The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race is taking form

A drinking-racing event or bed, dash and beyond -- that is how we summed up the Great Coconut Grove Bed Race at yesterday's bed race meeting.

A nice crowd showed up for the meeting at the Bookstore -- about 15 people. Not bad, we usually have just a handful.

A lot was discussed regarding insurance, marketing and logistic planning. I read the rules that AnnaMaria and myself came up with and we went over them line by line, that took forever. We should have things formal pretty soon.

As it stands now, $50.00 is the sign up fee for each bed, which will consist of one rider and four people pushing. A charity will be named as the beneficiary for part of the money. We will have an early sign up period and then the fee will go up to about $75.00 for late signers.

We are playing the event up as a revival of a Grove tradition, which it is.

The main design should be a twin size bed, about 54" x 75" inches and there should be a headboard, foot board and it can be designed in any way, but must have four wheels that touch the floor and be made up with pillows and a blanket at the start of the race.

There will be categories which will be judged and prizes will be given for these, like best concept, best design, best team song, best team cheer, etc. Anyone may help design the bed, but only the five who sign up and fill out waivers, may be part of the actual race.

Again, it would be a good idea to hold off until we have the actual rules ready to send out and applications ready to be filled out. We will probably start taking applications on Memorial Day and take them all summer until a few weeks before the race, which is Sunday, September 6, Labor Day weekend.

The night before there will be a pajama pub crawl and a waiter race. And various places may show bedtime related movies, like "Bedtime for Bonzo," or "Pajama Game," etc.