Brunswick Bed Races a Huge Success

When I got to Park Row in Brunswick and helped Account Executive Jeremiah unload the 92 Moose entry in the bed race, I turned around to see a dear friend I hadn't run into in many years? "Dee Dee!" I exclaimed. Then came a long overdue hug. Had that been the only thing that happened today, I would have considered the day worthwhile! But wait, there's more!

Dee Dee (she's now just "Dee") Perry is president of the Brunswick Downtown Association, a job she clearly loves and handles well. She is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet and, if memory serves, she can cook up a Partridge Stew that's to die for. But I digress.

After taking me over to the law office of Arthur Lamothe, another old friend, we proceeded to make our way down Park Row to where the bed races would commence in just a short time. This was all new to Jonny boy and I couldn't wait to see which one of the 12 entrants was going to win the race. I was pretty sure it wouldn't be us. With no history in bed racing, our team didn't know what protocol was when it comes to building a racing bed. Rubber bike wheels were pretty popular. Our bed had those little plastic ones like you find on Ikea furniture. What's worse, 2 of them broke before the races even began. Luckily, one of our team members had a mechanics crawler and a cordless drill, so we were able to finagle the thing so it would, at least, roll.

Mac Dickson spotted Angus King across the way. I didn't want him to see our bed but I did want to say hello. I walked over and was greeted in typical Angus fashion...the same way I greet. "Hey buddy!" he said.

"Good to see you again, Angus," I replied.

"When are we going to do that call in?" I had mentioned having him on the show sometime soon when I saw him a couple of weeks ago at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. "Hey, do you guys have an entry in the race?"

Great. Now I had to tell him. "Yeah....you'll see us. There will be a moose riding on it." What I left out is, "it's the most rickety, ugly looking bed in the race and it has a Justin Bieber poster on front of it." I was hoping he might not see the bed and, if he didn't, I wasn't going to go out of my way describing it. As luck would have it, he ended up right next to it at the end of the race.

So....about the race. It was 6 heats of 2 beds to start. The field was, eventually, narrowed down to two. They were, defending champs "Cool As A Moose" and "Wendy Herrick Floral Designs." Earlier, one of Wendy's team members told me, "Cool as a Moose is going down." Wow...that's confidence!

Well, in the final race, Cool as a Moose did, indeed, go down. Beat by a flowered bed piloted by Wendy Herrick herself. So next year, there will be a new defending champ for the 4th annual bed race.

Although we had, probably, the least roadworthy bed with the smallest wheels, we didn't do too bad, coming in sixth overall. Next year, we'll do better. Now, not to seem overconfident or anything like that, let me just throw this out there. Next year Wendy Herrick, your team is going down! ;-)

92 Moose racing against 'Cool As A Moose,' last year's winner! (Thanks to Sweet Dreams Home Furnishings for the 92 Moose bed)