It is a rather long story of how I came to watch the Neches River Festival Parade today in downtown Beaumont, Texas. The festival celebrates the Neches (NAY-chez)River, which flows down the city’s eastern side on its way to join the Sabine River at Sabine Lake, which is more bay than lake just north of the Gulf of Mexico. The river acts as a waterway for the big ships that dock in the Port of Beaumont. Those ships carry everything from petrochemical products to Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M1-A2 tanks heading from Fort Hood to Iraq.
Mayoral candidate Becky Ames and her little dog too.
As you can see, Becky Ames is a council member at-large. I don’t think she is very large, however. As a matter of fact, I think she’s just right. Nonetheless, she is running for mayor of Beaumont and I don’t know why she can’t advertise the fact while riding in the parade. Perhaps it is common courtesy, maybe it has to do with our election laws. She has been on the council for awhile and I have no idea how well she would do as mayor. I just haven’t followed city politics all that closely. I do know that the King of the Neches River Festival is the outgoing mayor Guy Goodson. Perhaps Councilwoman Ames could be named King of the Neches River Festival (or Queen) if she is elected and term-limited as mayor. Beats me.
Nothing brightens up a parade like a pretty, young girl.
This pretty, young and pretty young girl was riding on a float with other pretty, young girls. By float, I mean a flatbed trailer of the sort that heavy machinery such as Caterpillar tractors are carried upon. Actually, there were quite a few pretty, young girls on this trailer and I cropped all but this one out. The reason was that she had a pretty smile and secondly because my photo skills suck. I will leave it at that.
Why did people keep throwing these things at me?
Usually, I don’t collect Mardi Gras beads. But since it wasn’t Mardi Gras and since kids on these huge floats kept throwing them at me, I decided to pick them up. Yes, it is a crappy picture. No, I don’t really give a damn.