I took a lot more pictures at Pufferbilly Days this year. At least I made the effort. This was for two reasons. One is because I’m going to use these images for the photo project I’m going to move onto after the completion of THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. The second reason is simply that I was around. I’m usually not around much during Pufferbilly Days. It used to be in September and September Saturdays are for Iowa State football. However, it was extremely hot on the Saturday of Pufferbilly Days. So hot that at least one event got moved to Sunday and I believe one event didn’t happen at all.

One event that definitely did happen was the Pufferbilly Days 5K and 10K. Thankfully it was ran early in the morning, cause I can’t imagine how brutal it would have been for the athletes if the race had been run at like 5 PM like it was in 2021.

I went up there to photograph part of the race cause Willy was running in it. There are also usually plenty of other runners I know in the competition. But this year Avril and Tiffany didn’t run. Neither did Katelyn. But she is teaching in the Czech Republic for the next year. So the only runners I knew were Willy and Katelyn’s sister Erica. Them and a new friend from Carroll.

One thing that was a little dangerous about the Pufferbilly Days Race is that it ended in front of the Dutch Oven Bakery. That intersection is also where the vendors for the Craft Fair were entering Story Street to setup their wares.

I setup near this intersection because more than one driver just blasted through the barriers in attempt to go to prison for vehicular manslaughter. Hyperbole? Not by much. While standing there, a guy who was attempting to stop traffic struck up a conversation with me.

He admired my shirt. I was wearing a shirt that Sara had made for me for my birthday. It says something about how Life is like a camera. I can’t remember the exact wording. He wanted to know if he could use my camera to take a picture of me. I suddenly felt like Grant from YOUNG GUNS.

Don’t remember Grant from YOUNG GUNS? Grant was the guy that Billy the Kid strikes up a conversation with in a saloon that brags to Billy the Kid, without knowing he is talking to Billy Kid, that he is going to kill Billy the Kid.

Billy asks Grant to hold his gun because:

“I admire you, Sir. And if I can touch the gun that’s gonna kill Billy the Kid…”

Grant relents and hands the gun to Billy. After Billy admires the gun for a bit, Grant asks for it back:

“Pass her back. Son. You stroke another man’s gun like that you might as well be strokin’ his woman.”

I don’t “have a woman”, but I feel the same way about my camera. I told him that I was good, but I appreciated the offer.

After that though we had a good conversation. I learned he was from Carroll and he was there watching his wife run. He asked me for restaurant recommendations in the area and he told me about his experience with Belluci’s and the Thompson Special. He was told it had a white sauce, but was horrified when he got it and learned the white sauce is mayonnaise. It made me laugh.

The pictures of the man running next to a woman filming her with his cell phone is my new friend from Carroll.

Here are some pictures I took of the race. The first couple of pictures are of sidewalk art done by local artist (and family friend) Don Hughes. It was a tribute to the 1963 Boone High Marching Band that marched in the Rose Bowl Parade. There was exhibit at the Boone Historical Society Museum about them. The farthest the Boone High Marching Band ever traveled in my day was Pella. Which is where the infamous Chuggler Incident happened. We don’t talk about the Chuggler Incident.

Lots more Pufferbilly Days photos to come! Choo! Choo!

This is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is CIRCLE:

CIRCLE

CIRCLE! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

But what is a CIRCLE image? It is simply a picture where a major compositional element of the picture is a CIRCLE. 360 degrees of fury! There are CIRCLE(s) literally everywhere! Once you starting looking for them, it is hard to not see them everywhere.

Happy photo harvesting!