The Niantic Light Parade was tonight.

I have done the Groton Parade and I have done the Montville Parade, but until tonight...I had not ridden the Niantic. I have to say...it is the most interesting. The amount of floats and the amount of work they did on them was amazing!

We met at Mickeys on 161 in Flanders and proceeded to the parade Staging area. Traffic on the way into town was ridiculous so we pulled off and took back roads over to 156. After checking with the Parade Marshal Tom came back and told us there was no set order but we had to make sure we were ahead of the horses.

The Parade kicked off with fireworks which the two horses behind us did not appreciate. We had already noticed that the wagon the horses towed, backed up occasionally as the horses waited and we decided to move the bikes away. This would turn out to be a good move because once the fireworks started the horses grew a little nervous and before it was over they had moved the cart back a good 10 feet. had the bikes still been there they would have been doubling as wheel chocks for the wagon.

People lined the roads, I had been told that Niantic had a big turnout but this was far and above what I was expecting.

It was an interesting parade and we had (per normal) the Main Drill Team leading, followed by the Club riders, then the Second Drill Team bringing up the rear. I had no lights on my bike so I was positioned in the Third row of bikes between Dana and Kim St. H.

I stalled once, on the downhill. When my bike starts to overheat it goes into cooling mode, It shuts off the rear cylinder and that cylinder becomes an air pump to keep the engine cool. Dana and Myself were playing Christmas music over the radios and since I could not hear the engine, I forgot to blip the throttle to kick the rear cylinder back to life before moving...so...it died. No big deal, the starter brought it back to life pretty quick.

After the Parade we headed to Illianos on 161 for supper and chat, Chris did not seemed to be too thrilled when Rich set him up with a Birthday cake and the Club sang happy birthday. All in all a Great night.

Kudos to Wolfie, Dave Adams, Linda Graser and Kaitlyn Perkins for their work in walking ahead of the Club moving the Crowd back so the Drill team could do their thing.

Two things about the evening that stood out for me. A load of Candy being tossed out of a Tourpack and the resulting swarm of children to hit the street for it. (Looked like a Seagull attack).

The other thing that sticks out is watching my mirrors as the second team behind us and seeing the movement stop with a great cluster of lights in the middle of the road. This brought about the best quote of the night, the quote came at dinner, it was..."I didn't fall down...I ran over Danny....then I fell down".

klay

Staging