The best parts of the Great Grove Bed Race

The best part of the Great Grove Bed Race last weekend of course was all the happy faces of all the people having a great time last Sunday. The Great Grove Bed Race is now one of the major signature events in the Grove. More and more companies want to be part of it as sponsors.

It was estimated that 25,000 people were present at race time. Others feel it was more, many feel it was much less. The way it was guesstimated was that 100 people were counted in a group, for instance 10 people long by 10 people deep (were people 10 deep?) and then multiplied.

The results are that all the bars sold out the sponsorship beer that was given them and then some. There were over 2000 text messages for that part of the judging. According to the cellular company, text voting is usually 10 to 15% of the crowd, so that could be about 20,000 people.

Many merchants have said it was their busiest day in a year, including last year's King Mango Strut and the Christmas holiday season.

We are proud to know that like last year, about 50% of the crowd showed up because they heard it through the Grapevine. This Grapevine. :)

So despite some complaints, the event was a great thing. The weather cooperated and that was the best part of all. One more thing I love is that there were so many photos posted all over the place -- on blogs, on newspaper websites and on social media sites.

As late as yesterday, I was being tagged in photos on Facebook. It's amazing how much people really did enjoy the event. It's even featured in Arva Moore Parks' new book on Coconut Grove, with a photo of Robert Parks and the Barracuda bed from last year.