Forks was the first town on the route where we set up camp somewhere other than a schoolyard. Because we were no longer on school grounds, we were allowed to have alcohol at the campsite that night. Indeed, on getting to the site we could have a bottle of beer or a glass of wine for free. A glass of red went very well with my minimalist "costume", a black piece of fabric wrapped cape-style around my shoulders.
The contest winners, though, had more than the usual costume ideas to help them out. A group of four people -- three with garbage-bag capes, and one dressed like a jogger -- claimed the prize. "Most of the time," said the jogger, when it was his turn at the microphone, "I look like anyone else in the Pacific Northwest. Active, healthy, green. But in Forks, I turn into a vampire slayer!" He took off the jacket from his 80s-style jogging outfit, revealing a silvered jacket underneath. "And the vampires that I kill are --- flat tires! broken chains! headwinds!" His 'stake' was a long, heavy Allen wrench, as he went after companions -- one with an inner tube, one who was holding a section of bike chain, and one with a wig of brightly-colored tubes that bobbed in the breeze.
Because we were in a park in the middle of town, some of us felt a bit more nervous about our bikes than we had at the other overnights. Along with two friends I had made on the trip, I thought I should lock my bike that night -- especially since our tents were right at the edge of the park. Since there weren't any formal bike racks nearby, we "circled the wagons", locking our bikes to each other around a tree.
As it happens, there was a bit of a disturbance that night. Some folks decided to drive their cars around the park honking their horns; others started walking through the encampment until they were challenged by some of the ride organizers. RAW staffers collected all the cell phones that had been left outside charging and locked them inside one of the equipment trucks. Eventually, the police came and cleared away the harassers.
I found out just how good my ear plugs were: I slept through the whole thing.