How do you celebrate your birthday? Like many people, you probably have friends and family over for a meal and a slice of cake. In Nebraska, however, somebody decided to celebrate their birthday in a different way.
Duane Hansen is from Syracuse, Nebraska and he decided to break the world record for his 60th birthday. It wasn’t doing something that you probably ever heard of doing before, he rode a giant pumpkin down the river and smashed the old record.
In a social media post, a spokesperson for the city of Bellevue, Nebraska wrote the following: “On Thursday morning right after 8 AM, Duane Hansen from Syracuse, Nebraska stopped in to the Mayor’s office and asked if a couple of people from Bellevue City Hall would serve as official witnesses for his effort to be recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.”
They went on to say: “They say if you stay in your job long enough you might see just about everything and this morning was one of those days!”
At first, they thought that they would just be floating an 800lb pumpkin down the river 30 miles but then they realize that Mr. Hansen would be riding in the pumpkin.
Hansen lived in Nebraska for many years and he grows large pumpkins on his property along with other vegetables. He randomly found out about the possibility of riding a pumpkin down the river.
He said: “I was at a giant pumpkin growing seminar, a three-day seminar in Portland, Oregon, and I met this lady that had the record. At the time it was 25-something miles. And I asked her a lot of questions and that’s when I decided I wanted to do this.”
The journey started at 7:30 in the morning. They thought that it would take him six hours to make the trip but that was an underestimate.
“Once you’re on the river, that d*mn thing was so tippy, it was unbelievable. It was like riding in a cork,” Hansen said. “You just could tip over at any second. You’re using your balance the whole time. I’ve never paid so much attention to any one thing in my entire life.”
He was able to claim the record at 25.5 miles but he continued to Nebraska City. In the end, he had been traveling on the river for 11 hours for a total of 41 miles.
You can see more in the video below: