State Cow Chip Throwing Contest - Labor Day in Sauk City

Since John started his new job in Sauk City, I decided that Labor Day weekend would be the perfect time for me to see where my better half spends a good portion of his day now. I remember driving through Sauk City a few times, but didn't really recall any details of the area, so it was time to explore. Little did I know that we would stumble upon a very exciting weekend in Sauk City which involved the State Cow Chip throwing contest, which until we had our lunch at Culver's, we never knew existed. Here is John's new office building. Now on to the exciting stuff.

I am not sure if it was fate or what that made us decide to eat at Culver's that day, but we sure are glad that we made that decision. I picked up these cow masks while we ordered. I figured I would give one to Tiz and send one to Tewabech. While waiting for our food, I read the reverse side which listed all the events taking place for the State Cow Chip Throwing Contest, who knew? We decided immediately that we would check out these events and so we headed over to Marion Park where it was all happening.

We started by viewing a parade. The theme of the parade was Peace, Love, and Chips so most of the entrants had costumes from the 60's including lots of peace signs and tye dyed clothes.

This big wooden cow was pulled in the parade followed by farmers pushing cow print wheelbarrows and picking up cow chips that came out of the cow's behind.

We checked out the craft fair at the park and then we heard the call for all cow chip throwers to report for the contest, so we headed over not wanting to miss a moment of that excitement. The stands were filled so we were forced to the standing room only area which actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise since people sitting in the stands were "rained" on by little bits of the chips falling apart and sometimes by a whole chip gone off course.

There were about two hundred ladies and another two hundred men who threw the chips. Each contestant chooses two chips from this wagon and tosses them. Chips that stay in bounds and go the farthest are declared the winner. There were contestants from as far away as England, Thailand, California, and New York. After watching some of the Chip Throwing, we headed over to our motel.

This is the front our motel. Not sure why this exercise bike is out front. Figured it might be the exercise room, who knows. It was nice enough and we would stay there again, it just had some odd features, but sometimes odd can be charming.

The picture below is dedicated to my dad's memory. We have such fond memories of him looking through these magnifiers whenever we stumbled upon one, so this one is for you, dad! We did some bike riding along the Wisconsin River and discovered some beautiful spots, had pizza and beer at a little Pizza place where we were the only customers, and had a few beers at a local bar called The Press Box. All in all, a very nice day.

On Sunday we took a bike ride around Sauk City and Prairie du Sac to explore some more. We bought chips and soda at the Kwik Trip and went back to this spot which we refer to as "our spot" to munch. This table was actually partly in the water and it felt like we were on a boat in the river.

After the bike ride we left Sauk City behind. I found out it is a very nice place and I am glad that John is working there even though the commute is a long one. Maybe someday we can relocate or at least summer there.

We did do some other fun things on Sunday on our way home and I will fill that in on my next post.