FLUGTAG! *pictures and video of world record!

Getting there was a total nightmare. I live in Minneapolis, the flugtag was in St Paul. On a normal day with normal traffic and an open interstate it wouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to get where we needed to go. But, today was no ordinary day.

First, a very large portion of the major highway that connects Minneapolis and St Paul was closed for road construction. Then, there were a few major events going on: the Aquatennial (I’ve lived in Minneapolis for eight years and still couldn’t tell you what it entails, but I know that it’s a big event), a big concert of sorts, and the flugtag, which apparently attracted more than 100,000 people. Combine that with the fact that there really isn’t any other good way to get to St Paul without the interstate, and the fact that none of the traffic lights were set up to appropriately deal with the massive influx of automobiles trying to get around the road construction and to their respective events and you have one horrible, ugly blob of traffic.

Dave and I took a cab and it took us an hour and twenty minutes to get in the vicinity of the flugtag- eventually we decided to get out and walk the rest of the way.

Anyway, less talk more pictures:

 

Dave and I. I was wearing a dress and we were sitting on mulch. Imagine bare ass on mulch. My ass still hurts.

 

I think that this one was supposed to be a mosquito. As you can see it didn’t fly very well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are a couple of videos that I took. The first two are pretty prime examples of how the flugtag went for the vast majority of entrants:

 

 

These people did a little dance to Micheal Jackson’s "Thriller" prior to flying their… coffin.

 

 

 

The Minnesota Northstar Rollergirls!! I really wish that I were a rollergirl. I think that I’d be so good at it.

 

 

Aaaaand last but not least: a video of the new world record holders! This is not a video that I took, I found it on Youtube. Dave and I had only just arrived to the flugtag when this team came up to the platform. We were standing at the top of a staircase and while Dave witnessed the entire thing, I did not. There were too many people in front of me and I was too short.

I believe that the old world record was held by a German team; their creation flew 200ish feet. This one, from a team called "Major Trouble and the Dirty Dixies", flew something like 230 feet. I wish that I’d have seen it!