Pumpkin Island

Pumpkin Island

๐ŸŽƒHave you seen ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—œ๐˜€๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ in Fredericksburg, VA?

๐ŸŽƒHead to the Rappahannock River on Riverside Drive near Fall Hill Avenue. You can see ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—œ๐˜€๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ right where the river curves along the Rappahannock River Heritage Trail. This is a great trail that connects to the Canal Path Trail.

๐ŸŽƒHere’s a little history about ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—œ๐˜€๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ from Kevin Brown.

๐ŸŽƒโ€It started a few years ago when a young man named Ryan McGinnis put a whole bunch of carved and illuminated pumpkins out on the river rocks right before Halloween. He did this in homage to a similar tradition from his childhood home in Vermont. Unfortunately, a flood occurred the day after Ryan put out his pumpkins and they were swept away. Since Ryan’s effort, I’ve put a few pumpkins out on the river rocks over the past few years. This year (2022), my Riverside Dr neighbor, Thomas Sandler, and I came up with a grand idea to put a lot of pumpkins out in the middle of the river in homage to Ryan’s first effort. We got 17 pumpkins of various sizes, wheelbarrowed them over to the riverside, put them in Tom’s kayak and 2 river rafts tied to the back. Tom kayaked with the load to the island in the middle of the river. I carefully waded across to meet him. And thus, ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—œ๐˜€๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ was born.”

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