Go Turtle Go!

It's perfectly normal to gather terrapins, a.k.a. turtles, pile them under a bucket with a heat lamp to psych them up for a race, then uncover the turtles and stand and cheer while the turtles creep towards a finish line, right? Good, because that's how my small town spends one night a year each fall at the annual festival. Go turtle go!

Colter's contestant

Like many others, Colter wasn't too sure about this odd, I mean perfectly normal, tradition and had no desire to kiss his turtle for a picture like Mommy requested. That's probably for the best. Don't turtles carry salmonella? Colter, Mommy, and Mr. Turtle

Colter's turtle was speedy but small. The poor turtle was denied the taste of victory because I waited too long to have him put under the heat lamp. All the turtles are piled under a bucket, and my strategy was to wait until many other turtles were already there so our turtle wouldn't be piled underneath all the other turtles and be buried in the middle of the pile. I thought it would be better if our turtle was on the top of the pile so he could escape. It didn't work. He was so little he got stuck on top of a bigger turtle and though he kept moving his legs really fast proving he was a winner at heart, he couldn't get off the big turtle and didn't go anywhere! Oh, well. There's always next year!

I'm not sure what this grumpy face was about. I believe I told him to say, "cheese" and this is what I got, but let's pretend this is the face he made when we find out his turtle lost.