Aug 08, 2022

Ray's Sport & Cycle at Tall Timber Days

What a great weekend to be in Grand Rapids, MN! Tall Timber Days kicked off on Friday, August 5th and continued through Sunday the 7th. Upon arriving Saturday morning, we were automatically pulled in by the aroma of sawdust and delicious food from the event. As you walked down the street you could hear the chain saws buzzing, and the crowd cheering.

Chainsaw Carving Demonstrations sponsored by UPM Blandin:

It just so happened that we were right in time for some fun logrolling by the Timberworks Lumberjack Show, also sponsored by UPM Blandin. They were fun to watch, especially when they tried to pull some tricky moves. Which sometimes resulted with them getting wet! There was also a pool nearby for kids to give logrolling a try. We really enjoyed the reaction from the crowd. They really got into it.

After that we made our way across the street to check out all the booths set up around the Old Central School. There was a great assortment of hand made, homemade delights! Anything from BBQ to, to sushi, to stuffed animal dragons.

You can't forget about the cheese curds and mini donuts!

Sunday morning came with the excitement that we were going to be in the parade. Staff and family showed up to hand out candy and ride the float. We were amazed at how many helpful hands it takes to get a float for these events to really come to fruition. From the candy, decorating, gear to wear, music, transporting it all, it takes a lot. But it's all worth it once it all comes together!

We gathered at the fairgrounds and discovered that we were in row 59 of floats. There were so many great floats I can't even imagine the time that went into some of them. Also the kids involved danced or moved for hours to practice before the parade even got moving. As I walked around there was music, horses, uniforms of all sorts, semi-trucks, trailers, and lots of candy!

The parade started moving a little before 1:00pm. Since we were at the back of the line up, we did not move until around 2:00! There were tons of floats. We had a Yamaha YFZ 50, a Can-Am DS 90, a RGR 150, pulled by a Can-Am Defender HD10 Xmr and Hammerhead Go Kart. It was a lot of fun but, kind of chaotic with all of us candy throwers running back and forth from our candy boxes to refill kid buckets so that they could throw more. There were so many people watching the parade, even though it rained off an on throughout the entire parade.