Lions club drag racing bigger than I expected

I went to the Lions Club drag races for the first time last Saturday, and I must say they are quite a show.

Funny thing is, when I mentioned it to Nancy Callahan, she exclaimed that this was a small show.

"There must have been 200 cars for the races in May," she said.

Then I'm really impressed with what the Lions are doing. I thought the 100 or so cars that showed up on Saturday we're quite a bunch. And they were noisy. And they were fast.

I heard about the races for a couple of years. Still, I was surprised upon arriving. There was a long double row line of cars of fans waiting to get in.

I don't know how much the Lions took in on Saturday, but more power to them. They raise funds for scholarships for high school graduates and for charities around the community.

And the provide a valuable service. They give amateur racers of Central Washington a place to compete safely and sanely.

As you can see, this week's paper is pretty much taken up by SummerFest. That may seem a bit much to some of you, but community festivals happen only once a year. Besides, I took many more pictures than you see in the paper this week.

As I said after my first Summerfest in 2011, this is the best small community festival I've ever seen. More goes on here in one day than some communities do in three days.

It is easy to get carried away with the camera. After a while, you're not working. You're just having fun.

I was particularly impressed with the parade this year. This one had five community floats. I think the first two parades I witnessed had two or three floats.

A parade entry that really made me chuckle was Duckling Dynasty. Those kids are thinking way ahead to the day when Duck Dynasty will need a replacement on TV.

An event I saw for the first time and which really gave me a kick was the ping-pong ball drop. I have no idea who thought that one up, but it's good. And I've never seen it anywhere else.

I don't know all of the members of the Summerfest committee, but they all need to be thanked. The one I thank singularly is Leslie Fanning, who runs a floral shop at Royal City Harvest Foods. She has been involved with the festival a long time.

Leslie was going to drop out of the picture before last year's festival, and she was going to do that again this year. She still has not pulled away.

And I tell her she can't. She is my go-to person whenever I need something about the festival. And she delivers.

I'm guessing we'll be talking SummerFest 2014 within just a couple of months.