What are the Best Fall Festivals in America?

I think it's proof of that that's true. But I was also that because like, I wanted immediate results, and that's not how that type of science works, right, Like you're often waiting years for little discoveries. So I was at the lab late one night kind of hating my

life and thinking science isn't for me. And then I saw a flyer on the wall across the way for this mechanical engineering lab, and I had these pictures of these excited engineers just building these giants, sling shots and cannons for the punkin chunkin, that big festival that takes place in Delaware, and they were just having so much fun. Yeah, that's the one where they shoot pumpkins across the field, right, and and somehow that convinced you to become an engineer.

I mean, I think collecting weird facts is a better career fit for me. I just remember thinking, it's fall and leaves are beautiful, and I'm stuck in this lab while these guys are giggling and loving pumpkins, and somehow, as the weather gets Christmas years, I do think about how lucky I am not to be stuck indoors. And today's show is all about making the most of the fall and coming up with the best weirdest fall travel guy we could. So that's what we're doing today. Let's

dive in a their podcast. Listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Man Gueshow Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass carving our faces and to a massive pump. And have you seen this yet? I haven't. That's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil, and I have to say I'm a little bit conflicted watching this because, on the one hand, I've never had my likeness portrayed in gourd form, so I I guess I'm a little

bit flattered about this. But on the other hand, Tristan is turning out to be really exacting as a carver, and the accuracy I'm seeing here is more than a little bit unsettling, to be honest with you. I mean, he's exacting about everything, and I do feel like him choosing us as subjects is flattering kind of. But I also think it's gonna be weird having these ugly Jack Lenners around for the rest of the month. It's gonna

be horrible, it's gonna be a little bit odd. Well, if there's any upside to all of this, it's that at least we now have some tangible proof that it's really autumn here in Atlanta, where it's still eighties something degrees at the moment, And because we need all the reminders of the season we can get, we thought it'd be fun to devote today's episode entirely to fall festivals. But we're not talking about the typical events you see this time of year, like October Fest or harvest carnivals.

Nothing against those those are always fun, but we're actually gonna shine a spotlight on some of the truly unique and unusual festivals that are taking place all across the country right now. So many of these are happening like this weekend or next weekend. And you know, because there are just so many events to choose from, we decided to lay out a few broad categories to guide us and then kind of win our separate ways found one or two examples of each and and so that's how

we'll be tackling this. So first up, we've got food festivals, Mango, what's your what's your first pick for this one? So I'm gonna go with the Giant Omelet celebration that takes place in Abville, Louisiana, and it takes place during the first weekend of November. And for this annual festival, more than five thousand fresh eggs are carried through the streets of town and then cracked into this enormous twelve foot

skillet right outside the courthouse. And from there a team of international chefs they're known as the Confury I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but Trinity in French. And they add like fifteen pounds of crawfish tails, fifty two pounds of butter, and a few other key ingredients and then they whip up this giant Cajun omelet. So who gets to eat this massive omelet? Everyone ever really has to eat it. Yeah, so the chefs consider their

creation this omelet of friendship. So the whole thing is dished out free of charge to anyone in attendance. And there's even a six hundred egg junior omelet that I guess aspiring people can cook up, and it's in a four foot skillet right alongside the giant one, and it's called the Children's omelet, and that's also handed out to crowd and round again. How many eggs are in the big one again? So the rule is you've got to use five thousand eggs plus one extra egg for each

year the festival has been around. So it's been around since, which means it was made from like five thousand, thirty four eggs this year. Oh my gosh, believable. Well, the whole thing sounds really fun and silly, and I'm guessing the omelet taste delicious. I hope after this many years they've actually gotten it down to a science. But um, there's got to be a story to like how this started,

because it seems like a pretty specific way to celebrate. Yeah, so this one actually has a great history behind it.

It goes back to when Napoleon and his army were traveling through the south of France, and this was in the early eight hundreds, and according to the legend, he and his men were staying near this small town of Bessier one night and uh Napoleon ended up eating an omelet prepared by a local chef, and supposedly he liked the dish so much that he ordered the townspeople to gather up all the eggs in the town, by anyones they could find, and cook a massive omelet for his

army to eat the next morning. And this actually became a French tradition years later, like where towns would, I guess prepare these big monster omelets to feed the poor at Easter. And that's how Avil got got in on this omelet act too, like like three members of the town's chamber of commerce. They attended the festival and Bessier, France in the early eighties, and they had so much fun that they decided to bring the festival back to

their hometown. And now they're actually seven cities worldwide that hosts their own omelet festivals, and representatives from each of them gather in Louisiana each year to help prepare the town's giant omelet. But if eating omelets isn't your thing, there's still a lot of other on theme activities, including both an egg toss and an egg cracking contest. Well, that seems appropriate. You know, it's gonna be a tough one to be because that does sound like a lot

of fun. So I feel like I need to show a little state pride. I haven't mentioned Alabama and a few episodes recently, so I'm gonna go with the National Peanut Festival that's hosted each year in Dothan, Alabama. Now, not to brag or anything, Mango, but did you know that more than a quarter of the nation's peanuts are grown within a one hundred mile radius of Dothan? Really, I, I I honestly did not know that. But I've got

to say it does sound like you are bragging. I am bragging because actually I didn't know that fact until we started doing our research for this week's episode. But maybe I should have known that. But anyway, Dothan builds itself as the peanut capital of the world, and that's not a title we Alabamians take lightly because I mean don't forget peanut farming basically saved Alabama's economy after the Civil War, and that was actually true of a few

other Southern states as well. You may have heard this story before, but you know, bowl weevils complete ealy decimated the region's cotton crops during reconstruction, and you know, the peanut turned out to be just the replacement cash crop that the local farmers needed. So I I think I've heard about this before. What was it George Washington Carver who actually suggested that, Well, he definitely played a big role in getting Southern farmers to switch to planting peanuts.

You know, in fact, when Dothan hosted its inaugural Peanut Festival back in nineteen thirty eight, George Washington Carver was actually the guest of honor there and there there's even a statue of him in the town today. I love that. So, well, what do you do at a peanut festival? And I mean besides eating a lot of peanuts, You definitely eat a lot of peanuts, but I mean you name it like they there's live music, petting zoos, livestock shows, of course,

a parade. There's even a beauty pageant. Where women from all different peanut producing counties face off to see who will be crowned Miss National Peanut Festival. As a matter of fact, there's so much to do with the festival that the three day event it started as in nineteen thirty eight has grown into this sprawling ten day event attended by more than two hundred thousand people. So just

keep this in mind. If you're in the area anytime between November two and November eleven, swing by the festival and go nuts, I guess, or you know, stay very far away if you've got peanut allergies. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Um. I am actually glad you brought up how peanuts saved the region because I found another food with like a similar story. It's called the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival, and it's set to take place in Niceville,

Florida this year from October twenty one through. I love that name, the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival, And I do think we should be clear here. Many people may not know this. I think most people probably think of a mullet as like the unfortunate hair style. But yeah, which which Tristan. I think committed to for one of the episodes we did about hair weeks ago. But anyway, that's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about

the hairstyle. Yeah, thankfully this has nothing to do with haircuts, because the festival is actually a celebration of the mullet fish, which are these small ray finned fish that live in warm waters all across the world. Yeah, and obviously that's much better than eating hair. So during the Great Depression, the town of Niceville, or Boggy Bayou as it was called at the time, was single handedly saved by the

mullet fishing industry. So the fish were abundant in the towns nearby bayous and it's not only kept the residents fed, but it also gave them something to trade with the neighboring farmers from Alabama. And of course a lot has changed since then, so the town's got like a sunnier name now it goes by Niceville, but the fish are still the start of the show at this annual festival.

So since nine people from all over the South of flocked to Niceville each fall for a weekend of live music and mullet based cuisine, and while I can't claim to have tried the fish myself. The word is that it's especially tasty when it's smoked. So vendors at the festival of actually all sorts of other preparations as you can imagine, Like you can try baked, broiled, grilled, uh. If you really want to indulge, there's a fried Italian potato mullet, or you could go Hawaiian with the tropical

barbecue mullet. I like, how no matter what it is. When you said fried, I was like, I'll try it. I'm into this. I mean, as tempting as that is. I do think I found a food festival that gives the old mullet fisher run for its money, and that's West Virginia's famous road Kill cook Off. Now, this is an event that takes place in the town called Marlington. There and the local chefs actually compete to see who can cook up the tastiest dish that are using animals

you'd likely see on the side of the road. So this is a festival for anyone who's ever had a hankering for exotic fair like squirrel gravy over biscuits or fried venison wantons, or the ever popular tarayaki marinated bear. What so people actually run down bears in West Virginia?

Have you ever been to West Virginia? I mean, actually, that's that's the thing, like, an entry's main ingredient doesn't have to be sourced from actual road kill, and the website's rules mentioned that most of the judges would prefer that it not be, but instead the only requirement is that a dish's main ingredient has to be an animal that often winds up on the side of the road

after being hit unfortunately by a car. So things like dear rabbit, possum, groundhog, snake, squirrel, or even bear, those are all fair. I can't tell you how many bear I've almost run over in my prius exactly. And I'm sure the food is great in its own right, But my favorite part of the festival is the way the West Virginian is kind of poke fun at the stereotypes

that some people associate with their state. So, just as an example of this, most competitors come up with these really colorful names for their recipes, like just listen to last year's winning top three hold I've got the list here it says you've got finder fried fawn smothered in vulture vomit that took third place. You've got hill Billy Marty Gras alligator in turtle gumbo. I'd actually probably paste

that to be honest, that took second place. And then this year's champion predator slash prey Chili, which was a two fur made from both bear and venice. I mean, I do like their sense of human But if those are this year's winners, then I guess the festival is already over. Yeah, that's true. It was a fun one to talk about, but we did we did miss it. It was the last Saturday in September. But there's always next year. You need to plan add for these kinds

of events. But you know, as you know, if fall just isn't the same for you without a little exotic game in your life. I did find another festival that might do the trick. Now. It's called the Innis Hunter's Feet and it takes place in Innis, Montana, on October nineteenth this year. Now, the event got to start thirty

three years ago. Mostly is away for the town's hunters to clean out their freezers before the next season, and in fact, the festival actually takes place every year on the Friday before rifles season opens, which I'm sure you knew. As soon as I said that, you were like, that's

right before rifles season. And while there's plenty to keep people entertained, including bear spray demonstrations and bake sales, the main event is a cooking competition to see who can make the most creative dishes from wild game that's been kept on ice since the last season. So I think the question we all want to ask is do the recipes have clever names like at the Roadkill Festival. I mean, I wish they did, but unfortunately not, or at least

not as far as I could tell. But the dishes themselves do sound every bit as inventive as what they cook up in West Virginia. So just looking at the list here, you've got old standards like moose chili and Elk fajitas. Then there's some of the fancy stuff like Mountain Lion Cordon Blue. Then lastly, for dessert, festivalgoers can indulge themselves with some homemade moose brownies and a fresh batch of deer fudge. Actually want to try both of because I don't know if it's I guess it's made

of deer. I don't really know exactly what that means, but it's on the list here. I should have looked that up. But you know, once everybody's had their fill, ballots are cast and trophies are awarded to the year's best and most creative dishes. So it seems like a fun one. Yeah, that does seem fun. So I think we've covered enough weird food to last lifetime, So let's move on to our next category. But first we should

take a quick break. You're listening to part time Genius, so we're talking about the weirdest fall fest tools that are actually worth the trip, all right, mango. So our next category was animal based festivals where you don't ep ms. Right, isn't that what we agree on? All right? So I'm curious what did you come up with for that one. So there's another Louisiana event that I want to talk about. It's called the Angola Prison Rodeo and it's held a rear in the town of St. Francisville in the fall.

And we might have mentioned this on a previous episode, but it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a rodeo put on by the inmates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Like, how does that happen? Is this some sort of like cowboy jail or something. I mean, if they have real prisoners out there riding bulls and racing horses, is that what's happening. Yeah, so they do all the stuff that you'd see it in normal rodeo, But as far as I can tell, none of the performers had rodeo experience

prior to go into prison. The event was first held in I believe, and it was really just a way to entertain the inmates and the prison employees. In fact, the rodeo wasn't open to the public until two years later, and even then, spectators had to sit on apple crates or the hoods of their cars because there weren't stands yet. I'm assuming that's changed by now. And do you have to go to the actual prison to watch the rodeo?

So not anymore. The event was actually so successful once it went public that the organizers invested in this seat arena and they opened it for the first time for the rodeo. And this is kind of random, but I've read that the bleachers actually collapsed during one of the shows. That year, but the crowd was so engrossed that most people didn't even get up. They just sat on the collapsed bleachers and kept watching. Must be some show, yeah, I mean I was checking out the rundown of events,

and some of them are super wild. So one of the newer ones to be added to the program is chariot racing, but in so standing in an actual chariot with wheels on it, contestants just mount a sled that's attached to a horse and rider, and so then they're pulled at top speeds all across the arena, and the whole time, each of the sled riders is holding a picture of water, and whoever measures to hold on the

longest and spilled at least water is the winner. Okay, that sounds fun actually, but if races aren't your thing. It's also this event called the wild Cow Milking, And as you might have guess, this is where teams of inmates cowboys, they start chasing cows all around the arena while trying to milk them, and the first team to bring milk to the judge is the one that wins.

That one does not sound as fun to me, to be honest, but but it does sound interesting, But what about the more dangerous stuff that you see at rodeo, is like trying to stay on the back of a bucking bronco or getting chased by a bull, Like, can they do any of that or is it a a little too dangerous for the you know, I guess they're untrained prisoners. So the inmates aren't actually untrained. The whole event is overseen by rodeo professionals who helped coordinate the stunts, and

they step in if things get hairy. And as for dangerous stunts, like the prison rodeo has so many of those, it's crazy. Like the strangers is probably what they called convict poker, and according to the rodeo's website, this is the ultimate poker game where every winning hand has a price and four inmate cowboys will sit at a table in the middle of the arena and they're playing this friendly game of poker and suddenly a wild bull charges in. The sole purpose is to knock the players out of

the season. The last man remaining seated is the winner is an idiot. I mean, if that's not wild enough for you, you've got to stick around for the last event of the day. It's called Guts and Glory, and the object is for an inmate to get close enough to the biggest, meanest bull in the show in order to snatch a poker tip that's been tied to its horn. It is really mind blowing. Oh my gosh, we would be so bad at this. It sounds just so nerve wrack. I don't even think I could watch this, much less

participate in it. Yeah, so this is probably a good time to mention that participation in the rodeo is completely voluntary, So this is an excuse to like abuse or exploit inmates or anything like that. And in fact, all of the profits from the rodeo goes straight into the prisons inmate well for a front which pays for their educational and recreational supplies. And so if this sounds fun to anyone listening, the prison rodeo takes place every Sunday in October.

So if you're going to be in town for that giant Omelet celebration the first weekend of November, like, why not get there a few days early check this one out too. And aside from the rodeo itself, there are lots of arts and crafts and livestock demonstrations as well. It does seem like something forever buddy, all right, well, my Animals We Don't Eat festival is a bit more subdued than a prison rodeo, but don't worry, it still

has a thrilling white knuckle race. Now. It's called the Wooly Worm Festival, and it's held each year in late October in Banner Elk, North Carolina. And you can probably tell from the name the entire festival is centered on wooly worms or wooly bears if you're from the Midwest or New England or and those are the fuzzy, brown and black caterpillars that you see around this time of year, right,

that's exactly them. Well, the bonus points for remembering that wooly worms aren't actually worms at all, like you said, they're caterpillars, and the ones that survived till spring will eventually become Isabella tiger moss. But if you ask me, these guys are a lot more interesting as caterpillars. And that's because wooly worms supposedly have the ability to predict weather. According to regional folklore, the thirteen segments of a wooly

worms body correspond to the thirteen weeks of winter. So the lighter a brown segment is the milder that week of winter will be, and the darker a black segment is the colder and snowy that corresponding week will be. I thought that was just so funny. So they're basically the groundhogs of the insect kingdom, Yeah, except even more complicated. That's that's pretty cool. I mean, punks and tani pill I feel like, better step up his game and he

wants to be this interesting. But there's a catch to predicting the weather with wooly worms, though, because you have to study the stripes to discern the weather patterns. But each wooly worms stripes are a little bit different, so you could pick up two different caterpillars and get two different, you know, predictions from this. And so that's where the

festival comes in. I mean, visitors can take part in the standard festival fair like crafts and food vendors and live concerts, but the main event is undoubtedly the wooly worm race or waste as the locals called for some reason. And so the race is equal opportunity and open to worms of all sizes and skill levels, and human coaches, as they call them, simply place the contestants on one of the many strings laid out for the race, and then whichever one climbs the three foot string the fastest

becomes the definitive weather predictor for the year. It sounds very, very scientific, a lot of science that. Yeah. I mean, I haven't witnessed one of these races firsthand. They must be pretty riveting because last year's festival drew an estimated twenty thousand spectators and about a thousand racers. So is there any kind of prize for winning? Well for the caterpillars, it's mostly just that honor of having your stripes used to predict the weather, and I'm sure that they are

all very honored by that. But you know, they're also given these cool nicknames like Patsy Climb and Dale worm Heart, so I guess that's you know, there's that piece to it. But they come out with the nickname. Yeah, they come out with a nickname that seems pretty awesome. Is that not enough? But there's also a thousand dollar cash prize. But what is probably the biggest injustice of the entire wooly Worm festival is that that money actually goes to

the winning worms coach, not to the worm itself. That does feel like a rip off. And even though I think I know the answer to this, I do have to ask, like, are the worms ever right about the weather? I mean, that's a fair question, and it really depends on who you ask me. Scientists will tell you that

wily worms have no weather forecasting powers whatsoever. And scientists are always ruining it, you know about the claim that variants in color on a wooly worms stripes is really due to temperature levels and moisture during its first few days of life. So really, if anything, the stripes would actually tell you more about what the weather was like when the caterpillar was born than they would about, you know,

what it's going to be like in the future. But anyway, that said, the festivals organizers argue that quote, over the last twenty years, the worms have had an eighty five percent record for accuracy, so maybe the scientists are just jealous. That's a good precentage. Yeah, that's not a bad percentage. But actually I do want to share this other quote from the festival's website, just because it is too good

not to share. And so here's what it says. There is no other experience in life that can produce the absurd euphoria that comes from cheering for a caterpillar to climb a stream. It is so indisputably ridiculous that it becomes completely liberated. Well, I am sold, And you know, I actually came across a few different festivals that use Creepy Crawley's as weatherman. But um, I think I'll say that for our scary festivals category. All right, well, that

happens to be up next. But before we get to that, let's take one more quick break. Welcome back to Part time Genius. And we all know Halloween makes autumn the de facto spooky season, so it's only right that we include a couple of scary festivals in our travel guide. Those that's what we were thinking. But as terrifying as haunted houses can be, I decided to go with a

more primal fear for my pick, and that's tarantulas. So lots of people have a rachnophobia, and that's understandable when faced with spiders as big and harry as these guys. But at the Tarantula Awareness Festival, and this is in course Gold, California, the aim isn't to scare you with spiders and instead of to make you appreciate them as much as you should. I mean, I love the name of this one. I feel like maybe they're asking a bit much with that goal. I mean, what is there

to appreciate exactly? So for starters, tarantulas are actually a vital part of the course Gold ecosystem, so they help control the populations of all kinds of harmful pests as well as like they serve as an important food source for local wildlife. And then there's that power to predict weather that I mentioned. So the whole festival is the celebration of the local tarantulas. And these are the guys that emerge from their borrows each fall to find a mate.

And because the spiders basically hibernate all winter once they've made it, their emergence is usually an indicator that rain and cooler temperatures are just a few weeks away. That's pretty cool, but I find it kind of interesting that the festivals where we don't eat the animals as or at least as the main attraction, like these are the ones where we're using them to you know, come up with weather predictions. It's like, if I can't eat this better,

at least predict the future. But otherwise, why am I not eating it? You know? Anyway? Are there are other events going on here? Is this mostly just watching spiders crawl out of the holes all day? No? Definitely not. They're all kinds of other festivity is including there's a scream off contest all right, tar angula poetry reading, Um, I think it's reading poetry about trenchlas not the trench was actually dream the reading say on there there's an

arachnid presentation. There's something built on the website as the best live tarrangula derby ever, the best one ever. Wow. But the event I'm most curious about is the Hairy Leg Contest. It's open to both men and women, though apparently only for ages sixteen to that makes sense, And for anyone who's feeling brave enough to attend, be sure to crawl your way over to course schooled by October.

So that's the date for this year's festival. Yeah, it's gonna be tough to decide which one of these festivals to go to, because my scary festival is also on the seven this year. And you know, listeners are gonna have a tough choice to make here. But if you ask me, there's really no contest because the clear winner is the Emma Crawford Coffin Race that's held each year in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Now, who is Emma Crawford, you might ask, Well, she was a real woman who moved

to the small town in the late eighteen hundreds. He was hoping that it's famous mineral springs would help cure her tuberculosis. Now, unfortunately that wasn't the case, and so on Emma's deathbed, she requested that her lover have her buried at the top of a nearby mountain. And it was called Red Mountain there, And so that's exactly what he did. Only Emma didn't stay put for long. Now here's the explanation from Atlas Obscura on what exactly happened next.

It says, well, filling her wishes here, Emma laid until nineteen twelve, when evil railroad barons moved her body to the mountains south slope in order to make way for their trains. Shortly thereafter, terrible flooding eroded that spot of the land. Causing Emma's casket to go shooting down the mountain into town, where a couple of boys found it, still labeled with the silver name plate bearing her name.

Fast forward a few decades and a tradition was born out of commemorating Emma's restless casket, where the crux of the sport lies in trying to put her back where she belongs. So the Coffin race is basically a bunch of people trying to carry a real corpse up the side of a mountain, like, don't tell me they'd dig up that poor woman. Every year, there are zero corpses

involved in this, thankfully. The first event was held back in and it mostly consists of this big parade and Emma's honor, and it's complete with a procession of hearses and a bunch of souped up coffins on wheels, and it's just kind of like this very weird and dark soapbox derby. And once the parade is over, competitors split off into teams of five. Those teams involved four pall bears and one Emma, which is of course the costume person inside the coffin, and the others have to push

this person and the coffin across the finish line. And so two teams at a time compete in these heats and they consist of a one nine yard uphill sprint and afterwards prizes are awarded, and you know, not only for the fastest time, but for the best coffin, the best entourage, and of course for the best Emma. Well, now that recruited everyone out, what do you say? We clear the air with our last category, which is feel

good festivals. And these are the ones that you know there may be more laid back, a little more sub dude than the ones we've talked about so far, and you can go first this time. Well, what do you what do you pick? All right? So I feel like people want to go out with a bang, But for my last pick, I thought I'd got with more of

a whisper. And that feels appropriate because for the last event I want to talk about, it's in Ocean City, New Jersey, and it's called the Quiet Festival and it takes place on November four this year, and attendees have all manner of quiet and peaceful activities to look forward to. So let me just run down the list here. You've got bubble blowing, kite flying, pin dropping paper, airplane flying, a yo yo demonstration, a quiet snoring contest. I don't

know exactly how that works. And it's actually it takes place on the beach and it's called Snore at the Shore. And as always, the festival kick off in the morning with its traditional opening ceremony. Now at that opening ceremony, there's an inspirational yawn along set to the tune of Beautiful Dreamer and accompanied by the world's only windshimes band. I mean, it doesn't get any better or or eighter than this, but it makes you wonder, like, how did

somebody come up with this idea? And they really went all in on this idea. So I love this because there's very little piece at my house with such loud talker. Seriously, what what is the story here? Like because this sort of sounds like an anti festival, right, Like like when when you think festival's quiet isn't really a word that

springs the mind, that's true. I mean there's there's actually just one guy responsible for the Quiet Fest and his name is Mark Soyfer and he was Ocean Cities publicist for forty five years before he finally retired in two thousand and sixteen. Now, during his tenure there, Mark dreamed up all kinds of offbeat events for his town, not just the Quiet Festival, but you know, look at some

other stuff. He came up with Mollusk to Day, Weird Week and Mr Mature America Contest, I'd like to see what that one is exactly, and then his very first venture, the Miss Crustacean Hermit Crab beauty pageant. So you know, I have talked to you endlessly about starting America's next top Mollusk. So I already love this guy. He sounds

like my new hero um and all this sounds so fun. Yeah. Well, I mean you're not alone in thinking so, because despite the fact that Mark never actually lived in Ocean City and always commuted from a nearby town, he was honored as Citizen of the Year back in nineteen and then again as Citizen of the Decade in two thousand thirteen. Citizen of the Decade. MA feels like something he came up.

I'm pretty sure he came up with. So you know, it's gonna be pretty hard to talk that And I'm actually gonna borrow a hite from your playbook and use a little homestate pride to close this out. I knew you were going to do this. So you are there really enough people in Delaware to support a festival? I mean,

ain't no party like a Delaware party. And that is especially true on the Thursday after an election day, which happens to be November eight this year, because this is when people from all the towns in Sussex County gathering Georgetown, Delaware to celebrate the Return Day festival. So what's returned today? I mean, does it they have something to do with

election returns? So not exactly. No. Nobody knows when Returned Day was first celebrated, but it's thought to have emerged due to a change in state law back in and that was the year the county seat was moved from a coastal town to the more geographically central town of Georgetown, and as a result of the switch, voters from other towns now had to travel there to cast their votes

on election day. Then they'd go back home, only to return two days later to hear the results that we And so after a few years of everyone in the county getting together on Return Day, they just decided to blow out the event with festivities and so like they had music, a parade, even a public barbecue where they had roast a whole ox in this big open pit roasting an ox. Well, they really didn't added a weird element. But there's no way that people still have to travel

to a different town to cast the ballot. So why is it still called a return day? I mean, part of it's just for tradition, right, but but these days the festival is mainly seen as a way to kind of mend fences and healed the wounds caused by the November elections. So in that sense you can kind of think of it as a return to normal day. And for example, one of the main events is this big unity parade. We're all people who ran in local and

state elections on both sides of the aisle. Both winners and losers ride together alongside these marshing bands other floats. And if that sounds a little too warm and fuzzy for you, don't worry. Delawares also got you covered on this because another big part of the Richmand Day is

the mayoral Hatchett Toss contest. So basically this is where all the Sussex County mayors gather outside the courthouse and then they take turns chucking hatchets at targets to see who can throw the farthest and with the most accuracy. But you know, again, this is viewed as a symbolic way of burying the hatchets. It's not as violent as people might think. But you know, the mayors aren't really throwing the hatches at each other or anything like that.

It would be a very different kind of festival. But all right, we know, I've got admit you. You really want me over on the Delaware festivals seemed so we might need to take a road trip there for return Day this year. But I think we could all use a little less political discord this season and return to normal. That that actually sounds pretty good right about now. Definitely. But before we head out, why don't we do a

fact off. Well, there was one festival I didn't mention in the spooky category but would have been a pretty good fit. So, as you know this, many years after Thriller was created, I still think it's maybe the best music video ever. So it's it's no surprise that I think it'd be fun to attend the zombie pub Crawl in Minneapolis, and it's actually this weekend, so get your plane tickets ready in case you're not familiar with a zombie walk or what it is. It's it's pretty much

what it sounds like like. It's this big organized gathering where lots of people show up in zombie costumes and you're encouraged to stay in character walking zombie like, dragging your legs, moaning and grunting and all that, and that this huge gathering, this involves, you know, moving between pubs in the area. So while there are some competing zombie

walks out there, this one is the real deal. And they actually set a world record with over fifteen thousand attendees I guess a world record for the biggest zombie walking. But either way, that's a lot of people. That's pretty amazing. It is. You know, I'm a little bummed out that you said this because you actually stole my first fact, but you did leave out a couple of my favorite bits, so I'm going to add to that. Um, you forgot the zombie pub crault here, which is what do we

want brains? When do we want them brains? That's great, Sorry I left that one. And also at the event, is the World Brain Eating Championship, where Joey Chestnut ate more than fifty pork brain tacos in eight minutes. Fifty Wow. Of course Joey Chestnut would win that one. I wonder how many records he holds in the food eating category. On a very different note, another festival that just started

yesterday and it runs through this weekend. It was called the Trailing of the Sheep Festival near Sun Valley, Idaho, which is about three hours east of Boise. Did you know that through much of the past century they have actually been more sheep and Idaho than humans? Did you know that? That was one of those things I thought maybe you would know. But the festival is a celebration of the annual migration of the sheep to the othern

part of the state. And in the Big Sheet parade on Saturday, you can trail behind fifteen hundred sheep down Main Street. I mean, imagine getting to follow fifteen hundred sheep. That seems worth the trip in itself, right, Yeah, definitely. Well thousand other people also show up, so it must

be something pretty special. That's funny. When I was studying abroad in Tibet and Lasa, like I'd kind of done all the things I wanted to do, and on the last day was just like sort of bumbling about and there was the sheep that was just walking through the city for some reason, and I just started following it from the city and I spent like I spent half a day just following the sheep, just like walking to cafes walk out. So imagine doing that plus fourteen more.

I am in. So we've talked about hot air ballooning before. We've actually had a couple of balloon pilots on for a quiz last year. But you know what we didn't talk about was the most photographed event in the world, and that's the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival. It's gonna be cranking up in just a few days, and it this stunning image to see these hundreds of loons up against

the backdrop of the mountains. And in addition to just being this beautiful, beautiful spot to see balloons, this area is apparently an ideal spot for ballooning for geographical reasons. It's known as the Albuquerque Box and it's created by

the mountains surrounding this valley. And I would need help like actually explaining the signs of this, but I think it's that the winds at lower altitudes flow north and the winds at the higher altitudes flow south, which means the balloons can take off going north and then just come right back over the field as they prepare to land.

Oh that's pretty cool. And I know they refer to it as the most photographed event in the world, but that may just be what they say, right, I can't imagine it's actually the most photographing was on my traffic keeper growing up. I remember that traffic keeper. Oh man, that's awesome. Al Well, you know, one of the many things I've never done but really want to do is go to a designated dark sky preserve. Now, this is a location where no artificial light is visible and stargazing

is just incredible there. So I really want to go to Jasper Dark Sky Festival in Alberta, Canada. Now it's the second largest dark sky preserve in the world. Largest also being in Canada, it's the Wood Buffalo National Park. But this is the largest one that's relatively accessible from a nearby town. So really, this is is definitely somewhere I want to visit one day. That sounds pretty awesome.

You know, since moving to Atlanta last year, I've been dipping my toes into as many Southern traditions as possible, and you explained to me that the most important thing to do was just eat as many unusual Southern foods as possible. So I've decided to head to the Sally

Chitland Strut in Sally, South Carolina next month. And I've learned that Chilands is how you pronounced terlings or fried hog, and testines saying you know, I know you mentioned the beauty pageant to crown Miss National Peanut Festival or whatever it was, but uh, that has nothing on the Queen of the Chiland Strut, a position crowned a couple of weeks before the event, and I'm definitely gonna report back. Wow.

You know, I was thinking about talking about Corky Con in San Francisco, or the Scarecrow Fest in October, or even Andy Topia. But the fact that you're willing to travel to try Chitland's, I mean, I might get gonna just wash people try Chaplin's all right. Well, either way, the fact that you're willing to learn about them, I feel like I need to give you the trophy today that sounds great. Thanks so much. All. Well, that's it for today's episode from Gave, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks

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