Roadside Mysteries

In the sleepy little town of Nederland, Colorado:

There is a frozen dead guy resting in this Tuff Shed.

And as this Wiki Link says, there is a yearly celebration in this town of the discovery of the cryogenically frozen corpse of a one Bredo Morstel.  The celebration includes various events like “The Polar Plunge” , the Hearse Parade and the Coffin races. And it would not have happened without:

The Parade “Grand Marshals”!

Of course there was no time to make a proper sign. Scratching the words “Grand Marshals” in the dirt on the side of a pickup truck is good enough! Riding in the truck are Robin, Kathy and Shelly Beeck, the creators of an independent short subject film documentary called “Grandpa’s in the TUFF SHED” The film put Nederland on the map. And the rest is hearstory.

Among the coffin race contenders: The Bone Cutting Butchers

And who’s this? Could  it be…

Coffin Bieber Fever!

The Missfits coffin

The fabulous Pink Socks team; The Nedhead’s favorite

Lumberjack’s Coffin

Number one of two Mystery Machine coffins

Team Super Mario

Team Gangreen

Team Death by Mercury

Team I can’t read what it says on the guy’s shirt

Team Gogo Gaga

Team Green Sneaker

The Coffin Race judge is ready!

…and they’re off! The Missfits are overtaking the Mystery Machine at the moment.

Here the “Nedterrestrials” try to get their saucer-shaped coffin to the finish line.

I think the Pink Socks team won eventually. We don’t know. We left early to avoid the mountain traffic.

at this parade in Northern Colorado:

Hey, it’s a horse-drawn hearse

A dog-drawn hearse? Is that a dead cat in the wagon?

An old horseless hearse

Hearses are usually a converted luxury automobile. The word hearse comes from the Old French Herce meaning rake or a harrow.

A bat-winged hearse with ordinance attached

FDGD stands for “Frozen Dead Guy Days”

The “F” shaped thingy on the back is called a Landau bar reminiscent of the old landau carriages

3-wheeled hearse?

Tattoo Hearse

Two-wheeled hearse

Haunted house prop hearse

A lifted 4×4 “Hearse-Zilla”

A standard everyday hearse

Hearse with flame decals

This is at a small town in the mountains of Northern Colorado called Nederland

Each year in Nederland, the locals (called Ned-Heads) have a three day long festival

featuring a parade of hearses through the center of town

and nearly 10,000 people come to see this event

and spend money in this town of about 1400 population.

and it’s all to pay tribute

to Grandpa Bredo, AKA, The Frozen Dead Guy.

… bringing up the rear at this year’s Frozen Dead Guy Days:

The Squirrely Red Elves with their plywood and PVC touring coffin

It’s Bump 5-0 and the Dog of Doom? I think.

The Ska Brewing Team

Number two of two “The Mystery Machine” Scooby-Doo caskets

The Hot Tub Casket

General Tso’s Chicken Take-home Casket

The Purple Haze Casket

The Jersey Shores Casket

The “Spaceballs” casket

Endangered List casket

The Cross Caribou Miner’s team casket

The Team Budweiser casket

Walt Disney’s cryo-casket

The Red Longjohn’s casket

… and the saucer-shaped casket of the Nedterrestrials.