New Orleans Saturday - The Parade For A Cat

After the air show we took a breather and then headed out to a participate in my first Second Line parade ever.

It could have been held by the Crewe of Mew - it was a parade in honor of a cat.

Not just any cat, but an unnamed feline that managed to zap itself and knock out power to 70,000 people on one of the hottest days of the year.

Many in the parade felt the cat was really sticking it to "the man", and the parade was in the cat's honor.

In short, any excuse for a party will do in New Orleans.

So we headed down to where the parade was to start.

The brass band had assembles, and the crowd grew but the parade couldn't start until the police escort arrived.

Some but not all of the police escort arrived, so the starting time of 9:00 pm got pushed back further and further.

There were quite an array of characters ready to go:

The black cat:

People who thought they were cats:

Even dogs were there to honor the Zap Cat.

Then the rest of the escort arrived and the parade got started. The band and the banner led the way.

Quite a crowd paraded to honor the zapped cat.

Much bar-hopping occurred as the parade proceeded in fits and starts over 2 and a half miles.

Lot of fun was hard, my liver was exercised severely once more and thus is growing stronger, and my first second-line parade had taken place.

After such a venture where do you go to get some food to balance out all the alcohol? Why to the Tacocat Food Truck of course!

Those were some tasty, tasty tacos.

Sunday At Birmingham's Summer Parade

Birmingham, Michigan held its summer parade on Sunday. The weather couldn't have been better for a parade - sunny but not overly hot with clear skies.

Birmingham is a small yet very tony city north of Detroit.

The theme of the parade was honoring Vietnam War veterans.

First came the city commissioners along with a nice early Ford:

Then the fire trucks with sirens wailing and lights flashing:

Next came a contingent of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, led by the Sheriff himself.

Included in the procession was the Dive Team:

Next was an Honor Guard of Vietnam Era vets, who marched to some very loud applause.

Many more Vietnam veterans organizations marched by.

Some vets drove:

Classic cars were also in the parade:

As was a classic fire truck:

And a classic ambulance:

Marching bands:

A unicycle team:

And, you can't have a parade these days without some demonstrators:

Nothing like a bunch of know-nothings yelling "No justice, no peace" and "Black lives matter" during a parade honoring Vietnam Veterans.

Once the parade ended, we wandered to the end point of the parade, a park where a quite a few of the parade participants hung out.

Among those at the park were the clowns making huge soap bubbles while on stilts:

The kids got to climb into the fire truck and look around it, which they enjoyed.

It was a great day for a quintessentially American small-town parade.