2015 Holiday Parade

We are having our first big snow of the year. With high winds, it's a blizzard. And the people in control decided that, to be safe, they had to cancel the Holiday Parade.... I am so sad. Lilly and I were both excited about going to the Parade -- but, instead -- we'll be snowed in this weekend. The snow is still coming down...

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Here's my parade report from LAST year....

We arrived in downtown Davenport about an hour before the parade was to begin. There were thousands of people, and soon, we were in gridlock traffic. Ugh. I parked the car and we got out to walk down to the parade route.

All those thousands of people were carrying those nifty lightweight folding canvas chairs...you know the kind -- with the carrying case they casually fling over their shoulder.

Oh oh. It suddenly dawns on me that I'm going to have to stand for the next three hours.

OH CRAP!!

I almost turned around at that point -- but Lilly was so excited.....So, we walked on -- and I hoped there would be a bench somewhere...or at least a tree I could lean on....

Then, on the corner of 3rd and Ripley, right where the parade is going to make a turn -- I notice all these people sitting on chairs and benches in front of a junk store I've never noticed before. We went in, and it is jam packed with my kind of treasure....used furniture, some Retro stuff, many kitschy pieces....

I took this picture three hours AFTER the parade...because during the actual parade, it was impossible to cross the street to even TAKE the darn picture...

Lillian and I walked in and I looked around, hoping there was something I WANTED TO BUY -- so I could befriend the owner...(yes, I am an evil genius -- AND I used to own a retail store...!)

As Ritaluck would have it -- I found the PERFECT treasure.  Larry (my new friend, the owner) negotiated a price with me for a lighted coyote mirror. ($20)

Still looking around his exciting store, I said   "how much for one of those benches out front?"

Larry:  $5

Me:  Sold.  (getting my billfold out of my purse)....So, now, Larry -- you must go out there and tell those people to get off my bench...

Of course, laughing now -- he did exactly that. The two men who had settled in on the bench to watch the parade were dismayed to be losing their sturdy seat  (hey -- THEY HAD EVERY CHANCE TO BUY THE DARN THING)...

Larry brought my bench into the store...and I paid him the money. He told me we could set it up on the empty lot side of his store -- where there was a little rise -- and we'd be able to see all the balloons coming down the street...

I actually took this picture AFTER the parade -- when there weren't SO MANY PEOPLE

Lilly and I sat on the bench until the parade started. Once things got rolling, she wanted to be on the curb -- and as it happens -- we had a small tree right in front of us -- so she had a PERFECT watching spot, and she didn't have to push in front of the people who arrived before us...

It was one of those spectacular, perfect days.  Lilly was five years old.  And, even though I was counting on it becoming an annual tradition for us --  maybe it's okay that it was canceled.

Because we could never top last year...