Mary Lou Bunch Day Brass Bed Races

centraljune-4536, originally uploaded by Alta Marie.

Well I went to Colorado this weekend to visit Drake in Central City, and I guess I must have arrived on the perfect weekend! Lots to say, so I'll start with the Brass Bed Races and go day by day from there.

I arrived on Saturday and my cousin Alyssa picked me up in Denver and gave me her car to use for the weekend (so awesome of her) we had a lovely time chatting in the car, it was good to catch up for her. Mom wanted me to try to find out if she was "working for the secret service" but if she is, she's good enough at it not to tell me that... :)

So I drove up to Central City and as it just so happened it was Mary Lou Bunch Day. She was a Madam in CC during their boom-time when they were "The Richest Square Mile on Earth." And once a year they have a festival to celebrate her, and I happened to arrive about 10 minutes before the famous brass bed races on Main Street. It's a pretty straightforward affair-- each team consists of two men and one woman-- they race down the street pushing a brass bed, then the men switch positions and switch pajamas (just the "over-pajamas" they keep their union suits on...) then the other guy pushes the bed back up main street. There are judges. I'm not sure what the judging criteria is... The team pictured won it, and rightfully so. They also had a girl chasing them with a pinata.... That definitely wasn't in the criteria, but I'm sure they got bonus points.

For more, see my Flickr set. I have many more pictures that will be added tonight. And many more adventures, including my death-defying drive down Two Brother's Road-- a portion of which appears to be an entirely abandoned mining road. ...