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The problem was the way we had to park. In Houston the parade ran along this huge four lane road divided by a grass median. At the end of the parade, everyone just pulled up along the curb and left the car there. But at Artscape I guess there was less room for the cars. So instead of parking alongside the curb, we had to pull into angled parking spaces. To add complexity, the spaces were angled the wrong way. So you had to pull forward, past your spot, and back into it.

Now remember, these are art cars. Many of them are driven only at events. Maneuverability isn't generally a top priority. Besides which, it's in the middle of a festival so there are people everywhere. So backing each car into these angled parking spaces took a bit of time. A lot of time in some cases.

The entire line had to wait for this process, inching forward as each car parked. Which wouldn't have been a problem except that it was the end of July in the middle of Baltimore. The sun had come out and it was hot. It had to be over 95 and it felt like 105 inside the car. I guess the repeat attendees knew what was happening but we had no idea. All we knew was that we had suddenly stopped. We'd sit for several minutes, pull forward thirty feet, then sit for several more minutes. Actually it was a lot like the horrendous traffic jam I'd been in the day before, except hotter.

I wasn't watching the clock, but we had to drive right past the edge of a stage that was blaring music really, really loud. Because sitting in your car sweating just isn't fun enough on its own. The longest stretch we waited was 3 full songs. So I'm thinking about 10 minutes of sitting for just that one car. (I bet that was one of the buses or the bottle car. It must have taken a really long time to park them.) There were dozens of cars in the parade, which gives you some idea of how long this process took.

After a while Georg got up and walked ahead to see what was going on. I encouraged Alix to get out too, stretch her legs and find some shade, but she insisted on staying in the car with me. That was really, extremely nice of her, but she really should have gotten out. There was no reason for both of us to suffer.

The driver ahead of us turned off her car and got out whenever we stopped. I could have done that too, but there were people all around and some of them were kids who seemed really into the bubble machine. So I didn't want to shut it off. Besides, I wasn't sure what was going on. As far as I knew, we might start moving again at any moment. In retrospect, I guess I could have left the car on and gotten out, just stood by the driver's door. But I didn't think of it at the time. My brain was so cooked, that kind of problem-solving was really beyond me.

Finally, finally we moved far enough ahead that I could see cars parking. And then it was almost our turn! I pulled up ahead, anxious to get parked and get the heck out of the car. But a volunteer asked me to back up a bit, so that the car in front of us could turn off on a side street. Apparently she wasn't in the parade! She had somehow gotten in the middle of us and had gotten stuck in that line-up waiting to park. The road was so narrow and clogged with booths and pedestrians that she couldn't pass; she had to wait until her place in the line reached a side street.

Poor woman! That waiting in the heat was bad enough for us. She wasn't even supposed to be there! I have to admit, I had been looking at her car wondering what it was doing in the parade. It didn't have any decorations although I could see a few things sitting on the dash. I had wondered if only the front was decorated or something.

Anyway, finally we were able to get out of the car. Georg, Alix and I all felt so hot and nasty by that point, but it did feel good to stand up in the shade.

One thing I've noticed about art car parades is that the car tends to be a real mess inside by the end. I don't know how it is for other drivers, but I'm always rummaging around in my trunk, setting things up, putting up temporary decorations, etc etc. Throwing things in the back seat as I go, not realizing what a pile of junk I'm accumulating. Then we've got whatever drinks, snacks and supplies we brought along for the trip, and there are parade materials like the parking pass and paperwork, flyers or anything we're given at the event, and so on and so forth. Not to mention anything we had in the car for the road trip, like road atlas, CD binder, etc.

Which is all to say that by the time the parade ends, the car is crammed full of stuff. It was worse this time, I think because I didn't clear out the trunk ahead of time. With the trunk already full (that's where I store all my toys, beads, glue and etc) there was no place to put stuff except in the car with us. Which made it that much nicer to get out of the car.

We were late in the parade -- in the last third -- but we were by no means the last. There were plenty of cars after us. I felt so bad for them, still stuck in their cars! I walked down the line and said hi to Andy, who I had met in Houston. He was way back near the end. He was driving the video game car, with pictures of Space Invaders on the hood and a video game terminal on the back.

He looked like he'd had a rough time of it. He mentioned that he'd been up all night working on the bottle car. Apparently there was a team that had worked really hard, up to the last minute, to get that car finished in time for the parade. Anyway, Andy looked a bit worn out. At one point he said "You have no idea how nerve-wracking this is." Which, I think, is true. I mean it was bad enough for us, but his three kids were in the car with him. He tried to introduce them, but they were all going a little crazy from the heat and the waiting, and couldn't settle down enough to say hello.

After catching up with Andy I also saw Dragonfly, who I had met last Thanksgiving in Newark, DE. She invited us to a Delaware art car event in October. It would be nice if we could make it, but I'm not sure if we can. October is going to be pretty busy for me at work, and we always go up to Delaware for Thanksgiving besides. But it would be really nice to be there. Well, we'll see.

I also got to meet Tom Stuto, whose car Holey Mercatoyed I had admired before the parade. I've seen Tom's posts on the artcarz list since I first joined, but hadn't had the chance to meet him before. Tom was also part of the team that had worked on the bottle car, although he seemed a bit less fried than Andy. Maybe Tom had gotten more sleep, or maybe it was just that Tom wasn't still in his car.

I fully intended to finish this darned trip report with this one last entry. But I see that I've written a lengthy entry and I've only just gotten the cars parked. So I'm going to close here and write up the end of the weekend with another (short I hope!) post.