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Okay, where was I? Right! The parade had just started to move. It had been overcast all morning, which was completely bumming me out because first of all, it meant all my pictures would be dark. Secondly, I had some concern that it might actually rain, which would have been no fun. But the sun came out just as we started to roll. Later in the day I was wishing it had stayed cloudy (more on that later) but at the time, it seemed like perfect timing.

This parade was a lot different from both Houston and Chapel Hill, which are the only other 2 parades I've been in. Chapel Hill was on a four lane road, with people sitting or standing on the sidewalk. So there was plenty of space between us and them. In fact the Beetle club ahead of us comfortably drove two abreast. We were also moving at a comfortable pace in Chapel Hill: fast enough that I wasn't riding the clutch, but slow enough to interact with spectators as we passed by. Even though it was just a small town Christmas parade, in some ways Chapel Hill was the most fun parade I've done yet. But maybe that's because it was my first parade and we were the only art car there.

In Houston there was also a lot of space. I can't remember how many lanes the road was, but it felt spacious as I recall, and the spectators were all safely on the sides of the road. In some areas there were even temporary barriers they had to stand behind. On the other hand, they made us keep moving pretty fast, so it was difficult to interact with people. I could sometimes hear the things they said about as we drove by, but I didn't have time to reply (like I could in Chapel Hill). Which was too bad, that was really fun.

(I have to interject here that I'm listening to Georg's radio show and he's playing "World's a Mess, It's In My Kiss" by X. Which is a song that I love, but I hadn't heard in years. So thank you, Georg, for reminding me of that wonderful song.)

At Artscape we drove very slowly, in fact I was riding the clutch pretty much throughout the parade. It was nice to feel like we were taking our time, but on the downside the spectators were much closer to us, so close at times that it made me a little uncomfortable. I think Georg put his finger on it when he said that the other two events were parades, but this was a huge festival with a parade running through the middle of it. So there were booths all over the place, sometimes in the road, which naturally meant less room for us. And thousands of people milling around, many of whom were there to see us but many of whom were not.

There were only a couple of times that I actually felt unsafe. One was when the vendor booths narrowed the road to one lane, not a very wide lane at that. And at that point we had to slow so much that people started crossing the road, and suddenly there was a crowd of people in front of us, forcing us to a dead stop. I was sitting there like, "hello? we're in a parade here?" I thought about honking at them but then they cleared out and we were able to get through.

The second time was a little scarier. I think I mentioned that Fifi the giant pink poodle was directly in front of us. Fifi was a two-man bicycle, actually a two-woman bicycle on this occasion, with a cute little girl along for the ride. The women pedaling Fifi were amazing -- I know I could not have pedaled a twenty-foot poodle for that long in that heat! -- but at one point we came to a hill and they couldn't maintain speed. In fact, Fifi started to roll back towards us.

Yikes! An image flashed through my mind, of explaining to an insurance agent that my car had been damaged by a collision with a twenty foot poodle. Luckily, two men jumped out of the crowd and pushed Fifi up the hill. Which was really wonderful of them, but the only problem was that they apparently forgot there was another car right behind them. Once they got Fifi up the hill, they pushed off and stepped backwards, almost walking back into Undersea Mah Jongg!

That was the really scary thing. Georg told me later that one of them had lost his shoe and stumbled into the other, but all I saw was the two men rushing backwards towards my front grill. Imagining how to explain running over parade spectators is a whole lot worse than imagining how to explain a collision with a poodle, let me tell you.

However, they did manage to get out of the way before we ran them down, and the parade went on. It really was a fun parade. I like when they have us double back down the same street, as it gives the drivers the chance to see each other. Because, it never occurred to me until I was actually in a parade myself, but parades are a lot different from inside than they are from the sidelines. All we see is the same poodle's behind for forty-five minutes.

So it was nice to drive past a bunch of the other cars and have a chance to check them out. I noticed that Theresa was sitting on top of her fairy car, which was very cool. She didn't seem to have anything to hang onto, so I guess her driver must have been nice and steady.