Moose Dropping, Look Out Below!

We are camping near Talkeetna this weekend and attending the Moose Dropping Festival. We will be enjoying a weekend filled with music, food, fun and moose dropping filled skies. Part of the festivities include a moose droppings dropping. Shellacked moose doo will be dropped out of the sky onto a target. Which ever piece lands closest to the center is the winner. People purchase raffle tickets with the associated numbers on the poo. Only in Alaska, folks! Only in Alaska!

I had a friend tell me that a few years ago an animal rights group in the Lower 48 had gotten all up in arms and was calling local radio stations here complaining about the festival and how cruel it was to animals. They believed that live moose were being dropped out of planes over Talkeetna and wanted to know how high the moose were before they were dropped! We may occassionally hit them with our cars, but we don't drop them out of planes, come ON! The callers are probably the same folks that have the warped belief that we all live in igloos, that bear roam the city streets on a daily basis (including Polar bears) in Anchorage, that it's dark for 6 months of the year everywhere in Alaska, and that it's cold year round and always snows (even in the summer). I'm still amazed at the questions I get asked by tourists and by my friends in the lower 48. The misunderstanding about the Moose Dropping Festival in Talkeetna tops the cake.

I'm looking forward to going to the festival. One of my newly found favorite performers, Melissa Mitchell, is performing on Saturday. I get to spend some quality time with girl friends and Kaylee. When the droppings are dropped though, I plan to be as far away from the target as I can get.