The HERD was hyped to do another one.
About two dozen riders thought they'd go,
But broken bones and viruses said 'NO'.
Thirteen of us showed up... but that's okay;
Kathleen's tot Tommy's trailer saved the day,
To nix the hex of that unlucky count.
Fourteen rolled out from Ralph's, each on his mount –
Eleven tadpoles, one each delta, trailer, bike.
Not quite the huge HERD horde that we might like...
But quality, not quantity, is key
Or what's important, so it seems to me –
To others, too, 'cause I saw lots of grins.
Steve's Catrike on two wheels and Christy's spins,
Tortillas flying, tadpoles zipping past
In full lock turns, then spinning up so fast
It seemed they'd miss the forward turnaround,
But braking hard, they'd whirl, lost in the sound
Of some garage band's 'songs' exalting beer
(Which they'd consumed – in quantity, I fear!)
As Deena high-fived eager curbside kids,
Recumbents swirled around like squirting squids;
Near misses were the order of the day,
Except for John and Steve – what can I say?
The cutie in the cupcake looked amazed
As tadpoles zoomed around and almost grazed
Her motorized contrivance topped with foam,
Then all too soon we had to head on home...
But we'll be back again, I think, next time,
And I may even write another rhyme.
Well, what more can I say? We did it again, although a little later than we had expected. The 2007 Doo Dah Parade was bumped from its historic date in late November to January of 2008, not to become the 2008 Parade officially, but merely the 30th, at least according to their pre-parade propaganda. The other change this time around was our third plan for pre-staging. This year we met and parked in the Ralph's shopping center about a mile or so east of the staging area on Raymond. This off-site pre-staging area is the best we've tried so far.
Most other aspects of the parade were pretty much typical of past events – which is of course, anything but typical of life anywhere else on this or most other inhabited planets. Our favorite blond bombshell had upgraded from her pink porta-potty to a Porsche convertible (Whether you would consider it 'real' or not depends upon how you feel about the VW-powered 914 series). Although you've almost surely seen lots of other Porsches wearing a bra, hers is the first I've seen that actually needed one.
The ladies wearing (nothing but) feather boas for tops were, by almost any standards, real, although the plan for them to pose on an elevated platform with the crowd peering up from below would probably not be recognized as acceptable by several organized religious sects. Other cute girls, more groups on bikes, the electric cupcake that somehow wound up in the middle of our chaos, Uncle Fester's bubble machine... all the fun and excitement that is always a huge part of this rowdy raree were back again in full force.
This ride for the HERD [Humanoid Envoys from the Recumbent Dimension] was as contagious as ever. Newby Kat came up from Irvine with only her two-year old son Tommy. When I told her that we would be zipping around seemingly(?) wildly and out of control, but everyone would be very careful not to actually hit her Trice or Tommy's trailer, she insisted that she would only ride in a simple straight line just behind us. And she did, for almost the first 50 yards or so, before she was an integral part of the flashing, dashing, almost crashing traffic pattern that has always been the HERD's parade signature. Our other newby, Darlette, was swooshing and zipping around right from the get-go. With his wife Susan out of town, Steve (aka Big Steve) was riding solo on our shop demo Catrike Trail, instead of the tandem bike he's ridden the last two parades. Since I don't think of Steve as a trikey, I was surprised to see him up on two wheels, and very relieved when he returned to the normal three-point stance on the pavement. But he wasn't quite the stranger to tadpoles that I had thought, and spent roughly half of the remainder of the route at a cockeyed angle. All in all, Steve had a pretty impressive ride... and hey, John probably shouldn't have had that pannier (that got in Steve's way) on for the parade anyhow.
As always, the kids on the route were thoroughly fascinated by our odd cycles, and there was always a gang of the young-uns with their hands up, hoping for a high five from the trikeys passing by. I think Deena set the all-time Doo Dah record for most extensive hand-to-hand contact. Tortillas were tossed, and several of our trikeys were caught by the camera 'recycling' choice fried flour discs from the street, along with the mini-marshmallows that gooped up our tires and several other low-hanging parts (of the trikes, not the riders). John managed to trump all that by inadvertently scooping up a plastic bag which snagged a brake rotor, shortly thereafter melting and bonding into the brake system, smelling bad and significantly impacting the rolling efficiency of his LoGo.
But all that, having to clean sticky marshmallows off our tires, the hassles of driving to and from Pasadena, the crowded start area and the waiting... won't be the important parts of the Doo Dah Parade we'll all remember, as we wait for its 31st time around; it will be the sheer outrageous FUN of the whole thing. The first – and only – rule of this event is:
Last updated Mar 13 2008