Crystal Lake 4th of July Parade - July 2011

I will fully admit that I am a latent parade-phile. It must be me being incredibly shy as a kid and walking in Redding, CT's parade as a Girl Scout - I vividly remember wanting to break free of the line and run to higher ground towards "freedom."

So I've been avoiding parades like the plague...until we moved to Crystal Lake. They are practically unavoidable since the parade route is smack in front of our house. So...I've learned to embrace and even enjoy the parades. Hey, as long as I don't have to be in them, I can "safely" enjoy them from the sidelines, or in our case our front porch.

This year Larry and I decided to once again host a little BBQ after the parade. We thought we had a "brilliant" plan to set things up in the front yard and avoid the mosquitoes in the back. And our plan would have worked had we not made one MAJOR error - I'll get to that in a minute...

The plan was for my parents, Hope and Greg and their kids and Bill and June (family) to stop by after the parade if they could make it.

In the beginning of the parade a guy stopped by and asked us if he could leave his bike in our driveway during the parade. We didn't even give it a thought and said yes.

The parade came and went and we started to get ready for the BBQ.

Well, Mr. Bike Man returned for his bike and since it was really hot out, Larry and I thought it would be nice to ask if he wanted a beer.

Well.....1 hour later...alhough it felt like eternity...Mr. Bike Man was still there! He wasn't talking to anyone, just texted away to someone, not budging. We started to get a bit nervous and trying to figure out what to do. Even some of our guests thought he was a friend...we couldn't explain anything until he left, which wasn't happening.

So finally, we decided to pack up the food, as a hint, and that finally worked.

Note to self...it's nice to be nice...but maybe next time we need to set some parameters or give someone a to go drink!