monday morning

The Main Street Drag is a drive around town that takes the art cars to people who wouldn't get to see Saturday's parade. Georg and I were a little bit late due to the insanity that is driving in Houston., but we weren't worried because the schedule in our packet said arrive at 9:30, roll at 10.

Now would be a good time to talk about how crazy it was to drive in Houston. There were layers upon layers of highways going everywhere; streets changed into other streets randomly; and the entire city seemed to be under construction. On Thursday night as we drove to the art car ball, we saw orange cones all over one road, but nothing going on. On our way back at 11 pm that night, a block and a half of the street had been completely torn out & there were piles of earth and concrete everywhere!

On top of all that craziness, it was the International Festival that weekend so a large section of midtown was blocked off. But the streets that were blocked off seemed to change from day to day. I'm pretty sure that at least one of us exclaimed "I hate driving in this city!" every single time we went out. I guess it wouldn't have been so bad for someone accustomed to city driving, but I rarely even drive in downtown Raleigh.

Anyway, we were a few minutes late to the Main Street Drag, but we weren't worried because things had been so slow to get started the night before. Georg wandered down the block to take photos of the other cars, and I started working on setting up the infamous web cams.

A minute or so later a woman came up and introduced herself as the leader of our group. She told me that I was the last car in the group, but the police escort would take care of keeping me with the rest. However, she knew where we were going and they didn't. So I should make sure to follow her.

She also said that we were on a tight schedule, so when I heard an air horn I should be ready to roll immediately. I asked her when that would be and she said "About two minutes." Aie! I had no idea where Georg was and I had a pile of equipment to sort out.

I didn't want to leave my car to go find Georg, so I crossed my fingers that we'd drive by him on our way out. Thank goodness that's exactly what happened! He saw Chaigirl rolling, remembered that she was just ahead of us in line, and stood on the edge of the road, ready to jump in as I passed.

Well Elizabeth and Barry just came in. More later.