So this one time my friend Crystal and I went to Manitou Springs with the idea that we were going to climb the Incline, but it happened to be the weekend of the Emma Crawford Coffin Races (Saturday before Halloween) and the shuttle was shut down for the event. We walked to the Incline and got a couple hundred steps up, and Crystal was tapped out. That happens. Instead, we enjoyed the coffin races and crepes!
Story behind the Emma Crawford Coffin Races: Emma Crawford had tuberculosis and moved to Manitou Springs, drawn by the great energy movements in the town, hoping to cure her condition with it. She lived there for a while, always wanting to climb up Red Mountain and finally did so. Shortly after, she passed away in 1891. She had wanted to be buried up on the mountain, so her lover and several others carried her coffin and buried her accordingly. Then in 1929, heavy rainstorms hit the area and washed her coffin and remains down the mountainside. In 1995 the Chamber of Commerce started the tradition of coffin races where teams run wheeled coffins with an Emma in it down the street toward the mountain.
Before the races, they parade the hearses and coffins.
This float was a bicycle bar, powered by the bar stool bikes.
With a flame blower to light.
M. Balm
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!
The Springs Funeral Home. Ha!
I spy Harry and Lloyd.
Pirate ship and crew
Unicorns and nuns.
Ran into my friend Jeff on the street before the parade. He's the pale Incredible facing my camera.
Okay, so the announcer on this ticked me off. She said, "And here comes Minnie Mouse with Hermione Granger." Um...no. That chick is wearing Slytherin colors and is NOT Hermione. Not that the announcer could hear me, but I did loudly correct her in my outrage.
There's Jeff again!
After the parade, the races commenced.
Crystal and I watched a few races, then made our way out of the crowd and toward crepes and saw the coffin lines.
Poor Jeff's team's coffin broke and they couldn't even race. They were just stuck at the starting line in the middle of the two racing lanes.
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