumes saying hilarious things like "Shield you eyes"



This was hilarious because they arrived right after my friends and I stopped drumming and marching and they had a really good mexican band.



This is a picture of the machine that the school I'm going to next year....I need to make it better.

So, after the plaza on the 1st day they go through the dunes and up to this really huge dune called deadman's drop. Here's a picture of the Speed Demon (the red dragon thing) going down it.



So that's pretty much it for the first day. The only other thing they do is ride to another plaza and have ice cream...

So on the 2nd day the machines enter the bay pedal about a mile, leave the bay and then go camp on a beach called crab park. Most of this day for me was spent helping my friend Madi sell hats.



This machine was run by High School students and right as it entered the water the two bikes carrying it fell apart...as you can see the put everything on the pontoons and swam is through the bay. I would not do this because our bay is full of seaweed. But this whole race is just for the glory!



This is the team called Melvin that I though looked really awesome so I'll show you a picture.

Ok this thing was terrifying!!! I was walking over to the exit of the water and I passed by this reality place and I saw the racoon out of the corner of my eye and assumed it was fake...but then it moved. I freaked out. Raccoons are really mean animals so I was terrified that it was going to like jump attack me...ya somehow I managed to get a picture of it.



My last picture from the second day is a really cute and awesome dog who is wearing one of my friends hats.



So I didn't take any pictures form the final day and I don't want to go get my dad's so...you get to have none! Yay! But I will tell you what my team won and I would tell you who won over all but you don't care because I don't even have a picture of that machine.

My team won 1st place Speed, 1st place Engineering and the Teddy Bear award. I'm too tired to explain the system of award and all the different awards they have so...sorry, I feel like I'm being lame. I'll say that you get an award for being finishing dead middle.

Ok no more race stuff. Now something more important. We, as in Alyssa, Kate, Megan and I, are going to be having a contest. There will be two prizes (that have yet to determined for this contest). You can't win both of these prizes. You can win the first one for rereading all the Harry Potter books and finishing them before everyone else. The other prize is for reading the books in the shortest amount of time. Now I want all of you to tell us what page and book you are on in all of your posts until your done and how long it has taken you to get there. Ok? Good. You may all start now.

My favorite fan sites would have to be The Leaky Cauldron and Nerdfighters. Granted those are most peoples favorite fansites...

RANDOM FACT!

The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

I'm sorry this got really rushed in the end but...ciao