It’s that time of the year when folks out in the country get together and compete. Tip-Up-Town is one of the largest events up in the great white north (of the lower peninsula) in Michigan and includes an ice fishing contest, various snow moving vehicle races on the lake, a parade, a 5k race, and a little carnival at the DNR docks with various events. It’s all anyone could talk about when I first got here, so I was expecting it to be a big deal…it was…interesting.
The 5k race was first, and I gotta applaud the people that ran it since it was cold and snowy that morning. A small group of us towards the finish line cheered and clapped for them, I’ll always support folks looking to improve or sustain their fitness and do runs like this. In my experience, it’s always been a positive thing and most people are supportive.
Afterwards, the parade consisted of around 20 people towing trailers that they’d decorated to (loosely) match the theme, in this case the Groovy 70s. After the police and fire department displays, a giant trailer gaudily decorated with pro-Trump rhetoric followed, blasting out a bastardized version of YMCA by The Village People so it became MAGA. Kinda makes you wonder if these folks know anything about The Village People…?
The guy driving did not stop talking for even a second, spouting off baloney about Trump and how he’s bringing us all together and even the Democrats love him and such. Complete and total lies. It must have been condoned by the City and Tip-Up-Town though, because he parked near the carnival and continued to blast that same MAGA song for two days straight that first weekend.
The parade ended at the DNR docks where the carnival was happening. It was pretty standard for a carnival, there was a little ice slide, a tea-cup ride, those spinning chair things, a trailer maze, and various carnival foods and wares. On one side there were some miniature ponies on a circular track for kids to ride, and a petting zoo next to it. Most of the animals in the petting zoo seemed fairly relaxed except for one, the camel seemed visibly distressed and was pacing back and forth the entire time. Across from the petting zoo was a line of old snowmobiles going all the way back which was cool. The center was occupied by the ice fishing competition, and a line of giant winning fish on a board with their stats. There are some big pike in this lake!
Inside the warming tents were booths for local companies and vendors including Girl Scouts (finally found a dealer here), and a kids area with balloon animals, face painting, a DJ, and arts and crafts. All in all, this is a great event for kids with a days worth of activities for them. Once it got dark on the first Saturday they had a decent fireworks display, which were on the same level as the summer displays Navy Pier does during the week.
The best part was the Polar Plunge on the last day. I’ve seen it many times before but it never gets old! My favorite was a guy dressed as Santa Claus and right before he went up to the water he dramatically threw off his robe to reveal a speedo and did a gigantic belly flop. I wish I had gotten it on video, but I did get photos. There was also a cosplayer dressed as some military game character, Modern Warfare maybe? Either way, it wasn’t a cheap thing and I don’t know how he swam with it on or how he got it off easily afterwards. Cheers to him!
So, in summary, aside from the ever-reaching political BS that seems to be infiltrating everything that was once good, it was an interesting and fun little event. I don’t know if I’d go if I wasn’t already here though, probably not worth making a trip out if you’re more than an hour away. Then again, there’s not much else to do here, so why not?
