Now that we're all dried out from the rain on St. Patrick's Day...
The Sandbar float crew gathered at Dave's house for a breakfast of Pizza Shuttle, cinnamon rolls, and some awesome little sausage-cheesy-biscuit things. We got the last minute shirts finished, practiced the dances, and set up the borrowed sound system. Andy, our driver, had to go to Baldwin early in the morning to get the tractor.
Around noon the float pulled out of the alley. We were all soaking wet by the time we got the end of the alley and turned onto 13th Street. But, all of our dancers were good sports and performed as if they weren't being pelted by rain. The wood trailer was a little slippery and we're glad that no one fell down.
The crowd on Massachusetts Street was definitely smaller than normal- usually the sidewalks are packed full of people from 11th all the way to 7th Street; the crowd was pretty sparse this year. North Lawrence usually has a pretty good number of folks lining the streets, too, but they mostly stayed in their houses this year.
By the time we got to the Flamingo Club, we were all shivering and soaked to the bone and pretty much miserable. After the awards ceremony the float takes everyone back to the bar; this year, most of the riders opted to go back to our house first to dry off and change.
Dave and Andy had to drive the tractor back to Baldwin, because someone had just bought it and was planning to pick it up the next day. Since the tractor's top speed is 27 mph, it took them a considerable amount of time to get there and back.
The bar itself wasn't nearly as full as it usually is on St. Patrick's Day either, but that's not a bad thing. The $5 cover charge helped keep out the drunken riff-raff (as Dave likes to call them). It was a fun crowd all evening.
More pictures of the day are in the St. Patrick's Day album and I'll have video footage soon.
