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Friday, February 21, 2014

The Rodeo Parade

I rode in the Rodeo Parade today.
Want to see why I love Tucson so much? 
This is what I saw at 7:30am
from my perch inside the wagonette rented by The Happy Ladies' Club 
and piloted by the lovely Jane
owner and operator of this small business.

We were part of four tranches of wagons


and horses with marshals in red vests, 
 keeping order
and vaqueros on horseback, 

and all kinds of decorations on those wagons
 celebrating the organization
 which paid the fee to ride.
This is not an inexpensive proposition to mount.

These four groups merged onto the large, square, parade route, 
and we traveled right down the middle of the road.

We were not alone.
There were fans galore

and we waved to every single one of them.

Do not underestimate the amount of energy it takes to move your arm back and forth, rhythmically, while smiling and showing enthusiasm. By the end of the 2.5 mile route, we were all ready for right arm massages.

There's a Mexican flavor to the proceedings, which was obvious to us from the start, when this float of Nacho Libre-esque fighters cruised past
More traditional attire was also in evidence.



There was more, much much more, but I don't want to bore you with all five hours of our adventure.
Let me leave you with a smile.

The Happy Ladies Club was the very last entrant in the parade.
We were, as the kids used to say, toilet paper, wiping up the rear.

This was made evident to us with the arrival of these
pulling up right behind our Happy Ladies' wagonette.
They are large 
and well equipped
 (yes, that's a saddle on the hood)
for the task at hand.

And what might that be, you ask?

Well, remember all those horses?
I shall say no more.

***

Warning - don't click on the links in the comments below.
There's a bug in my system and until help arrives all I can do is say BEWARE!!!
They are not my links.

2 comments:

  1. I love a parade. My grandmother used to enter her Beauty School in the Phoenix Rodeo parade every year. I have 8mm movies from the 60's of the parades we attended. You all look great and the weather was perfect. Happy Day!

    ReplyDelete

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