Under threatening skys, the HRMINIs began gathering at Sonic for the 2008 Strawberry Festival Parade. Rain overnight and right up to gathering time made cleanup that much more difficult. Attrition from mechanical failure, illness, and parade regulations brought our group's number down to five. A sixth car joined us just as we left Sonic. Sill, the faithful gathered starting at 8am in the first bay at Sonic.
As usual, there was time to catch up with our friends and to meet new ones.
Of course, the main business was getting the cars prepped.
This time, there were no two cars with the same stripes or wheels. At 8:50, as the skys grew more threatening, it was time to load up and move the convoy down the road...
..and make our way onto the Pungo Coast Guard base.
Here we were guided by the folks in orange vests...
...right past our intended marshall point. As a result, we had to perform a group u-turn...
Finally, we were guided back to our old friend, runway 180. With another u-turn...
...and once again avoiding our old nemesis the exposed rebar...
...the HRMINIs assembled in our final order, ready to roll off.
Once again, we were situated on prime real estate next to our pal, the portajohn.
We were unit number 45 of 70 units in the parade. This time the marshalls actually sort of lost track of the unit order. As a result, we found ourselves parked directly ahead of unit 34, the gigantic Bloom shopping cart.
The order problem was solved by setting up a "follow the leader" situation, with the marshalls pointing out to each unit leader the unit he was to follow in the parade. Once in place, we were joined by our final member, bringing up our number to seven. The gang took some time to finalize our detailing and relax. The folks on the Bloom truck were fascinated by our cars, so my wife and I spent the time showing them off and explaining their features. If you look closely, you'll see the Tidewater Corvair Club behind us.
And now we pause for the obligatory, semi-artsy photo...
For more, go to PAGE TWO
Images by Bob Womack (2nd MINI)
