It was a good weekend to get dressed up in funny costumes and drunkenly pull a shopping cart around Portland. That’s what I did this weekend anyway by participating in the Portland Urban Iditarod. Some friends of mine did most of the work of getting the shopping cart and planning costumes.
We were greek gods. I wore my lion costume top which gave me big muscles to go with my gold, Playboy brand sheet. Our shopping cart wasn’t even close to as ornate as other people’s, but it was a nice, fluffy white cloud that we randomly attached a teradactyl and tinkerbell to. At the last minute I went to the dollar store and got some swords that made bubbles, which was probably most others’ favorite part of our getup.
The creativity of some of the other participants was amazing! The tea party cart had clever signs, the my little ponies were awfully cute, I saw the Oregon trail cart tip over a few times and reminded me of my attempts to ford the river in the game, there were way to many Mario brothers carts, there were a few carts with fire including devils and oil rigs, the WWF cart put on one hell of a show at the stops… The list really goes on and on for impressive weirdness.
At each of the stops was a chance to socialize with the other participants and, of course, drink. It was especially odd and fun to be at a dance club around noon with sunlight streaming in on a tables full of german barmaids, 1800′s settlers, ninja turtles, superheros and Kill Bill characters dancing on tables to techno and pop.
Kim met me at the end of the race to see the costumes. I guess it’s not much of a race. It’s definitely something that I can’t imagine in most US cities, but it’s great to see Portland staying weird.