Pumpkin' Chuckin' in Estancia

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is being tied on a railroad with a train coming directly at you and 10 is a massage, the annual Pumpin' Chuckin' Contest in Estancia is a 5.

This is such a unique event to go to. Let's be honest... who wouldn't like to be a part of building a trebuchet or slingshot or catapult or air cannon to launch a pumpkin across a field?! How cool is that?!! This is inherently a cool event. The entire town of Estancia must come out to this event in addition to cool people like us from cities like Albuquerque. It is definitely an event that we will brag about having attended for the rest of our lives, but one time may be enough for us..

A Bit About The Event:

One of the coolest facts that we learned from the day is that Estancia (which is about a 54 mile drive from Albuquerque) is the Punpkin' (no I didn't miss spell pumpkin) Chuckin' Capitol of New Mexico. This year was the 20th year of this annual event in the Land of Enchantment.

As the sign demonstrates, the day begins with a parade at 10:30. Other events of the day include the crowning of the Pumpkinfest Prince and Princess, a pumpkin pie eating contest, vendors, and raffle prizes. Pumkin launchees seek to break records and those that accomplish this feat may have a chance to compete in the World Championship Pumpkin Chuckin Contest in Delaware in November. The current world record for the furthest pumpkin launched out of an air cannon according to https://www.punkinchunkin.com/competition.html is 4,694.68 feet! With a mile being 5,280 feet, that launch was almost 89% of a mile! That is impressive to say the least!

The Estancia competition is put on by the Estancia Rotary Club. The main goal of the contest is to earn money for scholarships for those who graduate from Estancia. In 2014, five scholarships of $1000 were able to be given to graduating seniors. The following quote is according to http://albuquerque.about.com/od/attractions/qt/PumpkinChunkinContest.htm

 "The Rotary Club uses the money made at the festival for a variety of causes. Some money goes to scholarships for seniors graduating from Estancia High School. Money raised from the festival also goes to children participating in Girls/Boys State, Camp RYLA, a youth leadership camp, school supplies for needy children, and toys for children at Christmas."

 Our Day Pumpkin' Chuckin':

We arrived at the event during the middle of the pumkin' chuckin' portion of the day. We parked and walked in. The entrance ticket became a raffle ticket. At one point we heard a raffle going off. The first place prize was a homemade quilt. My favorite detail was that both the 2nd and the 5th place prizes were a mixed bail of hay! I could just imagine winning one of those and bringing it back with me in the back of the car.

As we walked into the field, there were vendors all along either side. They form a pathway leading to the area of the launching. One of the tents that we stopped by was the Toss-No-Mas tent for keeping New Mexico Clean and Beautiful. After we signed pledges on their ipads, we got free prizes. Orrin picked out a backpack and I got a windshield shade for my car! Good thing, too... I've been needing one of those!!

Continuing on, we finally got to see the pumpkins being launched. We learned that it is called "pumpkin pie" when a pumpkin explodes in the air. A pumpkin pie doesn't count for anything. It only counts when the pumpkin reaches the ground. That first point is what is measured. Trucks and golf carts race out to measure the distance from start. Before the pumpkins launch, some of the machines will honk a huge horn. However, that was only about 2 out of the dozen or so trucks. For this reason, it took probably 50 attempts for Orrin to get some good photos of the launching. Our best results are here:

If you want to know the best part of the whole trip, it was the Chuck Wagon Soda station. There were 6 magnificently delicious soda options. You can buy a decorated tin cup and a soda for $7 or stainless steel for $10, both cups being 36 fl oz with all refills being $3 more. Our first tin cupful was of the Sarsparilla variety and our second was Birch, with Grandpa buying black cherry soda in a stainless steel cup. I can't begin to describe how delicious this soda was. It is soda you may be lucky enough to have once in a lifetime. Here is the cute cup we got out of it:

Here are A Few Ideas we have that could have made this event so much better:

• Getting a better speaker system. We were a mere 4 bleechers from the speaker and we couldn't hear anything but mumbling. If there were a few more speakers spread out around the field, it would have made it so much more easy to figure out when the launches were going to take off. 
• Announce better and more consistantly when the launches were going to happen. As it was, it was always a surprise when a launch was to take off. If you don't watch right when it took off, you didn't see the pumpkin at all because it shot out so fast and landed so far away, that it was basically invisible the whole time. 
• Have more variety in the booths.
• Maybe have shaded bleacher areas (or have brought an umbrella myself). I was worried I was going to get sunburnt while trying to watch the pumpkins being launched.

Total Cost:

Entrance: $5 each

Soda: $10 total for us

Total: $20 for the both of us

Let us know in the comments below what kind of a stand you would love to run in an event like Pumpkin Chuckin!