Boooyyyyyyyyy, it was a tad warm and sticky prepping for the parade!
I knew I would be a mess by the time I had unloaded the quads, got everything prepped and was ready to roll so I packed my orange shirt to put on AFTER I was preparing.
It was the best idea I had and yet, by the time we were actually staged to take off down the route.....it was all sweaty and stuck to me.
hahahaha
I arrived with Mike Taylor and Grizz/GBH as the first to appear as I needed time to prep all my equipment. I got Austin's quad loaded with candy, balloons on the front and his helmet out. He was ready and excited to be in the parade!! I hooked up the trailer, mounted the big umbrella to it (I can't have my angel putting up with that burning sun), put the battery-operated fan in (the girl needs to stay cool right?), a cooler of candy and some water finished it's interior. A dozen balloons on the sides and she was ready to roll too!
The Sportsman was last and I had already prefitted everything so it was easy to load. Big cooler of candy on the rear rack (right side), candy launcher on a custom quick-release clamp on rear rack (left side), big radio on the front rack angled directly toward my huge melon, air horn mounted on right handlebar.....and 2 cans of silly string in the handlebar pouch.
I was loaded for the show. hahahaha (Turns out I was OVERloaded, go figure).
The 2 Rivers Club was number 7 in the parade and the early call to line up caught some members just driving up. They were able to unload REALLY fast and everybody made it to our 30 minute wait farther down the road.
Weck's son was representing for the mini-quads as his Falcon 90 was the smallest quad there. Piglet's son was also making the scene but on the Outlaw 90 which appears to be about 3 times the size of the Falcon. Austin rounded out the lil' riders on his mid-size ....and Piglet brought the brand new 4-wheeled wet dream!! The evil black Polaris Outlaw 525.......yep, the fastest accelerating stock sport on the planet. What a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet ride!!! ;D
As well as a nice showing of children to prove our clubs family image, there were plenty of couples showing it's something for Dad & Mom too!! FastCat and MizzKitty lookin' sharp on their green machines with coordinated gear......Grizz and GBetterHalf keeping the Yin/Yang of quad brands alive.....a great couple (I didn't get to talk to but were directly ahead of me..throwing about 600 pounds of candy and making every child scream to the sugar-Gods)
......and then the real "workers" of the Club appearance, SheHot and SheEquallyHot walking the entire route (Ubn happy to drive her quad so she could hoof it) hahahaha and Thank You to Ryder for also doing the whole route on foot and getting our magazine out to the fans!!!!
I don't know how much candy the other entrants of the parade brought, but I have a good idea of how much our club brought!!!
As the tailgunner for our club, I was watching which kids had been drown in candy already and tried to pick up any stragglers who were missed. My angel was winging candy to every kid she saw, so we made a great team! hahaa The only problem was, that couple in front of me (BOTH on beautiful Polaris quads I might add) were loaded with lots of candy and not shy about dispersing it.
The lady carried 2 laundry-type baskets and threw out handfuls that would cover the feet of any child in it's path!!! With that couple tossing in front of me, I had trouble finding kids not already cleaning up the ground around them!! That freed me up to focus on the really young fans who weren't fast enough for the big piles.....and I stayed pretty accurate so they all had their own pile to collect. It was a great system and I loved seeing all the kids getting something.......I remember very well what it was like to watch candy thrown all around, but none of it close enough to get. I believe the 2 Rivers Crew was probably the best candy source of the entire parade!!! In reality, we were like 20 individual entrants all throwing candy......only compressed into a small group so the sweets were very concentrated when we started throwing.
When it was all done, we headed back to the parking area. I was still last in line but for some reason Grizz and GBH had fallen back to be right in front of me.
As they turned a corner, I saw why.......heeheeeehheeeeee GBH on the superior Polaris was towing the dead Grizzly back home.
How VERY SWEEEEEETTTTT was that picture? And how normal considering the Polaris reliability versus the Yamaha.
Good thing there was a Sportsman around right Grizz? ?
Austin thought the parade was "AWESOMEEE" and already wants to know if we will be doing more. hahaha My angel got alittle hot at the end, but still got all her candy out and was giving me the 'thumbs-up' as we headed back to the truck.
It was a great time, I am super glad I did it with the lil' ones along, and I was surprised to see all the folks who braved the incredible heat to represent!!!! I thought there was about 20 quads in our group so we made a cool looking pack as we drove through. A good showing for a good cause and I think we were the best entry there!!!!!!
Lastly, I was looking to my right while scouting for missed kids at one point....when I heard somebody shouting to my left. I turn to see who it was.....and it was my bro * M O J O * showing up to watch the parade!!!!! I was already rolling past when I saw him so I don't know if the candy made it but I did try!!!!!! Great to see you Nick!!!!!!
(Thanks again for use of the trailer Grizz, it worked perfectly)