Pumpkin Champ Floats His Boat
Many curious watercraft have cruised the Connecticut River, but few can hold a candle to Alan Reynolds' prize-winning pumpkin, now fitted out for a run in the Guinness Book of World Records. Correspondent Dan Cain of CBS News affiliate WFSB-TV in Hartford, Connecticut, was there.
The pumpkin going for the record is no run-of-the-mill super-sized summer squash. She's a purebred.
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"There are two famous pumpkins," Reynolds says. "There's the 567.5 Mumbard and the 827 Holland. This is an offspring from the 567.5 Mumbard."
Launching a pumpkin is no piece of pie. It takes a keen sense of balance, a subtle understanding of currents and tides, to say nothing of a knowledge of gravity and the ability to endure the fumes of a now rapidly decomposing organism.
After a bit of bobbing about, Reynolds silently slipped out into the current of the river.
"It is putting up quite a wake," his friend jokes. "It's incredible. No wake zone, slow down."
Actually, speed was not a serious concern for Reynolds as much as simply staying afloat and maintaining a certain amount of dignity and decorum as he donned a pumpkin mask.
What advice would Reynolds have for other aspiring pumpkineers? "If you're fighting a current or a tide, I would definitely use a gas motor," Reynolds says.
Reported By Dan Cain