Entries this day: third_annual_Thanksgiving_Eve_skate

third annual Thanksgiving Eve skate

27 November 1997

Last night Jim E and I embarked on our Third Annual Thanksgiving Eve Skate. He got to my house at like 9:30pm (after my dad and I saw Alien Resurrection with Sigourney Weaver; it wasn't that super great of a movie; see it at matinee price.) and we drove to downtown to begin our adventure.

Once on skates, we cruised down to Jones Plaza where there were many buses full of performers who had just practiced their dance routines for the parade. Down the hill by Jones Plaza I picked up speed and then slide between the parked buses like a mouse through a tall but simple maze. I was only slightly worried about people stepping off the buses through the doors that were all open.

We emerged in front of the buses without incident and Jim asked one of the motorcycle cops if they needed help escorting the buses out. The cop was all laffin' "yeah, that'd be great."

Jim and I got many waves from the passengers as we waved and hollered at them as they went by. I chased the last bus for a few blocks until they were moving entirely too fast for me to keep up.

We skated then to our favorite parking lot to play frisbee, and much to our astonishment, there were cars parked in our lot!!! We said HI to the valet dudes who were there and they said Wednesday through Saturday they would be parking cars there in the evening. I couldn't believe it! cars in our frisbee lot!!

Up the hill leading to UH Downtown, and enjoyed the view of the bayou and railroad tracks and jailhouse. Then I picked up major speed down the other side and found it a fun challenge to turn without braking and without getting smooshed by an oncoming truck. The truck was oncoming really close to me, but I still had to watch out for it. Jim used his brake most of the way down the hill so the truck had passed before it mattered. His only concern was the few stairs that were at the bottom of the sidewalk! Fortunately, he just zipped straight over them and just dropped down the few feet to street level. (I think I'd like to try that sometime!)

We purposely climbed down a few more steps so we could speed down the sidewalk leading down along the bayou. I went first, and didn't use my brake, so I was on full alert as I sped down around a slowly curving blind corner. Yikes!!! Mud ahead! There was a teeny clear section on the left of the mud, through which I zipped, then immediately stopped and turned around to warn Jim before he might hit the mud and mess up his skates. I was worried that I might get smushed by him as *he* sped around the blind corner, but fortunately the timing worked out perfectly and disaster was avoided. Shew!!

That was fun.. :)

We rolled slowly along the rest of the sidewalk between the bayou and jail, then up the stairs where Jim happily greeted the guys standing out in front of the building. I felt a bit uncomfortable, but I didn't want to *act* like a felt uncomfortable, so I just skated in gentle circles until Jim was done conversing, which didn't take very long because they weren't too talkative.

Then we skated up to the George R Brown Convention Center where we had found the floats last year. I told Jim about what kinda stuff I have on my webpages, and the conversation turned to me describing stories about Thunder Rabbit. I might just be inspired to write some more.

At the GRBCC, we found the floats again. There were three out in a parking lot and four inside the building. They had the standard big turkey one with spinning tail feathers, and the rest were really cool:
One had a Santa Claus rocketship sleigh rocketing out from about a 15 foot diameter model earth;
another had something else;
another had huge ornate clocks surrounding a head of Grandfather Time;
and another had a huge wheel of long brass musical horns that would spin like the turkey's tail feathers.

After we got kicked out of the building, and saw everything in the parking lot, we skated and played frisbee in a different parking lot across from the Center.

There was a light wind, which made throwing more interesting as I skated a huge circle around Jim and we tossed the disc back and forth. We both made a few cool catches and cool throws. After about 20 minutes I was pretty tired.

We wound our way through the quiet streets back to where we parked by Fuzzy's and chilled for a bit before taking off skates and heading home.