However, When the Grand rapids Festival rolled around I finally decided I needed to see what all the hoopla was about. After I asked my mom if she wanted to go with me I found out they were expecting a crowd of around 60,000 people...YIKES!! But there was no backing out now.
Of course, with that many people that meant a lot of cars and parking miles away, then walking forever. If I had my bike that would be fine, but my legs and brain would argue all the way, and I would never hear the end of it. Luckily they had a shuttle bus, if we could only find it... rather than drive aimlessly hoping to run into the shuttle, I spotted an older gentleman walking down the street of a small town just outside of Grand Rapids. I asked him if he knew where the shuttle bus pick up area was, and he asked me if I was up for a long walk. If that were the case would I driving all over creation looking for a shuttle?? I immediately said "uh... no..." It was a good thing because he then told me to drive about four miles and I would run into it. That's not a long walk; that's a marathon...
We eventually made to the festival and of course we had to get a picture as proof of my first and maybe last apple butter festival.
Look... you can't go anywhere without finding a photo bomber:) Of course I may have been photo bombing her...
If you want to know what 60 thousand people looks like, this gives you a pretty good idea. What have I gotten myself into?!?!
I"m not saying I loved the huge mob, but I did enjoy the view of the Erie canal (though it probably looks exactly the same tomorrow, without a million people).
And it was also a great view of the Maumee River:)
So this was what all the fuss was about. A hand full of guys standing there stirring huge kettles of simmering apples for hours on end.
And the line to get apple butter made fresh that day had to be a mile long (no thanks). Or you could walk right up to a booth and buy day old... Hmm...
Of course, with so many people, I really figured my bionic leg would just blend in, and I could take a day off from explaining fifteen times over what I did...
No such luck... a random stranger came up to me and being funny said "wanna race?!" Being funny right back, I told him I would give him a head start then catch up to him later. Then once again that infamous question came out again... "what did you do?!?!" I guess I have to accept the fact the next thirty years are going to be spent answering that question... A LOT...
So when I replied to this guy I was in a bar fight just to make it interesting, he actually looked in shock and said "are you serious!?!?" I told him no, but it sounds more interesting then the real story. You guessed it... he had to know the real story. After I told him the foot drop hyper-extension thing he said "stick with the bar fight..." ugh... I can't win...
In spite of all the walking and elbows in the side, it was a nice day with my mom and that made it all worth it.
Now that I've been to an apple butter festival I can finally mark that off my list of things to do; though I'm not sure it was "bucket list" worthy. They say curiosity kills the cat... But with out curiosity you might never know what you're missing:)
Have a great weekend!!
Christine:)
I can get ya a recipe for crock-pot apple butter; no lines and not day old! ;)
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you had a nice day with your mom, even if it was with a lot of walking. I wonder why it is that people seem afraid to ask me why I'm in a wheelchair but it's okay to ask you about your leg hardware. I mean both are as rude as asking someone about the acne scars on their face, ya know?
That is definitely the million-dollar question… :-)
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