Gardiner Parade

The Gardiner parade is pretty similar to any small town parade that I have been to in Wisconsin. Basically there are more people on the floats than there are watching the parade. The floats are usually nice but not ostentatious and you almost always know 90% of the people in the parade.

Even though I can see all the floats from my house without even stepping out the door and since the sun did have some claw to it today staying inside my house may have been preferable but I always enjoy going outside and actually watching the parade. Jessi came over and our plan had been to make mojitos (mint muddled with ice and sugar; spiced rum and seltzer over the top) and watch the parade from my lawn. However, we did not have quite enough time to make the drinks so when Jessi spotted out my window the first float heading up the hill towards the Arch, we sprinted outside as if we needed to catch the last ride home from work instead of just catching the the first float (the sheriff's SUV and he was drinking coffee!). Well it took at least another five minutes for the sheriff to actually get to the arch as he was going at a snails pace (duh this is a parade). In the interim, the park Law Enforcement ranger sat in the DARE car (looks like night rider car but doesn't sound as good; has some muffler problems maybe) and motioned tourist to move thru the arch without stopping to take pictures. Surprisingly they complied.

Jessi and I caught 3/4 of the parade in 8 minutes, including the Shriner's being pulled behind an old car that kept dieing on them, Hell's a roaring outfitters on horses with mules behind, the credit union bank ladies dressed in 1900 clothing like women gamblers. We felt like the belles of the ball, as we were the first stop so everyone threw candy at us even though we were obviously past the prime candy receiveing age of 10. Then the K bar float came along, there was a long stall while the circus acts got going and they asked us if we wanted to hop on. Yes we poached a float! Having nothing else to do, we hopped on, were given spiked lemonade, squirt guns and candy to throw. I thought, "what a town!" when you can just hop on a float and are treated to some good southern hospitality. I decided being on a float gives you a license be loud and obnoxious and obviously the center of attention. Half way thru the parade, I started getting hit with candy. I tried not to look to silly and figure out what was going on. This is not usually the way it works, typically, the parade watchers do not pelt you with candy. Eventually, I realized that the NPS Bear Management Float behind us was hitting me with candy. Stacey, the woman throwing candy at me told me that I had a, "I'm going to kick some ass" look on my face until I figured out it was her.

The parade route was as follows: starting at the arch, went three blocks past the historic Robert Reamer buildings, hung a left at the Sinclair, went another 2 blocks, crossed the bridge over the Yellowstone, then proceeded out of town another 3 blocks ending across from the rodeo grounds. Soooo despite the short route, it surprisingly did take about an hour to get from one end of town to the other.

At the end of the route, a man and his wife ran along the floats, handing out bottles of water (we were out of candy but it was a bit opposite for them to give us stuff), even going so far as to run to get more water for our float and bring us more bottles. I felt like a celebrity. I knew who they were and so I expected there must be a message on the bottles, but the rest of the girls did not know what was going on. The people handing out water were the babtist minister and his wife for the local babtist church. We used the water not to quench our thirst but to refill our squirt bottles and spray each other down. At the end of the route, they all noticed the stickers on the water bottles that said "God Bless you." It was rather surreal. Six of us and a dog needed a ride back to the beginning so we all piled in an old tan buick celebrity car and we were given a ride back across town and deposited at the beginning.