'05 Albuquerque Twinkle Light Parade

[sabotlours]

Saturday was the annual holiday parade in ABQ. It also marked the 2nd time that I marched in the parade with my furry friends. The first time was 2 years ago when albear, dexter_fox, and others had come for a T'giving visit. We matched the number of suiters as last time at 7. It was me in Nevada, albear in Al Bear, dexter_fox in Bouncer, tenax in Ralph, overzen in Sonar, project122 in Abbey, and thipher_84 in Zunipup. Much thanks to ari_foxy, Tim, and Tenax's dad who acted as handlers and photographers. They did a great job. And I can't forget the lovely carol_kitty who wore my open-faced Tigger suit while driving our support vehicle. We had decorated my Furmobile with 300 icicle lights and a lighted polar bear which we had mounted to the roof. It looked great! We also hung banners on both side of the vehicle which read "Albu-fur-que." All of us also carried battery-powered lights and Al and Dex had glow sticks.

The parade route was 2 miles long. It was a nice cool evening but everyone certainly got a workout. The newspaper estimated that 20,000 people had come out to see the parade! We were number 20 which was a blessing since most of the horses were behind us. Poop was a major drawback 2 years ago. The pace was brisk but manageable. We didn't have a lot of time to interact with the crowd, but we took our opportunities as they came. At one point we were told to keep our interaction to a minimum since kids were racing across the street to get hugs.

The only drama of the evening happened at the very end. They split our group in 2 and sent Carol in our support vehicle one way while all of us marchers went another. She ended up on the other side of the Rio Grande with no way to get back to us. We had no idea how to get to her. It sucked that we had to pop our tops and appear headless to a few kids, but we were wandering around in the dark. Finally we hopped on a bus which took us across the river to a park-and-ride where Kitty was able to get to us. She had to disobey a cop to get to us, but since we were dying for water, her actions were justified.

Oh, and of course there were pictures!


The Furmobile

Having fun with the entry behind us

Tigga stole my car!

Al Bear had an unfortunate accident *lol*

Thipher and me with our handlers Ari and Tenax's dad

Al Bear chats with some homies

Ralph works the crowd

Bouncer tries to convince the crowd that he's a chipmunk and not a cat or tiger or fox

Sonar passes out the high-fives or is that a wing slap

It was Red's first time suiting in public. I think she liked performing as Abbey

Bouncer and Zuni pass out the paw shakes

Sunset down Central Ave.

Comments

[overzen.livejournal.com]

He he, that was a fun time. I'm glad I was able to participate and get to dance behind the pipe band the whole way! Oh, and you forgot to mention that It was Jason's Dad who finally got you guys on the bus and safely to a meeting point. Just have to give props to where they are due. ;)
Nice parade, Mr. Bear. Hopefully Jason and I will be able to do it again in the future. *pats your belly and plays with the santa cap so it dangles in front of your muzzle*

[sabotlours.livejournal.com]

I know you were digging hanging out right in back of your peeps. I'm glad you were able to join us in the parade. You looked like you were having a great time. Too bad we didn't have a lot of time together at Fudds afterwards. Oh well. At least I was able to give you an ear sniffle.