An Awesome Fair Parade

Time for the annual Fair parade! This year, unlike pretty much every other year, it was actually interesting. Why? Because this year Sam, along with his co-workers, "marched" in the parade! 

Sam came close to participating last year but to say he was ambivalent would be an understatement. After much internal debate, he ultimately declined and chose instead to watch from the sidelines.

This year though, he was actually looking forward to walking in the parade...  all the way up until about a day and a half before. Then he started to have second thoughts.

After a lot of indecision, I made a deal with him, I told him that that if he wanted, I would follow him along in the crowd, just in case he had any problems. (I didn't bother to mention that I was planning to do this anyway. I just wasn't planning on telling him.)

I guess the deal sounded reasonable because he decided he wanted to give it a try.

So when it came time, Sam and I walked down to the meeting place where his group was gathering. I made sure he was settled in and then I walked down to an agreed-upon spot (about a block away) where I would wait for him and then walk the route from there.

So I got to the spot and, as it turned out, Helaina joined me. 

About 20 minutes later, the parade started. Several marchers passed, then one or two "floats", then the inevitable Coca-Cola trucks. I could see that the food service van was coming along in the distance. The only problem was, I couldn't see any of the food service workers.

As it approached, I was beginning to think that I had now committed myself to walking along the parade route while Sam would be riding in the food service van, probably playing Pokémon Go the entire time. 

It turned out, thankfully, that he and co-workers were behind the van, walking along and handing out fruit and stickers to the kids along the way. 

Sam did great. He was intent on trying to make sure that every little kid got a sticker - which meant that he needing occasional prompting to keep up with his group. But he did great.

Helaina and I followed along through the crowd, met him at the fairgrounds and the three of us then walked down to the transit center where I had parked there earlier in the day (so we wouldn't have to make the long walk home).

All-in-all, it was probably the best parade I've seen in a long, long time. Maybe ever.