Twisp of Fate

Sometime in the last month, Rick was asked if he would be interested in becoming the new driver for the 1914 Model T that belongs to the Shafer Museum in Winthrop.  He said yes, but nothing happened until this week.  On Wednesday he got his one and only driving lesson, and today (Saturday) he drove it in the Winthrop ’49er Days parade, with me riding shotgun (actually operating the “ooga-ooga” horn with my foot….).

The first challenge was getting it started.  Turns out the former driver, who “trained” Rick on Wednesday, had charged the battery yesterday and forgot to hook it back up again.  Once we figured that out, she started right up.  This car has no gear shift.  You use a brake and a couple of foot pedals.  I still don’t quite get it, but hey, we didn’t run anybody down and it kept running the entire time.

Here we are waiting in line for the parade to start:

I had some time to walk back down the line and check out the other “entries.”  This is a very home-grown affair, with both groups (e.g. the Girl Scouts, in front of us) and businesses represented.  For example, the septic services; yes, that girl on the far left IS wearing a dress covered in toilet paper!

Then there was this one, which seemed to be promoting camping in some way:

A cool old 1937 John Deere tractor towing a float whose purpose I could not discern:

And lot of horses, wagons, mountain men, etc.

Once the parade started at 11 am, we were greeted by the sight of quite a crowd in downtown Winthrop:

Wave wave, smile smile, ooga-ooga.

Here’s my friend Diana M cheering us on from the sidelines:

Well, it was really a lot of fun and I guess we have more events coming up.  I hope we can just go take her out for a spin sometime!