Sedalia’s ‘Forklift Rodeo’ Was Everything I’d Hoped It Would Be

The Sedalia Parks and Recreation Department hosted this year's epic battle of the Maintenance Rodeo. What, you've never heard of a Maintenance Rodeo? Pffft.  Let me educate you.  The Rodeo is a fierce competition between the best of the best with forklifts and lawnmowers.  They set up a couple of obstacle courses, and compete amongst each other for bragging rights and a huge trophy of glory.

It was a cold and foggy day at the field of destiny.

There were many snacks and enjoyable Cherry Mashes.

Region 1 was ready to represent their conquests in red.

Okay, sorry, this is a bad picture.  But you can kinda see what I'm seeing, right?  They're supposed to follow the course set by the cones.  On top of the cones are tennis balls.  If they hit the cone (which is supposed to represent a tree) and the ball falls off, they get a thirty second penalty.

The lawnmowers are supposed to go around as quickly as possible without hitting any tennis balls. I saw one guy do the course in, like, a minute.

The forklifts had to go from spot to spot and pick up a weight.  Then they had to balance it on some barrels, pick up a weight from another place and put it in the exact bulls-eye.

You can kind of see the scope of it here.  There were about eleven different parks departments from the region, including St. Joseph, Liberty, Warrensburg, and more.

You can't see it, but over in the back corner, there's another competition involving a tennis ball, pipes, and a leaf blower.

I guess you can kind of see it in the back left there.

There were several people there to watch the competition! And I counted about sixty people on the floor either watching or getting ready to compete.

They started doing this last year, they got the idea from another parks department.

And make sure to get a cold drink.

Everyone was eyeing the prize - the trophy.  But of course it's really  more about bragging rights.  Sedalia lost last year to Warrensburg by only three points!

Apparently it's all about networking with other departments, getting out and about in the community, and having fun.  It wasn't everybody, just a handful from each department. And Kansas City couldn't come, they had weather up there.  That apparently would have been another big group, but work comes first. And I gotta admit, I was a little skeptical at first, but it was fun.  Go team Sedalia!

Rodeoingly yours,

Behka