dual personalities

Oh fall weekends! The heat finally broke here last Thursday and the temperatures plunged to where they really should be. Sweet relief.

On Saturday I decided to throw away my list of estate sales and instead I walked downtown to view our flyover town’s annual Greentree Parade. (Please forgive my iPhone pictures!)

Motorcycle cops showing off skillfully driving in circles opened up the parade.

They were followed by the High School band and cheerleaders,

motley groups of scouts,

local vendors,

Yes, that’s a giant bison he’s pulling!

bagpipers,

a giant motorized shopping cart,

and various groups of equestrians,

In addition, of course, the elementary schools and middle schools in town all had floats. A lot of churches also participated as well. The Methodist church always has the best entry and this year was no different with their own super-cool rockin’ Christian band blasting their live music.

Seriously, I always want to join their church after seeing them rock by. But my own Grace Church tries so hard—you have to love them despite the fact that they might as well hang a banner that says, “Yes, we’re Episcopalian nerds–join us!” We had music too, but we piped in hymns like “Let Us Gather at the River,” because we always stick to the yearly theme—this year it was “The Wild, wild West”. At least for our trouble we were awarded 1st place in the category of theme interpretation!

I took this picture on Sunday morning outside our church where it was proudly parked.

I did not take a picture of our float at the parade because I was so distracted by this friendly Episcopalian who was trotting around very much in character (“Howdy, Ma’am”).

(I found this better picture–with cacti–on our church website)

He handed out these invitations.

Real wooden crosses handmade in Bethlehem!

We may be a small congregation, but we are always classy! (No candy or dog treats for us.)

As if all this local excitement wasn’t enough, the boy and his bride invited us to go to the Cardinals game with them that evening.

Our seats were in the seventh row behind the home dugout–how perfect is that? Besides seeing the game at a great vantage point and the players up close and personal, we had many opportunities to see this guy.

Fred Bird never ceases to amuse and entertain me.

We may have lost the game, but the day was spectacular. God bless America!