It figures. The day we have an indoor event planned, the weather wasn’t an issue. On tap for Monday is the Great Bed Races. This is an event where various businesses build a racing bed, decorate it, parade it, strip it down and then race it.
The rules are simple: 4 wheels, “double” sized mattress, four pushers and a fifth driver (who may or may not steer the bed.) Each year has a theme. For 2016 it was “Race for the Cup“. The race has two phases, the parade and the race. For the parade, beds are decorated much like a float and they are paraded around the track. With this year’s theme, beds ranged from Alice in Wonderland’s tea-cup scene to “Red Solo Cups.” Some teams are there to compete and their themes are minimal. Others who are there more for fun go all out on the theme.
For 2016, the Best Decorated bed went to the Bigalow Tea entry with their Derby themed cup trophy filled with Roses. Rubbie’s South Side Grill again took the Most Entertaining bed with their Red Neck Yacht Club/Red Solo Cup theme.
Now strip the beds down to racing configuration and time to run them around a traffic cone filled, figure-eight track inside Broadbent Arena at the Kentucky Exposition Center. Some beds had frames of well-welded aircraft frame aluminum with custom wheels and suspension systems, to one that was made from plywood attached to a dolly. Needless to say, well constructed beds tend to go faster and stay under control while those on the other ends tend to knock over or collect traffic cones as they traverse the track. Yes, there is an award for the Cone Eater which went to Expert Sleep Medicine’s entry.
For at least the second year in a row the first heat provided the eventual winner as Bluegrass Indoor Carting put in a time that would stand to get them into the finals. Unlike last year where each team ran one heat and best time wins, this year the top two beds in each division raced a final head-to-head match-up to provide the eventual winners. Bluegrass Indoor Carting bested Rubbie’s South Side Grill in the Champions Division with a time of 33.67 seconds. In the Fun division Premier Packaging topped Brandeis Machinery with a time of 38.70 seconds.
Earlier in the day, it was time to go to the Chow Wagon at Fest-a-ville on the River. The Chow Wagon is best described as “Fair Food”, so fried candy bars and elephant ears are aplenty, but having lunch on the Great Lawn by the Ohio River makes up for the food. Live music is playing on two stages and a small fair midway entertains the kids. After lunch, we took a walk across the Ohio River… on a bridge of course. The Big Four Bridge, an old train bridge that has been out of commission for years, has been refurbished into a one mile walking bridge for walkers and bicyclists. Along the way you can read about the history of the bridge.
