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Went out Saturday to Estancia, NM (about 50 miles from here) to the Punkin Chunkin' contest. This was the 18th annual meet, and the winner of this competition goes to the World Championships in Delaware next month. I was actually prodded into going by Nate Davey, but I was late getting there and Nate had already left by the time I got there. Still, I had a good time with my sister and her husband.
This event was pretty small, with only nine or ten chunkin' devices. There was only one trebuchet, and the rest were air cannons, but it was still very cool to watch these folks shoot a pumpkin over half a mile. The longest distance we heard announced was 2900 feet and change. There were also a few food vendors, but the whole thing had a very small town feel to it. (Especially in comparison to the Balloon Fiesta, which was going on the last two weekends. The Balloon Fiesta had tens of thousands of people daily.)
Here are a few quick photos...
The entire line-up of chunkers:
A couple of the smaller cannons:
A few bigger ones...The "Oh Deere" cannon was being towed by a John Deere tractor. The pink and black one was called "Bedazzled", and it was 'manned' by a bunch of women. And "The Judge" was shaped like a six-shooter:
And the big boys:
This shot of the guys loading "El Launcho Grande" gives a pretty good idea of the scale of these things:
The high-tech scoreboard:
And the food offerings at one of the vendors:
And in case you're wondering what a "Navajo Taco" is, it's a piece of Indian fry bread topped with meat, beans, green and/or red chile, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. Good stuff:
And here's a panorama shot showing everything in MUCH closer detail. (This is a big file and may take a few moments to load on your computer.) Click on the picture after it's displayed to see the full sized version.
http://tg3k.com/images/punkin chunkin 2013/Punkin Chunkin Pano Full.jpg
All in all, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.
This event was pretty small, with only nine or ten chunkin' devices. There was only one trebuchet, and the rest were air cannons, but it was still very cool to watch these folks shoot a pumpkin over half a mile. The longest distance we heard announced was 2900 feet and change. There were also a few food vendors, but the whole thing had a very small town feel to it. (Especially in comparison to the Balloon Fiesta, which was going on the last two weekends. The Balloon Fiesta had tens of thousands of people daily.)
Here are a few quick photos...
The entire line-up of chunkers:
A couple of the smaller cannons:
A few bigger ones...The "Oh Deere" cannon was being towed by a John Deere tractor. The pink and black one was called "Bedazzled", and it was 'manned' by a bunch of women. And "The Judge" was shaped like a six-shooter:
And the big boys:
This shot of the guys loading "El Launcho Grande" gives a pretty good idea of the scale of these things:
The high-tech scoreboard:
And the food offerings at one of the vendors:
And in case you're wondering what a "Navajo Taco" is, it's a piece of Indian fry bread topped with meat, beans, green and/or red chile, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. Good stuff:
And here's a panorama shot showing everything in MUCH closer detail. (This is a big file and may take a few moments to load on your computer.) Click on the picture after it's displayed to see the full sized version.
http://tg3k.com/images/punkin chunkin 2013/Punkin Chunkin Pano Full.jpg
All in all, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.