Saturday: Nuts & Bolts Chili, Narrated Mural Tours, and Sunday: “Sands of Time” Cemetery Tour
The Saturday and Sunday Trolley Tours are popular.
The Viva Cuba beautification organization is making ready for a trio of activities during Tri-C’s October 16-17 Cuba Fest.
Saturday, October 16 brings the 20th Annual Chili Cook-Off. You can rev your motors for some Nuts & Bolts Chili this year as some of the area’s car & bodywork specialists preview their premium chili for tasters. Tasters will vote with their tickets for the title of the master chili chef and the silver ladle. Tasting and voting is from 11:00 am-1:00 pm in the Recklein Auditorium area on Smith Street.
Last year the Fair Queens provided some Royal Chili. This year's Nuts & Bolts Chili will provide some "man chili."
Also on Saturday, October 16 is the narrated trolley tour of the murals along the Route 66 corridor. Every mural has a story connected to the town’s and nation’s history. The rides are free and start in front of the Catholic Church at School and Smith Street and take about a half hour. The popular tours run from 11:00 am-3:15 pm.
Cuba's 4th graders study the stories behind the murals. If you want to be smarter than a 4th grader, hop aboard our tour at Cuba Fest.
On Sunday, there is the second annual Cemetery Tour of Kinder Cemetery aboard the turn of the century trolley replica. Catch the free trolley at the Catholic Church for a ride to Kinder Cemetery and the “Footprints on the Sands of Time” Tour. The tours run from 11:00 am to 3:15 pm and were a big hit last year.
Some of the dearly departed from last year's tour "rush" to the trolley to tell their stories.
At Kinder Cemetery, meet historic Cuba citizens dressed in period costume who will tell their stories in a dramatic fashion. Meet Lightning Rod Smith who was a Grand Marshall of the Cuba Fair for years with a “Voice like thunder, an eloquence like Webster, and a dashing presence.” Then there’s Lulu Kinder. Find out her family’s role in Cuba and why she named one of her daughters Robert. Napoleon Fowler was a steamboat captain and fought with the revolutionaries in Havana Cuba. These and other colorful characters will make this year’s cemetery tour memorable.
H.H. Tieman and his wife are a couple of the characters from last year's tour. They continued their discussion of his fake disappearance.
As Longfellow wrote in his poem “Footprints on the Sands of Time”:
Lives of great men [and women] all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Don't delay taking your trolley tours. The free tours fill up quickly.
For a look at the characters from the 2009 Cemetery Tour and a look at some jim dandy photos, Go to “Viva Cuba’s First Cemetery Tour brings history alive.”
For some thoughts about last year’s Cuba Fest and some more jim dandy photos, go here.
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