The 4th of July Parade

It took a village but we all pulled it off. First, the people Justin and I would like to thank and why (and in no particular order because each one provided invaluable service):

1. Melanie's sister, Carol, and her husband, Shawn: Thank you so much for driving 3 hours just to drive another 2 miles in the parade that lasted an hour. And thank you for making a 7-11 run while we were all standing around sweltering in the heat of the morning waiting to get onto Main Street.
2. Justin's parents, Mike and Barbara: Thank you for providing the fundage to buy something so extravagant for us and for Hanly's Hounds. The "floats" could not have turned out this great from just paper mache and paint. The movement that the material provides absolutely makes the floats come alive.
3. Melanie's Mom and Step-Dad, Loretta and Ken: Thank you for baring the heat and sun and standing on Main Street for over two hours just to capture several minutes of video of us in the parade. Just the gesture warms our hearts.
4. Lea, Jeff, Sapphire and Hailey: Lea and Jeff, thank you for letting your two, very well behaved, I might add, young ladies be in the parade and throw candy to the crowd. They were such an added asset to our float.
5. Scott and Amy: thank you for always being willing to do anything to help us out. You both are just such great friends. Amy, thank you for taking wonderful photos and bearing the sun and heat just to do so. Scott, thank you for driving the other float and bearing the heat as well.

Now that we have established that it takes a village...it could not have happened without Justin. He of course, was the designer and master engineer. I did as he told me to. The floats took only a couple of days to complete...actually that is an over statement...1 1/2 days to be exact. Another 1/2 day to complain about the heat and the smell of Justin's farts. I do not know what the hell he ate but really the garage was full of Justin's stinky farts...by far the worst smelling farts since he and I have been together. Really. It was that bad.

The parade was a blast, just like last year except more so because we actually knew more than 3 people in the town. That was so much fun for me to see people, we actually know, cheering for us and calling us by name. I loved it. It made me realize that we are making friends here and getting to be fairly well known. Although it is easy when "you have the most famous car in Fernley" (as someone just told me recently).

To the photos:



These are the two buggies/Hanly's Hounds Dogs:


In the parade:








And for how we fared in the parade awards...

We won FIRST PLACE again this year. Last year we won first in the Novelty category...this year first in COMMERCIAL VEHICLES. Which means, we beat out AMAZON.COM. Thats right...Amazon came in 2nd...we came in first. How cool is that????