The crowds seemed to be everywhere and it was hard to tell if you were at the spring rally or the fall. Main Street on Friday and Saturday was jammed. Gridlock both on the street and on the sidewalk. It also seems that the younger crowd is now flocking to the big events now that riding a rice rocket is not as taboo as it once was.

The estimates for the fall rally seem to run at about 125,000 attendees and around $214 million dollars in economic impact on the area. Not too shabby! On the down side there were six deaths attributed to the rally, the highest in five years.

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the fall event and I would expect it to be as popular and successful as it was for the first nineteen. I know I’ll be there.