Can you say ex-haus-ted ? I sure am. The past four days featured high winds, torrential downpours, bus mix ups, cold weather, cancellations... frantic phone calls, the end of six months of hard work on my side, (seventeen years of effort on the planners sides), and one of the best weekends that I've ever had.
There were fireworks, Japanese lantern ceremonies, Jumbo Trons, parades to die for, regatta's, antique ships, foot races and LOTS of speeches. We'll ignore the speeches part. I saw old friends, made new ones, walked across the Hudson ( 2 1/2 miles total, plus a mile to & from the step-off point ) tasted a new drink called The Walkway (made especially for the event by the Culinary Institute of America (the CIA) - which IMHO they should have named the Falldown ( but I'm not a drinker, so don't believe a word I say about booze) and managed to not even raise so much as a blister. I admit to being a little sore, though.
When Saturday morning dawned ( if you could call it that... cloud cover was fierce ) we were told to watch the live feed from the bridge until we got on the buses. Rain would not stop us from going on... lightning strikes, however, would.
It was cold enough that we all dressed as though we were going to the tundra (four layers for me) it would be at least 10 degrees cooler on the bridge, even without the wind and rain. I had t-shirts made for "my" walkers - kiwi turns out to look great against dark grey skies - as well as parade banners, and buttons. The flags & emblems had been sent on ahead by truck on their 9' poles.
We were told to bring backpacks w/water & snacks since where we would be forming up we'd have nothing to eat. We'd be involved for 5 hrs. at the least. Plus an hour back & forth on the bus. ( I pause here to thank the inventors of porta-potties) Besides the towns/ villages and artists, 6,000 volunteered to put this thing on. Thousands more came to watch. ( We had a LOT of porta-potties ) Not enough tents for all those folks. But to our amazement, when we got off the bus in Poughkeepsie*,
the rain lasted about 10 more minutes... a little drizzle, and then stayed dry for the rest of the event. It rained on the Governor, for Pete's sake. (The Pete in question was Pete Seeger, he went on early.) Pete sang in the rain... dancers danced in it as well... we lucked out. Still pretty windy, though. These are some of the photos, none of mine yet, but these are really cool.
The night before... the walkway is the long line of white lights in the middle, the bridge in front is the Mid-Hudson
This is what made that line of white lights in the previous photo- Japanese lanterns. In this photo, the Mid-Hudson is at the back
This is the Lantern ceremony
These are the large lanterns as they "let fly"... they made the streaks you saw in the air on photo #1
This is the Walkway from the river:
With the parade going on
Pretty, isn't it, even in the rain ( looking south... nyc is about 150 miles down the river)
This is the beginning of the parade - the blue silk represents water... notice the fish hats and the wind... the paddlewheel really turned
in this photo the county of Ulster (my county) is on the left, the county of Dutchess is on the right... we are just beginning to pass one another for the first time... a whole lot of welcoming going on.
With any luck I can post some of my marchers & emblems tomorrow.
It was one heck of a weekend.
*( actually Lloyd, on the opposite shore, in another county... but you've heard of Poughkeepsie )
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