A parade truly Bailey-style
Last Saturday evening we co-hosted (with Chip and the Cutthroat Cafe) this year's annual "Drive-By Christmas Light Parade". I once asked Chip why he calls it that, and he replied, "Cause that's about it... we just drive by!" You never know who's going to show up to be in the parade, and we had to postpone it one week due to the absolutely frigid temperatures last weekend (well below freezing). This time around we had Logan's trailer stacked with hay bales for the hay ride, a vintage fire truck to lead the parade, another fire truck with lights flashing, two horses decked out with electric lights, my truck strung with intermittent Christmas lights (more on that in a moment), and two Park County deputies to block the highway as the enormous parade crossed on our way down and back. We had a few people who gathered at the country store to wave us off, and I think one or two who peeked out of their curtains as the procession passed by on our way down county road 64. We'll have to work on getting our fellow Bailiens (Bailyites? ) more involved in this momentous event next year.
Anyway, I decided to decorate my truck this time year, and borrowed a voltage inverter to run the lights (you plug it into the cigarette lighter). I wish I had a picture of the finished product, but I was too busy trying to get the whole thing to work for more than 60 seconds to snap a photo. Don Morrison and I spent at least two hours duck-taping the strings of lights all over the truck, plus we had a metal "sculpture" screwed down in the back with string lights in the shape (loosely) of snowflakes. We were going to stand one of our wooden sasquatch cutouts wearing a Santa hat in the bed of the truck, but when the wind kicked up I thought it wiser to keep him on terra-ferma. (I could just imagine sasquatch flying through the air and killing someone on the side of the road - it would be the first confirmed death by sasquatch). We managed to get all the lights working by 4 in the afternoon, although we blew at least 4 or 5 fuses in the truck in the process. When "showtime" arrived, I started the truck, turned on the lights, and promptly blew another fuse. Then another. Then another. I was ready to give up and park the truck, since I was holding up the parade while I tried in vain to bring some Christmas cheer. Then one of the firemen said that he had an inverter in his car, and if I had a really long extension cord we could run my lights from his vehicle. What a great idea! So we ran the cord out of his window and up to the bed of my truck, and the whole thing worked like a charm... for about 3 minutes. After that the lights would come on, then go off, then on again. Only in Bailey could you have two vehicles connected by an extension cord driving in the Christmas Light Parade.
After the parade we all gathered in the store for coffee and hot chocolate and for the giving of the coveted Green-Bean-Can trophy. It's actually about ten different cans - all unopened mind you - of vegetables, marshmallow cream, and whatever else all glued together. Whoever wins the trophy is supposed to add something else to the "structure", which is now about 4 feet high and weighs a good 25 pounds. It was great fun.
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One last thing: this coming Thursday morning, the Bailey Country Store and Sasquatch Outpost will be featured on Denver's 9 News! They were up here a couple of weeks ago during the power outage, and they ended up broadcasting from the Cutthroat Cafe all morning. The reporter and her cameraman stopped by the store for a snack on their way back to town (when she walked in wearing black tights and a fur coat, I had an inkling she wasn't a local) and she was so enthralled by the whole Sasquatch theme that she wants to come back and do a story on us (since, as she put it, Christmas is the "season for believing"). We're not sure what to expect, but we're excited about the publicity this could give our store. Stay tuned for more!
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