All Dressed Up & Nowhere to Go on the 4th

One of the great annual events in Horseshoe Bay is the Independence Day parade that winds past the Resort along streets lined three-deep in places with families demonstrating their patriotism. The parade consists mostly of elaborately decorated golf carts, with a smattering of vintage or exotic cars and a few floats. And, amongst those vehicles for several of the past few years, a single bicycle: ours.

Debbie and I were excited to get back in the swing of things. Last year, I found myself in the ER on the 3rd with a bout of pneumonia, and Debbie spent part of the 4th undecorating our golf cart. We decided this year to go back to our traditional steed, and I spent a couple of hours yesterday decorating the bike. I even had a portable speaker embedded in the bike frame for streaming a patriotic musical playlist.

We rolled out of the driveway about 8:30 this morning and pedaled the three miles to where parade participants were already lined up for blocks. The morning was overcast but not threatening rain…ideal weather for a leisurely ride through the beautiful streets of Horseshoe Bay.

We pulled into an open space between two golf carts…and were immediately “greeted” by another golf cart containing what I presume was the parade marshal. He proceeding to inform us that bikes were not permitted in this part of the parade…that we’d have to join the children’s parade a half mile or so down the road. I told him that we’d biked in the parade for several years in the past, but he was adamant in refusing to let us participate in the way we’d done in the past.

I basically replied, “nope, we’re out of here” and we pedaled down to the next intersection and left the parade lineup. We ended up bypassing the lineup completely and rode along a small part of the parade route by ourselves, where people were already starting to line the streets, and then we headed back toward home, making a few detours and turning the morning ride into a workout.

Perhaps I was inappropriately miffed by the incident. We knew there was a separate section of the parade lineup for children’s bikes — all the promotional material emphasized this, further emphasis on “children” — but unless I’ve missed something, childhood doesn’t continue to my advanced age (although I will admit to acting childish oh-so-very-occasionally). And the prospect of joining a gaggle of kids with training wheels, or being pulled along in wagons was not the experience we were seeking.

The morning wasn’t a total waste as we did get in a ride of 12+ miles, and undecorating the bike took significantly less time than decorating it. But I can’t help wondering what George Washington would have thought about such a turn of events while crossing the Delaware.

Next year, I guess we’ll revert to the golf cart, even though it’s illegal to drive it to the starting point from our part of town (pretty sure we were the only people in that part of the city who took that into consideration), unless there’s a great outcry over the missing recumbent tandem bike that hordes of people had turned out to see on America’s Birthday, and a sea change in regime ensues.