New Jersey Cardboard Boat Races
Posted on August 25, 2008
Filed Under Call us tourists | Leave a Comment
Posted by Stan
We might drive slowly, but when you log more than 14,000 miles in about three months, then you are breaking the “rules” of Slow Travel: Slow down, immerse yourself in the local culture and avoid the fast pace of rushing from one guidebook “must-see” to the next.
We expect the pace to slow in Europe and next year in the Lower 48, but I’m not sure if we’ll immerse ourselves in the local culture as successfully as today, when we spent several hours at Oxford Furnace Lake in Oxford, N.J., just a few miles from Daria’s sister’s house.
First we watched our brother-in-law and one of our nephews, Fernando and Andrew, in their regular Sunday morning pick-up soccer game. The bigger attraction was the first Oxford Cardboard Boat Races, an event to raise money for the local rescue squads (a volunteer fire department and more).
These aren’t tiny little boats, but large boxes designed to hold one or two people (usually children). The winning boat is the one that travels the farthest distance . . . in most cases before it sinks. Thus the dead boat area continued to grow throughout the day.
Most of the spectators, and there were plenty, had a connection to the rescue group or the participants or both.
Did I mention that when we got to the lake, church services were just starting in a pavilion near the parking lot?
Comments
Leave a Reply