Palooza in the Shade: Something for Everyone
MOLLY SKYLES
Assistant Editor
The 34th annual Junction Days “Palooza in the Shade” celebration combined ever-popular, tried and true activities with once gone, but not quite forgotten events from more than a decade ago to create an overall experience chairman Jodie Smith said had “something for everyone.”
The beer garden, which was open from 1 p.m.-midnight, Saturday, and at 11 p.m., Sunday, made a comeback last year, but the mud volleyball tournament was welcomed back this year after a 12-13 year hiatus. The original cancellation of these events was attributed to lack of volunteers and liability concerns, both of which have been remedied.
Junction Days kicked off Friday evening with a community dinner hosted by the Montgomery County Cattleman. The Richard Simpson stage dedication and the opening ceremony were also Friday (see related story on front page).
Saturday morning, rain forced the cancellation of the Rotary Club Pancake Feed and the Tiger Trot Obstacle Course. The skies cleared in time for the Grand Parade, albeit a delay of 30 minutes, and stayed dry through the remainder of the day, allowing the rest of the scheduled events to occur as planned.
Saturday featured the soap box derby, in which six teams competed in a race down Reed St. In a close final race between TC Taxidermy and Spanky’s Bar and Grill, the first place winner was TC Taxidermy in a car driven by Randy Knop and pushed by Mitch Perdue, Taylor Perdue and Seth Ward.
Also brought back this year by popular demand was the ugly truck contest, which was won by Michael Latus and his 1979 Chevy, mud-covered truck.
Other events Saturday included a hot dog eating contest, which was won by Darrell Williams in the adult category and Nathan Guffey in the 14-17 age group, talent show, bicycle poker ride, which Wendi Houtchens won, water fight, which was won by the adult ‘Wrastlers’ team consisting of Seth Esaias, Geoff Sellers, Jordan Verba and Bailey Akers and the youth ‘Wet ‘N Wild’ team consisting of Ashley Crouse, Sara Hubert and Emma Ross, bingo and the All Aboard BBQ Contest.
With a larger turnout than last year, the BBQ contest had 10 cooks, up from seven, who provided 17 entries in the beef, pork, poultry and other meat categories. After more than 10 hours of cooking, Kenny Newlon was announced the first place overall winner with a $500 prize and Ryan Trumble won a $250 second place prize.
Saturday concluded with live music from Str8Shot and dancing in the beer garden.
Smith said it was an absolutely perfect Junction Days, after the rain subsided, with a full park and a well-attended beverage garden.
“I want to give a huge thank you to all the volunteers and anyone who had anything to do with the event; it wouldn’t have been as successful without them,” Smith said.