Fur Rondy - Part 2: The Outhouse Races

You can't take yourself too seriously around here, especially as winter nears its end and cabin fever can start to set in with a vengeance. Imaginative Alaskans are always thinking up some strange and hilarious way to stave off the crazies.

Or embrace them. Same thing.

The Outhouse Races involve a team of five to ten people, depending on the division, pushing a person on a toilet seat in an outhouse on skis. The monies from the entry fees and pylon fees go to University of Alaska students going to disaster-stricken areas to lend aid. The rider in the outhouse must remain on the throne for the entire race, which is up and back a one-block course. The outhouses must make a loop around a pylon at the end of the block. If the outhouse comes in contact with the pylon, the team must forfeit the $10 bill clipped to their outhouse as a donation to the Architecture and Engineering club. The $10 bill must be replaced with another before the outhouse can run again. This is a single-elimination race, so the outhouses might make more than one run.

The military teams went first. We didn't get a picture of the other military outhouse, but it was pretty cool. Shaped like a fighter plane. This is the one that won the military race:

The more outrageous the outhouses, the better. At least two Boy Scout troops had outhouses. One was called the Turdinator 3000, and the other troop had this pioneering project:

Other notable outhouses included a women's hockey team dressed as brides:

La Mex Mexican restaurant entered their "Montezuma's Revenge" outhouse:

A very woodsy one, indeed - much like you'd expect to find in the bush, I guess:

Random silliness:

A play on the movie "Cool Runnings":

The people in yellow were from a hospital group, and are walking behind their outhouse. I forgot what PCV stands for, but it's a volunteer organization of some sort:

"Go #2" is a team from Seattle that won last year's race:

The Tyvek-wrapped outhouse here is a tongue-in-cheek jab at the tendency of Alaskan houses to be wrapped in Tyvek for a while before they get around to having siding put on:

Crowd favorite - The Fabulous Flying Duck Farts.

Before the race, all 43 outhouses paraded through the course, so that anyone who wished to pay $1 for the privilege could vote on People's Choice. The pushers threw candy to the crowds and hammed it up. 

We didn't stay to see who won, but that's okay with us. Our main focus was on seeing the fun of the outhouses and the zany ideas that people put into play.

Check the blog later, because I've got more to tell you about!