Paperback Musings: And they're off!

Pretty much everyone who knows me knows that my favorite things to do are those that are a bit atypical. While I'm always a fan of dinner and a movie, the things that really float my boat are those that are a little off the beaten path. So when I got a call from my friend Katie asking if I wanted to go to a bar where they did turtle races every Friday night, I was totally on board. The bar is called Big Joe's, and it's located on Foster, just west of Ravenswood. When we got there, our group was there, but very few other people. All that changed as the races neared...

As they set up the racing table, I noticed that it looked like a race track--green, with a white circle going all the way around the table, and a big green space in the middle. I asked, rather incredulously, if the turtles had to race in a circle and the guy looked at me like I had two heads. He explained that the turtles are placed in the green space in the middle under a big cake dome (no, really). After they play your traditional racing music, they lift up the dome and which ever turtle gets to the outside of the white circle first wins. It gets more interesting because every time you buy a drink, you get tickets with numbers on them. Before each race, the emcee draws out six tickets (there are six turtles), and the people with those numbers are the "honorary jockeys" for that race. The turtles are numbered with medical tape on their shells, and each turtle has a name: Chucks, Lola, Doozy, Swisher, Yolanda, and Lucky Dan. Every time the emcee said "Yolanda" everyone in the bar would say "The slowest fucking turtle in the world!" Despite the rather large crowd, our group actually had someone in all but one race. Yolanda even won my friend Dave a free beer for being the last to cross the finish line!

All in all, a good time was had and I would highly recommend this for a fun and quirky Friday night out. :)