Wheels 'n' Squeels

I volunteered to help out at the Autism Speaks booth at the Wheels 'n' Squeels BBQ Challenge at Olathe Bible Church on Saturday. I didn't do much real helping, there were four or five volunteers and mostly people coming by one at a time to buy raffle tickets.



Mrs. Kansas US, on the other hand, sold I don't know how many dollars worth of our raffle tickets walking around with her sash and tiara. Came back with a bunch of folding money. I bet if I'd had a sash and a tiara, I'd have gotten...well, I'd have probably gotten punched in the junk.



Speaking of which, K.C. Wolf was on hand, and watching him work, I realized something. I've always looked at those costumes as all down-side. It's hot in there, right?



But there's a huge up-side I'd never considered. K.C. Wolf can walk up to a woman he's never met and sit on her lap and everyone just laughs. He can pick a guy up, he can act all flustered at Mrs. Kansas US walking by and suggestively thrust the hula-hoop waste of the costume. K.C. Wolf gets away with murder!

I want a costume like that. I picture a big elephant with an enormous Hawaiian shirt on, the Party Animal. I could show up for events like this without anyone booking me, I'll bet, and misbehave just about as outrageously as I care to and everyone will figure it's good clean fun and I'm probably being paid by the event organizers to get into shenanigans.



The best part, though, was the Marching Cobras. I always love when these guys show up for a parade or any other kind of event, because they are just awesome. I saw them first when they came to my school when I was in 8th grade and they are still bringing it every time they perform.





I took way too many pictures trying to capture the Cobras' act, and it can't be done with a puny pocket camera.



They did something I hadn't seen before, they dragged people out of the audience and to their credit, everyone I saw dragged out onto the field got into it and shook their bad selves as best they could. I was impressed, I don't think I'd have known what to do if they'd grabbed me.









I also wandered around a bit and checked out the cars (the wheels part of the show, I thought, the squeals being the barbecue competition—until every car leaving the show did a burn out right in front of Olathe police officers directing traffic who didn't appear to issue a single citation for exhibition of acceleration).







I got mauled by K.C., by the way, and maybe it was a long day or maybe the costume doesn't launder easily, but that paw smelled bad.