Off the hook!

It is extremely rare for us to buy tickets to anything except an occasional movie.  We had arrived in Savannah completely ignorant of the fact that this week was St. Patrick's....by that I mean.....the population celebrates St. Patrick the entire week.  I'm not sure what the Saint called Patrick would think of the week long revelry, but it is what it is.  Since we were in the city with the second largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the nation we thought we ought to experience it at least once.  

Rod is the guy in the red jacket

The idea of trying to find parking, then walk blocks, and blocks trying to find a place to put a couple of folding chairs did not appeal to us, so when Rod Coe of  Yankee RV Tours approached me last Tuesday asking if we were attending the parade on Saturday.  I told he we had thought about it.  He then introduced himself as the owner of the aforementioned RV tour company.  He had a couple of cancellations for his current Savannah rally, and, therefore, had a couple of parade tickets at $25 per ticket available if we wanted them.  It seemed a little expensive, but then he explained they include parking in a secure lot about 6 blocks from the Cemetery grandstands right near the beginning of the parade.  I told him I would get back to him after I talked with TLE to be sure she was interested in really going to the parade.

On Thursday we decided we wanted to go so I called Rod to tell him we wanted to buy the tickets......as serendipity would have it, when I called Rod was talking to another gentleman about the tickets......he took my call, and said "they're yours", and then turned to the indecisive gentleman and said "they're gone, sorry"......whew.....just in time!

Rod came by our coach later with the wrist bands, and very explicit instructions to the parking lot, and to the grandstands where we were to park our posteriors for as many hours as we wished.  He recommended leaving the park at 8 am in order to get parked, and make the 6 block walk to avoid the worst of the crowds.....the parade started at 10:15 am.

We following his instructions to the letter and easily found the parking lot.....normally they charge $25 per car JUST TO PARK, so already this deal is looking good.  We made our way over to Abercorn near Liberty and found our seating.....right at street level....we chose to sit on the back row so we could see over the people in front, and stand if we wished.....of course it was also easier to get to the porta potties.....:D

As it drew close to parade time the crowd increased dramatically...a lot of people walking up and down Abercorn....there were vendors hawking their wares, of course.

Getting into the "spirit" of the day...I do have on a green t-shirt, but it was very cold at 9 am still!

The parade has begun!

There were many, many bands

There were a lot of convertibles....most notable were these two

After about 3 hours, and seeing no end in sight to the bands, and floats coming down the street we decided around 1:30 to walk over to Crystal Beer Palace for a bite, and a couple of pints.  This was easier said than done......it was literally "wall to wall" people....sometimes we were walking sideways to move forward.....we finally found a place where we could cross over the parade route in between floats, and made our break down a side street.  Don't misunderstand....we thoroughly enjoyed the 3 hours of the parade we saw, but we are not parade diehards.......after 70 convertibles, 150 floats, and too many bands to count we felt we had experienced the parade.....we had been on our feet since 8 am, and now it was 1:30...time for some libation!

A still of the bagpiper playing Amazing Grace....the full video is below

We arrived at  Crystal Beer Palace just before 2 pm, and found two stools at the bar....the place was filling up quickly, so we snagged the two seats....the parade was still going on....as evidenced by the TV on the wall.  We ordered a couple of pints, and two Pastrami Ruebens......one of the best I've ever had....TLE, the resident Rueben expert, rates it at a "8" on a scale of 1-10, 10 being best.  The service, in spite of the place being packed, was lightning fast....we had our pints and Ruebens in less than 10 minutes.  Just as we were getting ready to leave Miss Seredipity showed up in the form of this bagpiper who just walked into the bar and started playing.  An amazing performance!  You can see me just to the right in the background in green shirt.

It was serendipity to get the two tickets for grandstand seating, serendipity to snag the last seats in the bar, and then the bagpiper.....what a day!  After the performance we began our 7-8 block walk back to the car.  We were able to park near the entrance to the parking lot, so we were able to extricate ourselves quite easily without any other cars needing to be moved.  We were "home" in less than 20 minutes, arriving just before 4.  

I turned the TV to watch some college basketball....there were some good games being played.....this is the final weekend before March Madness begins, and many teams are playing conference championship games, and jockying for one of the 64 spots available in the tournament....we watched Kansas U. playing Kansas State....KU won easily, and I know Maria and Bryan  (Roaming Pint) must have been very pleased.  The weather had warmed enough so that we decided to sit outside in our shorts and t-shirts by our outdoor fireplace.....there were a few logs left at our site from a previous tenant's fire, so we gathered them up and had a fire going in just a few minutes....we sat talking for about 2 hours....I smoked a good cigar......then went inside for the night.  

Louisville was playing Syracuse, so I settled in to watch that game just a minute nto the second half....Louisville was down 13 at half, and down 16 just a couple of minutes into the 2nd half, then staged a remarkable comeback winning by 17....a 32 point turn around.  A great end to a great day!

I forgot to mention that on Friday afternoon we got a call from Kay at the Sugar Beet Harvest office informing us we are officially hired....we are to arrive on site around September 25th.....cool!

Thanks for stopping by!