races
There’s not many things that can possess me to leave the house on a day with 100+ degree weather and ride my bike up the side of a volcano, but the Adult Soap Box Derby is one of them.
Volcano? Sure. Mt Tabor, in southeast Portland, is an old volcano, and as Michelle pointed out not too long ago it makes Stumptown one of only two US cities with a volcano within city limits.
Adult Soap Box Derby? Oh yeah.
Only in Portland could we have an event like this: a soap box derby where teams enter their creations in either the Speed or Artsy category and race them three at a time down the sides of a volcano-turned-city park. If you can’t tell already, the one above was built for speed. As for the more artistic ones, well, how about a French snow globe?
Or a wrestling ring on wheels?
Or a logjam, or a picnic table, or a giant scorpion.
And then, at one point, you might have seen a red semi-truck rolling by and thought, “Hmm, red semi-truck, you are kind of weak. In fact you are not going fast, and now are stopping, and now you seem to be playing an oddly familiar song from my childhood, and now you are making that distinct mechanical noise I have long associated with the Autobots…and…and…holy crap, are you Optimus Prime??”
(And really, to understand how cool this was, you have to go and watch this video from one of my local Flickr contacts. Seriously, it is well worth it to watch the transformation.)
Despite the searing heat, I had a blast watching all the races. I only wish I had planned a bit better and brought some Coronas: for the day of the races only, ten feet on either side of the race track becomes a designated beer garden.
If there was one bad thing about the Adult Soap Box Derby, it would be this: I find that I no longer can bring myself to believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It is not due to a lack of evidence that I found my faith crumbling, not at all. It was because the fucker hosed me when he drove by:
Full photo set can be found here.
Comments(26)
That looks like a blast. I love the story of the wrestler getting knocked out and then spiking his helmet.
It really was one of those little moments that captured the flavor of the whole day.
Welcome back to the zany PacNW! Miss it much?
yeah, i have zero sympathy over your 100-degree weather. (also i’m grumpy due to lack of sleep. ignore this grumpy comment.)
Man, do I wish I could’ve seen this – it looks like a total blast! And your pictures are great!
Do you have any idea how fast the fastest car went? The #1 looks pretty speedy.
next year i say we enter EGG.
oh man. flying spaghetti monster soap boxes. that is more excellent than even i can articulate.
Sorry I missed that (I was at the Hawthorne Street Fair instead). I went to the soapbox car races in Seattle last year and it was a blast. The ingenuity is spectacular!
OK, OK… with events like that, maybe I COULD live in Portland afterall. But I gotta tell ya, that with your two weather choices being dreary rain or blistering sauna, it’s a tough sell. This photo set of yours just about does the trick though! AWESOME!
Wow, now I really want to move out to the north west. How fun!
kat, grumpiness duly ignored. feel better soon, grumpypants.
jenny, only one of us can win this “you should move here” battle of the bloggers, so I’m racking up all the points I can to beat out Wennatchee.
delmer, fast enough that I got vertigo thinking about it.
brandon, EGG WILL CONQUER ALL!
crys, that’s really saying something.
sizzle, sounds like you got to eat all the good sushi, though. so I think we broke even.
shari, did I mention that we have FANTASTIC COFFEE?
justin, with weekend events like this, who wouldn’t want to move out here?
Have I mentioned that I have a little view of Mt. Tabor outside of my window? funny what goes on up on the volcano!
I’m not sure you’re aware, but R-A-D spells rad … as in, “this post is totally rad!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
(I’m a dork today.)
That’s IT! I am definitely going to the next races here. Unless it’s 100+ degrees. Maybe. Wait – beer garden? Yeah, I’m there.
Okay, that settles it….I am planning my trip TONIGHT! I so want to do something neat and fun like this. Look out Portland, here I come! Uh for a visit, for now.
lewis, it’s crazy what goes on up there sometimes!
poppy, thanks for keeping it simple for me.
kristin, beer + 100 degrees out = me probably dying of dehydration, but whatever, at least I’ll be having a good time.
hilly, we’ve always got something zany going on. let me know when you’re up this way and I’ll check the calendar.
My nephew lives in Portland and he’s never mentioned the soap box derby to me! Oh, and if it was 100+ didn’t the hosing feel good?
That was hysterical and looked like a ton of fun. That OP video was awesome! How do they do that? I mean, I know with hydraulics or something like that but I just don’t have the creativity to think something like that up and make it work.
winter, the hosing wasn’t so bad except he sprayed me right in my camera. MY CAMERA IS VERY SENSITIVE AND NO ONE ELSE CAN TOUCH IT.
shelli, I saw the movie, I think they just took their cart to visit the All-Spark.
Man, I miss Portland!
Dude, Portland misses you!
Okay, that is about the coolest thing ever. There is an occasional soap box derby here, but it’s not the same in terms of creativity simply because who the hell is going to waste their time in a flat state? Push a cart? P’shaw!
Fucking. Awesome!!
And Mt. Tabor Park is cool….volcano or not!
I so need that wrestling thing on wheels. Dragging my non-wheel-equipped wrestling thing around everywhere is getting to be a real drag, pun intended.
at least if you’re wearing your luchero mask while you’re dragging your wrestling thing around town, no one will recognize you and mock you.
The carbon fiber hull and the wood one probably cost a pretty penny.