Toy Parade

This past Saturday HPVOoO took part in the annual Toy Parade. In past years we've even won a few awards with our float ideas, but so far we've not been notified about anything for this year. ;)

As in the other parades, our modus operandi is to use Richard's Greenspeed tandem trike pulling the large trailer with some sort of theme on it. The rest of us circle around this rig on our bikes, which are usually also decorated. This makes the riding a lot more fun than just moving forward at the usual parade crawl, and helps us keep warm!

This year Alex supplied a large inflatable snowman, so that was put on the back end, then a tree was added, and room was left at the front for various members' kids to sit and wave. Our staging area was on the Laurier Bridge. It was a cold, windy day, and being on the bridge made us feel very bit of the chill. Below, the trailer prep begins (earlier in the week folks had gathered at Richard's to test-fit everything together so that assembly time would be quick).

Alex's bike even had reinder on it.

I rode the tiny trike. It's fun to ride, and I'd like to build one my size some day.

Charles is either doing a robot dance, or this should be captioned "Invisible Broom".

Snowman and tree and kids are all ready to go! (Though some are being silly and pretending to nap in the -10C windchill)

One does not see horses all that often in an urban environment:

I put my camera away once the parade started. Charles has some photos, and Richard's will be up whenever he sorts his server issues out. The parade was fun, and as always the route was packed with adults and kids. Afterwards we rode (still in parade mode) over to the Royal Oak by Pretoria Bridge for lunch.