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in national parks, there is plenty to see and explore, including the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. However, for one crazy day in June the whole area turns out to watch this town parade and race. Pipe bands and vintage cars roll through the picturesque village while the quaint country pubs do a brisk trade. The race begins at Conyngham Hall and climbs up a hill overlooked by the town’s castle ruins. Then it proceeds down to the River Nidd, where crowds watch as the teams struggle with their customized beds and some disintegrate in the water with cardboard and papier-mâché floating away downriver. Then they scramble up a muddy bank and race for the finishing line.

The event raises thousands of British pounds each year for different charities and is actually oversubscribed with more than 100 bed teams eager to participate. Competitors come from as far as Germany to try their luck in a race that turns out to be pure bedlam. —CO’M

www.knaresborough.co.uk/bedrace.

When to Go: June.

Leeds (29km/18 miles).

$$$ Residence 6, The Old Post Office, 3 Infirmary St., Leeds ( 44/113/285-6250;www.residencesix.com). $$ Roomzzz Central, 2 Burley Rd. ( 44/113/233-0400;www.roomzzz.co.uk).

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Roller Girls Running of the Bulls

Southern Discomfort

New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.

The gun is fired and they are off. A pack of brave runners dressed in white shirts hurtle through the French Quarter of New Orleans with big beefy girls on roller skates tearing after them. The bruising females chase and whack their prey with whiffle ball bats and are dressed with massive horns for added menace. There is no doubt that they are a fearsome sight as they bear down on a limping runner and beat and pummel the hapless athlete. Even more outrageous are the spectators who look on, chomping their beignets (large French doughnuts) and jeering when some slow poke is caught and gored with a bat.

Here in this Deep South city famous both for Mardi Gras and Creole, the roller girls provide a modern twist on the Pamplona Bull Run (see ). A wine merchant called Mickey Hanning started the event in 2007. He loved the adrenaline rush involved in the Spanish version and decided that New Orleans should host a bull run of its own. However, bulls are in short supply in Louisiana (or maybe insurance men are in good supply), so Mickey had a few words with a team of roller racers called the Big Easy Roller Girls, hoping that some tough American broads could stand in as the bulls. Their captain, a woman who goes by the name of Archbishop Pummel, sent Mickey a reply, “I’ve got a bunch of bad ass chicks on wheels who probably wouldn’t mind beating up a bunch of guys.” And so the Running of the Bulls went stateside.

The menacing “bulls” on roller skates in New Orleans.

It takes place in July with over 30 roller girls forming teams with names like Confederacy of Punches and Crescent Wenches. The chase gets underway at the Three Legged Dog, one of the French Quarters pretty Creole houses and over 600 runners are pursued down Bourbon Street toward the Mississippi River. For comic effect (as if things were not hilarious enough) the Roller girls are themselves harried by the Rolling Elvis, a group of Elvis impersonators on sputtering scooters. The anarchic run comes to a climax amid much pounding and pummeling at the Gazebo on the river bank. The finishing line then turns into a block party with dirty rice, jambalaya, and pecan pie washed down with beer and bourbon.

The Roller Girls Running of the Bulls is open to everybody. You just need to turn up in white clothes and a red scarf and be prepared to be terrified and humiliated. —CO’M

www.bigeasyrollergirls.com.

When to Go: July.

New Orleans.

$$$ Le Pavillon Hotel, 833 Poydras St. ( 504/581-3111;www.lepavillon.com). $$ Quality Inn & Suites, 210 O’Keefe Ave. ( 504/525-6800;www.qualityinn.com).

444

Irish Road Bowling

Country Roads

Ireland, West Virginia, U.S.A.

The neighbors have lost their marbles, or more likely their cannon balls. Pick any summer weekend in bucolic West Virginia and you are likely to