What I saw at the Pickle Parade

A few months ago my hometown of Mansfield, Texas held the first annual Best Maid St. Patty's Pickle Parade.  It was an exciting and fun-filled event.  The whole family went down to Main Street to see the floats, people dressed as leprechauns, eat corn dogs, and enjoy what would surly become an annual tradition in Mansfield.

We arrived downtown to find a prime spot about 30 minutes before the parade was scheduled to start to find Main Street roped off at either end to stop traffic.  It also provided the perfect space for the pre-parade entertainment, the World Famous Wheelie-ing Elvi.  Now at this point in the story you may be asking yourself, what is a Wheelie-ing Elvi?  Well the World Famous Wheelie-ing Elvi in their own words are:  for all intense purposes, a band of over-aged, adolescents, who dare to venture out in public dressed in white polyester jumpsuits and hideous pompadour wigs, while sporting clumsy gold sunglasses, and Converse All-Star sneakers.  All... while riding tremendously-tiny vintage 40-year-old Honda Minitrails in a daredevil manner to the sound of pretty cool music. 

After about 2 minutes of watching the Elvi streak up and down Main Street on one, two, and in one case 3 wheels I was sold.  I wanted in and I wanted in in a very bad way.  These guys were having a blast entertaining the crowd and the crowd was loving every second of it.

In the months following the parade The Wheelie-ing Elvi were always in the back of my mind.  I knew I wanted to join them, but I didn't pursue it until we attend the City of Arlington's downtown Fourth of July parade and I saw the Elvi again.  Once again having a blast and the crowd eating it up.

After the parade we walked down to one of our favorite downtown Arlington spots, Twisted Root for lunch (my wife LOVES their turkey burgers).  My wife (my soon to be Priscilla), son and my mom all grabbed a table while my dad and I headed for the line to place our order.  Well guess who was there in line right in front of us?  That's right it was the Wheelie-ing Elvi.  We talked to them in line about what they do, about their bikes, their jumpsuits, how they got involved, and the joys of being an Elvi.

I left lunch that day with the intention of joining their ranks.  I found their website and exchanged an e-mail with Bobby Ornelas to get some more details.  He had me give him a call and he filled me in a little more on becoming a member and told me that the first thing to do was to find a bike.  I told him I would begin my hunt and promised to be in touch.

Little did I realize just how hard that hunt would be, but that will have to be saved for next time.