Fall Fest Parade

Last Saturday morning dawned cool and cloudy--weather you'd expect for the end of September in Minnesota. That was just fine, except Mom and Dad were supposed to be Grand Marshals in the Wykoff Fall Fest Parade. As I was getting prepared to leave for the parade, I started hearing the rumbling of thunder outside. Sure enough it was looking kind of ominous to the southwest. I turned on my trusty computer to the National Weather Service radar and there it was....a huge green and yellow precipitation blob heading northeast out of Iowa. I called Dad to ask him if the parade was still on and his response was affirmative and he assured me that he and Mom had raincoats. "They aren't going to make you ride in a convertible, are they?" I asked. (Seriously, if you owned a convertible, would you drive it out in the rain with the top down?? I certainly wouldn't.) Dad indicated they would be riding in a convertible but the weather service said the rain should be done by 10:30 and since the parade didn't start till 11:00 all should be fine. Besides, the weather service is never wrong, right??

So, like the doofus that I am, I left the house without my raincoat or umbrella but as I got going down the road, it became obvious the rain wasn't going to stop, so I made an emergency stop at the Dollar Store to pick up a nice big umbrella.

First came the Color Guard.

Here's Mom and Dad in the convertible (you can see Mom's big smile--not just because she's waving to us, but because we're at the end of the parade route and she knows she'll be back to her nice, warm house in less than 5 minutes!)

The horses didn't seem to mind the rain.

The Fall Fest has also become the time of year when class reunions are held. Here are some classmates from the class of 1947. Wow, that's 60 years! That would make most of the people on this float 77 or 78 years old. That's pretty amazing!

This looks like some sort of exotic millipede.

And finally, the contingent of local emergency response vehicles--all with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

The rain certainly put a damper on the parade, but afterwards we headed over to Mom and Dad's where they had the furnace turned on and we were able to warm up. I downloaded all the photos I had taken to Dad's computer so he and Mom were able to see what they had missed (they were soaked from their ride in the convertible and chose to stay home rather than come back to watch the rest of the parade).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On a totally unrelated note, I got several items crossed off my "to do" list today. One of these items involved cleaning out a couple closets (there are 8 large trash bags awaiting delivery to the local Goodwill store tomorrow). I came across this trio of brass seagull sculptures, each with a hanging chain (I assume to be hung on the wall).

Would any of you blogging friends be interested in these seagulls? I'm thinking particularly of the West Coast or East Coast residents (or anyone else) who may have an affinity for seagulls and know of the perfect spot in a bathroom, guest room or sun porch where these seagulls would look really nice. If you would like these seagulls, please send me an e-mail with your mailing address (rjknits at msn dot com) and I'd be happy to ship them off to you tomorrow morning.