In what officials are calling “a very understandable mistake,” a trucker hauling produce through Arkansas last Friday accidentally joined a Renaissance fair after mistaking it for a roadside weigh station.
“There was a tent, people in uniforms, and lots of shouting,” explained driver Ray Holter. “I figured it was just an enthusiastic DOT team.”
Holter parked his Freightliner beside a mock catapult and waited for inspection. Instead, he was handed a turkey leg and challenged to a duel by a man dressed as Sir Crankshaft of Tulsa.
“They were calling me ‘Good Merchant of the Road,’ and honestly? It felt respectful,” Holter added.
By the time real inspectors from the Arkansas Department of Transportation arrived, Holter was participating in a joust on a borrowed miniature horse. “He had the reflexes of a seasoned knight,” said fair organizer Megan Longbraid. “We tried to keep him.”
Officials say the mix-up was due in part to the weigh station being closed for maintenance and the fairgrounds using a nearby truck pull-off for overflow parking.
“We’re working on clearer signage to prevent this in the future,” said DOT spokesperson Will Tudor. “Though, to be fair, he passed the jousting inspection with flying colors.”
Holter eventually left with his logbook signed by a court scribe and a coupon for free mead (non-alcoholic). “Not the strangest day I’ve had on the road,” he said. “But top five, easy.”
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