2010 Houston Art Car Parade Adventure

Sorry it has taken me so long to get to this, but it has taken me this long to recover. : ) Seriously, it was a some kind of exhausting fun.

Perhaps the best part of the day was the weather. It was cloudy with a very pleasant breeze. The last time we did this we almost fried right there on Allen Parkway. We were very pleased with the conditions of the day.We were probably the tamest of the entries there. We were just plain cute.

I fully expect to get a call from Pixar announcing they want to include us in their next installment of the Cars franchise. I mean, come on! Look at us!

Anyway, the parade festivities begin with sitting on Allen Parkway. Allen Parkway is a beautiful street that leads from downtown Houston to the River Oaks neighborhood. It's twisty and hilly and tree lined. It is blocked off and the cars line up and wait while the masses who are hungry for eccentricity wander about and check out the cars.

I should add here the the Art Car Parade is sponsored by The Orange Show. Houston has a big folk art community. We're weird. I love that about Houston.

There are representations for every aspect of society as well as from some just plain loony people. There were schools, businesses, people who wanted to legalize marijuana, families who decorated the family van like sock monkeys. It takes all kinds.

This guy covered his Jeep with crushed cans and pull tabs.

There was the classic cock roach car. He's been around for years.

Not all art cars are cars.

These guys were next to us while we were lined up. They kept us in a dancing mood.



I didn't take as many pictures as I should have/would have liked. But you get the idea.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we only made it through half the parade. One of our batteries died on the road. It was a tragedy. We got towed by a jeep that was painted like a tiger. We ultimately got it going and made it home, but we missed the return trip down Allen Parkway. But it was a fun and exciting day. Several friends stopped by and we ate lots of cupcakes and deviled eggs. That makes every day better.

Getting Our Vitamin D

We escaped this weekend. We realized that it was probably our last free weekend until the Rapture or the end of October, whatever comes first. ; ) So we loaded up the RV and headed south.

It was a quick trip, but just what we needed. We hadn't been to the beach all summer. And we hadn't been since the hurricane. This weekend was also the first anniversary of Hurricane Ike.

We actually went to Surfside which is a little south of Galveston. It didn't get the brunt of the storm. Still, the beach was littered with bits of brick and more glass than I have ever seen at the beach. Tons of shells, too.

But we had lots of lazy fun.

We collected shells,



made sand castles, surfed,


(did you notice the oil rig?)
fished, and caught weird little creatures. Don't worry. We let him go. If anyone can identify him, we'd sure like to know what he was.



The coolest thing I didn't get a picture of: we saw dolphins! They were out in the water when the kids were playing in the waves and in the little inlet where we fished off the jetty. I had never seen a dolphin in the wild before. Very fun.

But we are back with our noses to the grindstone. It's already shaping up to be a busy fall.

Fun in the Sun

Another fun August event was an RV trip to the Galveston. We piled into our big bus and headed down to the island.

While we were there we pier fished.


Nothing worth saving was caught, but we saw lots of pelicans, jellyfish, and stingrays and had a good time.

We stayed at the state park down there. It was right across the dune from the beach. The kids didn't seem to mind the seaweed and had a great time. We flew kites.

Made Polly Pocket a sand castle.


Made a drip castle.


And played in the waves.



We also went to Schlitterbahn. Malibu Barbie Junior had a great time playing in the water.

I was more than happy to rest my tootsies in the water and watch the fun.



*Sigh* I miss summer already.

2008 Houston Art Car Parade

I need to be careful. My roots are showing.

Now, to be certain, I was never hard core. But I was quite flamboyant in my younger days. This weekend made me flashback to my days with pink hair, a tiger miniskirt, and fishnets. This weekend was the Houston Art Car Parade and we were right in the middle of the freak show. There seemed to be a higher percentage of belly dancers there than there are in the regular population. What fun we had.

We were the tamest of entires, with our dear, old RV.


We got a lot of whoops and hollers, especially from the older set.

Here is a sampling of the other entrants.

There was the box car.


Yes, this thing was motorized. And alive.

The classic Roachmobile.



We used to have this old blue pickup that I threatened to glue fruit all over. Looks like someone else thought that was a good idea.

I really liked the peacock car.


I don't know if you can tell, but these boys decorated their go-kart with Legos. Very cute.



And, of course, you know I have a soft place in my heart for the big chicken.



If you want to see more, you can visit here.



In a tragic turn of events, the curator of the Art Car Museum was killed by a suspected drunk driver just hours after the festivities ended. Please pray for the family and friends of Tom Jones as they deal with his unexpected death.

Maiden Voyage

Just so everyone would be sure that we don't have a sane bone in our bodies, right after Christmas we bought an RV. But not just any RV. No, that would have been out of character for us. We bought a vintage RV. It's unlike anything you have ever seen on the road. It looks like this:



It has this really cool front end.


It looks like something out of Cars. I'm considering contacting Hollywood and letting them know we have it in case they want to rent it for some movie.

It has been receiving a few repairs, but this weekend we took it out for our first run. It did just great and we had a good time. I am not much for the whole camping scene and the girl shares my distaste for sharing my toilet with the local flora and fauna. This was a lovely compromise.

Our next outing will be as an entry in the Art Car Parade. If you are not familiar with the Art Car Parade, you must go check out their web site. We will be among the tamest of entries. It will be a long day, but we are looking forward to it. If you are in Houston on May 10th, stop by the parade and give us a wave. We'll be the ones in the Krager Kustom Koach.