Saturday's big money day for the festival opened to a burst of rain following the morning's Sunset Parade but Sunset Park dried rapidly and organizers anticipated another strong turnout. "We sold 15 barrels of beer Friday night," said LITH Rotarian Bob Huckins who hoped Saturday sales would be even stronger since, "We're going to donate 25 percent of it to our Interact (Community Students Service) Club for a trip to Guatemala."
The day's drama came during the annual Summer Sunset Melon Propellin' contest. Perennial entrant, the Fahrfunflinger melon gun out of Porter, IN, fired, as usual, flawlessly. A small trebuchet hurriedly bolted together by local Scout Troop 167 for a new youth division shot well, too, with terrific loft, albeit rather less downrange throw. Less successful was a big boys' trebuchet called "Chuck and Duck" which suffered a game (and perhaps underwear) -changing failure as its 300-pound throw weight unexpectedly crashed down into its blocks when a lift line broke. Likewise unsuccessful was still another trebuchet, "Choctaw Chucker", which snapped its 2x10 throwing arm in half mid-launch, still flinging a 12-pound watermelon about 100 feet, only completely backwards.
LITH's Summer Sunset will close this evening with the festival's annual fireworks display, no matter how the weather turns out. One organizer said the only way the show wouldn't come off would be "if the fuses are too wet to light."
In the pic: "Oops." Advancing to the rear in the Summer Sunset Melon Propellin' contest Saturday.
2 comments:
Great Pic Pete, perfect timing!!!
If you have a choice of between "good" or "lucky", always pick the latter.--ed.
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