Well, it was a fabulous day of Art Car Parading, but unfortunately it ended tragically. Becky, Tricia, Al, and I were returning in Versatile to pick up Tricia’s car from the Art Car Museum.

Just prior to our arrival, Tom and two others were sitting on the curb, just having locked up the museum. A car struck tricia’s, and sent it 3-4 car lengths, hitting all three guys, but pinning Tom.

He was conscious when he left, and we did not learn of his death until the following day.

Some corrected facts that I’ve seen misreported, misinterpreted, or unmentioned:
The car was parked legally.
The street was otherwise empty.
The car was lifted with a rescue air bag.

On to some of the fun from the day (which Tom would not want us to forget!):

We had some problems getting our generator started, it was eventually solved as likely a kinked fuel line. Bert from our service department was very helpful on the phone a few times. Thanks Bert!

We got to rolling to the parade setup. The Allen Oldies playing most of the way. A police officer stopped next to us, and requested a song. I’m not sure if it was a specific song, but she got “I Fought The Law and The Law Won”.

Once passing through the judging area, we drove through the already staged cars. Everyone, of course, enjoyed the musical interlude as we passed.

I was, indeed, wearing a jacket the whole time and, yes, it was very warm.

I walked the staging area as the band played for a while. Taking many photos and seeing many old friends. Thanks Al, and Sean for the cool beverages!

The parade rolled and we, being car #16, went fairly quickly. I distributed several dozen oranges while driving. Allen, and the Dancing Sisters were up top making the car rock quite a bit.

From there we went back to my place, broke down the setup, and sat on the lawn chatting with neighbor Sean who knew some of the guys from a decade ago in the music business.

I took the car to Discovery Green, hung out for a while, then headed back to meet up with others. Left the car at the Continental Club. Then tricia drove us to the meetup at the Art Car Museum, parking her car for the last time. We had dinner and then after dark left on the illuminated cruise.

We soon found ourself in an empty field east of town. We hung out there for a while, but apparently the police caught up with our noise – live band on a flat-bed semi. We left the cruise, hit the Continental Club and Big E’s wedding reception, a little Big Top, then headed to pick up Tricia’s car. Which is where the story started.