Thirty-eight down...14 to go...

What: #19 Witness the real Punkin’ Chunkin’

When: November 3rd
Where: Wheatley Farm in Bridgeville, Delaware
Why: For many years, my Grandpa and I spent Thanksgiving together just the two of us, and one of our traditions was watching the Discovery Channel special about Punkin Chunkin.
After he passed away, I really wanted to go experience this event that had been a special part of my memories of this time of year with him. I started looking into it and found out that altho the segment airs on Thanksgiving, the event actually takes place weeks prior to it, and in a most unexpected locale: southern Delaware! Over the years, it has grown to be quite the spectacle, and so I met up with a friend in Philadelphia to drive down to partake in a day of the festivities. It was a very cold and windy fall day in a muddied corn field, and the scene wasn't quite what I expected. The contraptions (catapults, trebuchets, air cannons, giant hamster wheels?) are all stationary around the perimeter of a massive area, and the crowds are kept at quite a distance from the teams.

 The spectators were really varied...older couples from the Carolinas, families from New Hampshire, a ton of college kids from some nearby university, and then the more stereotypical "chunkateers" in their Carhartt onesies (which I wish I had been wearing for warmth!) and hundreds of ATVs. The whole event is less formal than you'd think, and truthfully, the show that airs is more informative, but the aspect you miss out on when watching from the couch is the sheer power behind these gourd-hurling machines. The impressive ingenuity, the sound when the machine launches the pumpkin, the gasps and cheers from the crowd...that really makes it a thrilling place to be!