So if it's the second weekend in August in St. Johns, Michigan...that can only mean one thing: The Mint Festival. In recognition of the area's mint heritage, the annual Mint festival includes a fair with rides, queens, craft fair, and of course the parade on Saturday morning. AgroLiquid has always participated in that, and we assembled at the staging area for final rehearsals. It's fun to get family, kids and friends to go along. Below is most of the group, some were off petting llamas or something.
We always show off one of the tankers driven by one of the truck drivers. Well all of the real drivers were busy, so we settled for Dale. Actually Dale, who has been with the company practically from day one, used to make truck deliveries back in the day. So I'm sure this reminded him of that, although the trucks are a little bigger and nicer now. His Dad rode with him to make sure he didn't speed. Here he is getting the final polishes made.
It was time to start, and here is the Liquid banner leading the Liquid entry.
This is the Liquid float which has a picture of the new office, an invite to the open house, and crates of vegetables from the NCRS to pass out to the parade public. No really, it's a tradition. What's that on top of the tractor? It' a bird. It's a plane. No, it's a bird. Where did that come from?
On closer inspection, it's a wayward pheasant. I guess it wanted to have a birds-eye view. That's Stephanie's husband Ryan at the wheel and son Gabe looking at his mom, brother and sister who have to walk. Ha ha to them.
The parade route wound through the tree-lined streets of St. Johns. It was funny to see how excited kids got at receiving vegetables. Anyone can pass out candy, but we are different. We had green peppers, sweet corn, various squash and cauliflower. We are proud that we are improving the diets of the town.
Business was brisk. It was run back and forth to fill your vegetable bag and then pass them out. By the way, if you ever come to the parade, choose a watching spot closer to the start as we ran out towards the end. Sad. Despite our perception, we are only human after all.
Shaun passes out a pepper to a cute little girl, to which she replied: "Thanks, Daddy." Guess what's for dinner tonight?
And down the stretch they come. Driving to the finish through downtown is Dale and the tanker. We untangled the mailboxes and phone lines from the back end before the home stretch. (I'm sure I'll pay for this as my desk is right next to Dale's.)
Looking for a last pepper or rutabaga to pass out.
Then it was back on the trailer for the ride back to the office. And that's a wrap. Fun for all it was.
Well fun aside, it will be a scramble to get everything prepared for the first Research Field Day on Tuesday. And I already mentioned the shooting of RFD Live from the farm on Monday night. Didn't I already say that we are only human? Well hopefully super human for a day. Don't forget to watch.
