Coffin Races in Manitou Springs!

It doesn't take much to get me excited....take for instance the fact that I was able to get a library card good for a year without being a resident of Colorado!!! I've told just about everyone about it! :o) So to find out about Coffin Races in Manitou, well, it was way too good of an opportunity to pass up!

In the late 1800's/early 1900's, a young woman with a severe case of tuberculosis, by the name of Emma Crawford, came with her family to Manitou to hopefully recover with exposure to the water, the sunlight, the thin air.  She died, and per her request was buried on Red Mountain.  Eventually, a railroad was planned to run across that mountain so Emma's grave was moved.  But the railroad was never built and due to erosion, Emma's deteriorating coffin and bones slid down the mountain. Years later, the town formed a festival centered around the event and every year they hold coffin races!!!

Darci and I got to Manitou a couple of hours before the races started, so we spent some time wandering the shops before realizing we needed to find a place to stand as the crowd grew.  The sidewalks were so crowded there was hardly any room to move by anybody else.  The festivities started with a parade of hearses, followed by a parade of all forty some teams set to compete in the coffin races.  The rules as best I could figure it out, is that 1) your entire team had to be in costume 2) there had to be an "Emma" in the coffin 3) there were four people to push the coffin up the hill

Apparently the hillbillies have won for the past 7 years, but they were upset by the smurfs this time around!!! We stood with a couple of guys right behind us, both named Ryan from up in Denver, who entertained us with some brilliant commentary.

After the races, we headed down to the Heart of Jerusalem Cafe to have some veggie middle eastern amazingness!  My ability to talk to strangers even scored us from baklava from some guy in the army who knew we needed to try it!  We loitered a bit there and met up with Julie and Olivia who were also in town for a bit...... then it was off to get ready for halloween parties!

I definitely want to explore Manitou Springs more. It was such a haven for those drawn by the mineral water, and I want to see Emma's grave now, and the library there looks really sweet.... it was so crowded the day we went it didn't leave much room to do more than just watch the festivities and hope to not get hurt by a runaway coffin (which apparently had happened in the past).  This weekend will be my first time to Denver, but the Art Museum is free all day and at night a bunch of different ones are opening up for a "Night at the Museums!!! Cannot contain my excitement!