huge parade in junction city, kansas on the day after thanksgiving. this is where i grew up and just happens to be an army town (attached to fort riley), so you can probably guess a key theme of the parade. <br><br><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/jayhawk/.Pictures/soldiers_float.jpg" width="450" height="313" alt="army"/><br><br>the big red one (1) is stationed at fort riley:<br><br><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/jayhawk/.Pictures/big_red_1.jpg" width="450" height="297" alt="big red 1 band"/><br><br>many floats around the theme of missing the troops and/or hoping for a safe return:<br><br><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/jayhawk/.Pictures/kids_missing_troops.jpg" width="450" height="297" alt="kids and troops"/><br><br>i tried to use a slower exposure on the high school band . . . but i need practice:<br><br><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/jayhawk/.Pictures/marching_band.jpg" width="450" height="297" alt="exposure band"/><br><br>remember the happy hands club in napoleon dynamite? <br><br><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/jayhawk/.Pictures/happy_hands.jpg" width="450" height="297" alt=""/><br><br>my old 4-H club had a float:<br><br><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/jayhawk/.Pictures/4H.jpg" width="450" height="297" alt="4H"/><br><br>and what would a parade be without the shriners?<br><br><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/jayhawk/.Pictures/shriners.jpg" width="450" height="297" alt="shriners"/><br><br>i tried to get the motorcycle dudes, but they were too fast. <br><br>i figured the parade would last 15 minutes, but i was surprised to see it go over an hour. fun times.<br><br>--<br>"I am mindful that diversity is one of the strengths of the country" --president bush on 9/27/05

Looks like fun. Did they have clowns too? We (as far as I know) don't have a parade for Thanksgiving, but they do have a "light up Louisville" night when they turn on the holiday lights.<br><br>

i don't recall seeing clowns, but i was not really paying attention to the folks up close (the clowns typically mingle with the crowd) as i was chatting with my little brother most of the time.<br><br>the police department had a vehicle in the parade that looked something like this:<br><br><br><br>i couldn't believe that the tax payers allowed it. in fact, it was even more decked out than this image. come to find out, they had obtained it in a drug bust and they had 3 of these types of vehicles in their collection. they explain how they were obtained on the sides of these vehicles ("This vehicle was donated to the police by a criminal") and show them off all around town. i thought that was pretty funny. <br><br>--<br>"I am mindful that diversity is one of the strengths of the country" --president bush on 9/27/05