Two parades in one day.

Two parades in one day. 
Last weekend we put over 30 miles on our tallbikes. 
It was something we are well suited for as we love riding our bikes and navigating to distant places. 
We were on the Kidical Mass bike ride parade at Gateway Green dirtbike park and then did a show/balloons. 

That evening we were in the Starlight parade stunt riding. 

Our parade jobs were escorting a New Orleans group. 
A riverboat float, several dancers and a brass band. 
Olive and Dingo are classic Portland Oregon personalities but Ptown has had a great relationship with the Big Easy for a long time. We fit right in.
Our job was to be sheepdogs. 
Olive and Dingo take a side of the road each, surge forward and then criss-cross in front of the float. 

We ride fast and hard so the crowds on both sides of the road gasp and feel the excitement. Lots of "Oooohhh"s and "AAaaaah"s. 
Then the routine went that we would ride along the sides of our group keeping them together, filling out space between them and separating them from the marching bands before and after us. There ya go, tallbike sheep-dogs ruffruff.
We did it over and over. It was a lot of stunt riding and a lot of fun. 

The announcers had no reason to mention our names but the crowds did. 
It was exhilarating to hear so many people screaming our names with glee at block after block.
 People reacted to us like they were seeing old friends, many of them were. That was touching. We loved watching each other being impressive and we thought about the great people who donated a bunch of hard earned moolah to outfit our lights and gear to help us look sharp.
 Thank you Friends, we can't do it without you. 
At the end we celebrated eachother and watched the marching bands arrive at the end and pile into school buslandia. 

The Mardi Gras  folks gave us lots of love and invited us back to sheepdog for them next year. 
After saying goodbye to our new friends, we turned the lights off, got on our bikes and quietly rode home holding hands and planning our next day's shenanigans...being a 12 year olds parents.

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Wheel lights install day (and gardening).

Wheel lights install day (and gardening). 
Our lights came by bike courier (olive), by delivery truck and by Susan. 
They all arrived today Now we have our make up designs among many others lit up inside our wheels. 

We also got a box of battery powered string lights for our clothing. 
Our son was so stoked as we took a ride in the dark. A
ll four wheels were set to randomly display lots of fun shapes. 
People on the street were hooting and hollering. So cool.
Thank you to the kind folks who donated to oliveanddingo.com. 
You folks made our parade. Next week we will be practicing with the float we are escorting in the Starlight parade
.I'm inscribing the names of our patrons on my bike so they can roll in the parade with us.

2014 Division street parade

Click this pic for a larger version. 

We made it to the parade! Team O&D were joined by B.B. the capt. of our fan club (and her Mom and sis) it was a grand parade.

YES!!!!!!!

Then grumbles started as everyone around us realized that a huge empty dump truck would be in the parade. Everything was human powered, healthy , sustainable, then this big thing in the middle blocking the view of the front of the parade. It was correct to be there though, it's a perfect symbol of the neighborhood changing hands from "townsfolk" to "Clientele". To it's credit, the applause break that came when the crowds wondered if the truck had made a wrong turn cleansed the palate so they cheered their heads off when they saw us.

The apple seemed to be cool with it. :)

like what we do? Olive and Dingo exist only on donations. If you are in a place to donate to the O&D fund for exelence, please click below. :)
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