Run, Pancakes and Parade

Today is a big celebration day in my town.  This morning I ran in a 4 mile race.  Hey I finished!  I didn't walk at all - just slow and steady.  This was my 5th year running in it.  My time was 49:04.  My 61 y/o mother, who has a heart condition, did it in 38:00 and she won second place in her age group.  The woman she always tries to beat won first again.  Maybe next year Mom! :) 

This was my best race ever - my time was slower, but I had more fun running it.  At the end I sprinted and passed 4 people.  Ha! ha!  One may have been a 70+ y/o grandma with white hair and matching white velcro tennis shoes, but the other 3 runners were younger than me!   After the race and the awards ceremony (my Mom's running buddy L. from this post won also won second in her age group) we went over to the fire hall for a pancake breakfast.  You get a ticket for a free breakfast when you run in the race.  My Dad volunteers every year with the race committee (he was the 1 mile timer this year), so he gets a pancake ticket too.  It's all part of the tradition....

Some of my friends and some of my Mom's running buddies ate with us.  It was really fun.  The last half mile of the race I kept saying to myself - pancakes and parade, pancakes and parade.  It kept me going LOL! 

So after pancakes there is the parade.

I dodged all the streets that they close off for the parade and went home.  Got cleaned up and then (with Tibby) headed back to my parent's house.  Unfortunately, my parents live inside the parade area and a cop wouldn't let me go the 1/2 a block to park in their driveway, so we had to park really far away.  The parade doesn't go down their street or even really come close to their house!

We hiked to my Mom's house.  Picked up my Mom and then went to find the spot that Zoe's Mom had saved (at 6am!) earlier in the morning.  The parade had already started, but we only missed the first 5 floats.

Miss Tibber-ator.

Tibby did really, really amazingly well at the parade.  She had a nice time.  She wasn't scared at all.  If she had been scared I was going to take her back to my parent's house. 

Zoe's Mom works with vulnerable adults and she brought 2 of her clients to watch the parade - hence the black circles on their faces.  Her clients really liked Tibby. 

For the first 30 minutes Tibby sat on my lap and watched everything going on around her.  She wasn't stressed, but she wanted to sit on my lap.

During the entire parade Tibby saw 5 loud bands, 4 very loud drum corps (1 that stopped to play 3 feet away from us), 2 horses, 50+ kids on skates, many boats on trailers, 6 or so semi trucks, regular trucks, lots of cars, little racing cars, a garbage truck, fire trucks/police cars with lights and sirens, many,many people/kids dancing with streamers/pompoms/flags and a million other things!

Getting a nice gentle pet from one of the clients. 

 Tibby was also petted by/greeted a man in a clown costume, a large dog costume and a purple monkey costume (I couldn't tell if they were men or women LOL!).  Also, random people that would stop and pet her over my shoulder - Ah! Random hand in my lap! It was very weird.  And a nice man and little girl who walked across the street and asked if they could pet Tibby. 

Watching the parade.

The people across the street fired up their barbecue.  It was making me so hungry!  I think Tibby could smell the barbecue too!

I like this next series of pictures, because it shows how relaxed Tibby eventually got.

People walking by? 

Ho hum.  Not interested.

She was too busy with the milk bone that the humane society gave to her.  They had a float where they walked adoptable dogs from the shelter.  Tibby got to sniff a Brussels Griffon and get a HUGE milkbone.  She thought it was awesome.  Some strange lady handed her a giant treat!  She couldn't even finish it at the parade (although she tried) and when we got home she pulled the leftover half from my bag and ate it. 

Just us.

What a good puppy!

Tibby jumped up into Zoe's Mom's lap.  One minute she was on the ground the next she was in her lap!

She wanted to give her a little kiss.  Or maybe a BIG kiss!

I have some video of Tibby at the parade that I will post some time.  It was super loud.

The end.