Mohr or Less

Gotta move the crane at the duck race to clear the path for an ambulance. One of the performers passed out to heat stress.
From Kory’s Cell

We had a good time a the 18th Annual Big Brothers Big Sisters Duck Race downtown at Brown’s Island. There was a pretty good crowd there as we had to park up near Ethyl (waaaay up near Ethyl!) to find a good parking spot. Fortunately, the walk to the park was mostly downhill so pushing Kaleb and Taylor in the double stroller wasn’t too hard, especially considering the temperature was about 100 degrees.

On the way to the island, a family came back up 5th St. We overheard the lady complaining of heat exhaustion and they promptly stopped and sat beside us (at that time, we were slathering ourselves and the kids up with 50 spf sunscreen. Good thing too!) Their car was right there so, fortunately, they were able to get her in to the A/C. They politely mentioned to us that one of the booths was giving away free snocones which was a very cool offering.

We bid them good luck and Godspeed (not the latter but it sounds good!) and went on our way, encountering a very polite and friendly water vendor who wasn’t, thankfully, gouging the event’s attendees with over-inflated prices. We were able to get two bottles of water for only $1.

When we got to the island, we found a wide array of various booths and presentations. We walked around to get our bearings in order and came across the various food tents. I thought it was interesting that the Big Brothers Big Sisters own water tent was charging double of that vendor with twice as small bottles. Oh well. At least the proceeds went back to the organization.

At that point, it was getting to be early afternoon and we hadn’t yet eaten lunch. We turned around to head towards the food area (I’ve been having a hankering for an Italian sausage for a while! Yes, I know it goes against my working out and running but, dammit, it’s the weekend! ) to see what there was.

I looked at Sha with much irritation as I dug around in my pockets, discovering I had left my wallet in the van (not in plain view, thank goodness!). So, I gave her a peck on the cheek, patted the kids’ heads and started hoofing it back to the van, where for about a half a mile the climb was at a very steep angle (remember, almost 100 degrees out there!).

Got my wallet and headed back to the race where I found Sha had found a good spot under the trees near the crane that held all the ducks in a dumpster (see above pic). So, we returned to the food “court” and got our food; an Italian sausage for me and fries for us all to share. $10. No kidding. $10. That had to be the most expensive sub and fries I ever paid, even when I was in New York City for a REAL one! Never again, I said to Sha, will we ever buy food from those idiot food tents again. (And, no, it wasn’t that good.)

We stopped at another tent for some water (the Big Brothers Big Sisters one for $$ water but it was for the cause, right?) and got back to the trees.

On the way, we walked by one of the misting tents that was full of children who had just performed a Kung Fu display.  A couple of them didn’t look very well.  That’s probably why when we got to the tree, we heard sirens off in the distance and witness a fire truck and three ambulances appearing shortly thereafter.  They were going to move the crane to come over to the island but, instead ended up using a Gator to carry the kids over to the ambulance.

Needless to say, by this point, the kids were just getting too warm, even with being under a tree, and we were all getting a bit tired.  So, we didn’t get to see the dumpster drop the ducks.  We also made a pact to come next year but perhaps a bit later so we can get there closer to seeing the ducks drop.

We just hope the kids are okay (sure they are; they were in great hands).

We’ll see the race next year!

Filed under: Outside, Parenting & Kids by kory