Oktoberfest

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

October 1, 2022

On this beautiful October 1st, we are heading towards one of the largest Oktoberfest celebrations in the Midwest. But we're doing a little sight-seeing on the way. The lake on the edge of our town is called Grand Lake St. Mary's. So we are stopping at the town of St. Mary's on the way to Oktoberfest. Situated on the opposite side of this hand-dug lake, St. Mary's also has a section of the Miami-Erie Canal running through town. This is the canal that connects the Ohio River with the Erie Canal. The town has a nice tow path bike trail that took us by a replica of one of the canal boats that floated through town in the 1800s. 

Horses and mules walked along the canal, pulling the boats behind them.

We also found the local covered bridge in the St. Mary's park. You already know that Denisa doesn't cross a covered bridge without getting a picture of it.

She's almost as bad about wanting pictures taken when we find wings.

When we were leaving town, we looked up to see this bright "sun dog" in the sky. While a rainbow is left after a rain is over, some say that this is a sign of rain to come. Oops, we have lots of outdoor activities planned today, and we'd rather they not get rained out.

Our next little town stop was New Bremen, Ohio. It was situated on the canal as well, with wooden lock gates that can still be opened and closed by hand to change the level of the canal. If you look closely on the left hand side, you can see Mark closing those big wooden gates.

Beside the canal lock, the town has a restored lockkeeper's house, where the person in charge of raising the water level lived. In front of the house is a statue of a young boy and his mule. The statue is titled, "Partners" because the two worked together. The boys were called "hoggees" and they were young farm boys that used their family's mules to tow the boats up the canal for several miles. Then the boy would switch the boat-towing duties to another hoggee and his mule further down the canal.

We walked to the adjacent New Bremen town park to find all sorts of interesting things. We liked the lion family sculpture . . .

that included Ohio buckeyes for eyes.

Even after reading the warning sign that cautioned about this "fast slide" Mark tried it anyway.

We can report that this was the slowest slide we have ever seen. Denisa actually came to a complete stop when sliding down this "fast" slide.

We explored the park to find musical instruments scattered throughout,

and an electronic game that had us running around in circles trying to press the buttons that randomly lit up. That's good exercise!

It wasn't a planned stop, but we spent more time than we had planned on this beautiful blue sky day in New Bremen, Ohio.

But our real destination of the day was the town of Minster, Ohio, for their annual Oktoberfest. We arrived in time for the opening ceremonies, where a young local man proposed to his girl friend in front of hundreds of guests. That was a nice start to the festivities! We also posed for the traditional photo. As the picture below would suggest, Oktoberfest is all about food and beer, and perhaps a little dancing.

We started with the food vendors, lined up in a tent where all the local Minster organizations are preparing different versions of German food. We stopped by this booth to try the sauerkraut balls that were being formed and then fried.

We'd never heard of sauerkraut balls before, but we found that they are stuffed with sausage and sauerkraut, deep-fried, and served with thousand island dipping sauce. 

The next food course was cabbage rolls, German potato salad, and pumpernickel bread served by another local organization.

While we didn't participate in the beer part of the Oktoberfest, we can tell you that we were certainly in the minority. Cheaper by the half-gallon, most people seemed to be walking around with a partially filled jug at their side.

Another required component of Oktoberfest is music, and we listened to several groups during the course of the day. We stuck around for the headliner group, a polka group called the Klaberheads. They are well known in the polka world, and their fans were rushing the stage. The place was so packed we couldn't find a clear spot to dance a polka.

We also found that Minster hosts some serious Oktoberfest competitions. There was a large crowd cheering on the participants in the Jug Holding contest. They had both a men's and women's division, and the goal is to hold a half-gallon of beer at a 90-degree angle from their body with their arm straight and their thumb up. Referees were monitoring all the participants, making sure the jug didn't drop below the 90-degree angle or they didn't raise their other arm. When one young man raised his first in celebration after the Ohio football team scored a touchdown in the game shown on the giant television, he was disqualified. This is serious competition, but even the losers get to keep their half-gallon beer for entering.

Another well-attended contest was the Beer Tray Relay, where teams of four race around an obstacle course while holding a tray of glasses filled with beer.

Obstacles include crossing balance beams and crouching below limbo poles and weaving around cones. Then the runners had to pass off that tray to the next runner while using only one hand.

Winners are determined by a secret algorithm that takes into consideration the race time, as well as the quantity of liquid still left in those four cups. A very busy table of judges were weighing glasses and computing formulas while the races continued. We were surprised at how many teams signed up for the contests.

Likewise, the tent with the German Fraulein contest was packed with locals cheering on their favorite young ladies. 

The sun dog was wrong in its prediction of rain today. We enjoyed absolutely perfect weather. That's probably why the Oktoberfest enjoyed record crowds this weekend.

As the day progressed, we noticed more slurred speech and loud behavior among that big crowd. We decided that it was time to drive out of Minster before some of these people got behind the wheel of a car. So we headed back towards our little town of Celina. Approaching the Grand Lake St. Mary's from the south, we stopped for yet another lighthouse picture on this side of the lake.

For our final exercise of the day, we found a little hike down a peninsula that jutted into the lake. We saw movement beside the trail, and managed to snap a quick picture of a fisher before it disappeared among the rocks. If you look at the very center of the picture below, you can see the face of this secretive dark animal that we have never photographed before.

We spent our last evening in Celina enjoying another lovely sunset at the Fairgrounds. The pink clouds reflected on the side of the motor home as we saw October first's Oktoberfest come to a close.