Teacher smashes US pumpkin-weighing record in California | USA TODAY

A Minnesota teacher drove 35 hours with his prize-winning pumpkin to outweigh his competitors and walk away with more than $20,000.

RELATED: Houston Zoo animals discover joys of a pumpkin | USA TODAY

Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Minnesota, grew a gargantuan pumpkin at home and drove it 35 hours across the country to enter it in an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California. The end result: a new U.S. record.

Gienger, of Anoka, Minnesota, set the new record with a 2,560-pound pumpkin in the 49th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.

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