For the past few years we've talked about wanting float in the Highland parade. This year was the year we said let's do it! With the upcoming opening of the brewery, we decided that we needed to make a Red River float. We turned our shop into a float den for 2 months and got busy. Once a weekend for 6 weeks we had a crew of design (Margaret and Nikki), construction (Chris, Neil, Beau, and Jay) and helpers (Leigh, Erin, Andre, Katie, and Jared). I was the float lieutenant so I was the manager of all operations. You know I loved this title.
We had several pow wows on how to make the float look amazing and then we had to keep coming back to the drawing board...an actual white board we used for the sketching. Once the construction crew got the frame built we were able to get busy. I handled all the ordering of throws, supplies, and random items. I maintained the budget, too. It was a full float operation. We now know how much work goes into Mardi Gras floats. I will never take the look of a float for granted again! They are pieces of art!
We decided we needed a port a potty on the float and thank God we did! It was a definite necessity! We were on the float unable to get off for 6 hours. I recruited Bobby to drive the float. He was the best!! Beau's dad picked me and the float up at 8am on parade day. We were escorted by Chris in the front and Beau in the back. We only hit a couple trees on the way to the staging area. We arrived and were immediately moved to the large float area! I felt that it was because our float was so cool!
We got everything ready, went to sign our float in, and had Bobby take his breathalyzer. They were super serious about breathalyzing everyone! The drivers were also tested at random on the parade route. Thankfully Bobby blew a 0.00 every time!
The rest of the crew arrived around 11am and enjoyed the floats and other krewes. We were excited for the king and queen to judge our float at 12:30. Sadly, we didn't win best float even though we knew we won! We got honorable mention.
Our float front was supposed to look like a Red River tap handle pouring beer into 2 large glasses. Margaret did the painting of the logos and did an AMAZING job! Chris built the tap handle and it just looked TOP NOTCH! We all contributed to the beers using barrels from Porter's, chicken wire, , and spray insulation. Nikki came over during the day to work on the float. It was truly a team effort. Beau and Chris went on numerous trips to Home Depot. Margaret, Nikki and me went on several Hobby Lobby runs. Amazon was weekend favorite. Katie and I cleaned out several Dollar Tree's of their pretzels. Leigh did lots of ordering! Jared loaded all the beads in the proper areas. Neil was the best cleaner, builder, and all around float guy!
The main thing we wanted to accomplish was great exposure for the brewery. I think it is a great showing of friendship that all of these people took their weekends to build a float for their friends expecting nothing in return except for free beer. :) I am so proud of my friends!
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| the gorgeous tap handle |
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| float renderings and new logo with hops in between |
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| The theme of the parade was Rocky Highland Picture Show, The back of our float! |
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| float inside |
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| Margaret's fabulous logo! |
We had a float loading party with jambalaya and beer the day before the parade. We loved showing off our hard work and hearing how great our float looked!
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| Dad brought a king cake, too! These 2 don't even rink beer and are wearing our signature throw. |
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| Not sure how I feel about a 4 year old wearing a got beer hat! |
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| Float Krewe chiefs! |
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| Gammy and her favorite girl |
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| Top construction krewe |
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| Great one of the Bevilles |
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| Sweet Sissy |
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| Our family of 5 |
Ready for parade day!!!!
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| Our fabulous krewe! We were thrilled that Amy and Daniel were able to ride last minute. |
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| the girls |
Andre had a selfie stick and took some great photos on parade day!
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| Bennett got to ride in the truck with Drew and Jake, He was so excited! |
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| ready to throw you something mister! |
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| Dicharry's plus me |
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| Ready to roll! |
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| There was no shortage of 90s rap music and dancing. James was in charge of the playlist. |
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| some of the parade goers |
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| I love this pic! This was after my sweet pep talk!!! |
One thing that stands out is how everyone had to find childcare for their babies. We were so thankful that Rebecca ad Daniel chose to come to town and keep our kids from 10am-6pm! They were troopers and we love them so much for it!
