Fulton OysterFest in Full Swing

It's Sunday morning and Curt and I are on our way to George West, a town about an hour away. A young bluegrass gospel group that we discovered and loved when we attended the Rockport Gospel Music Festival in January will be playing today at a church in George West. So we thought it might be fun to take a road trip and enjoy a different church and some terrific music all at the same time. So riding in the car gives me a chance to show you some photos of our visit to the OysterFest yesterday.

First order of business was the parade. We picked up our lawn chairs and walked two blocks to the spot where the parade turned its last corner. We made friends with a great couple in a golf cart, Terry and JoAnn, and we all enjoyed the parade together.

You can see our house, yellow with gray roof, in the background behind Terry's head...so that shows you how close the parade came to where we live.  

I love small town parades. Everybody turns out for them. There's a lot of good natured competition for the candy and Mardi Gras beads that are thrown from the floats, and later in the day you'll see people, men, women and children, sucking lollipops from the parade, necks bedecked with dozens of strands of colorful beads.

The Color Guard led off. Here in Texas everyone still stands, removes hats, and places hands over their hearts when the flag comes by. 

I've never lived in a place where the Sheriff's department had snazzy ATVs and speedboats. But we have them in Rockport!

Then came the Rockport-Fulton High School Marching Band. A parade just isn't a parade without a band!

Then the High School Drill Team...or maybe the ROTC...there wasn't a sign, so I'm not sure. The girls got to march and carry a flag, but the boys got to carry rifles. We start 'em young in Texas!

I only caught photos of a few of the floats. Once they started throwing candy and beads, so many people crowded in front of me that I had to delete most of my photos...just a lot of shots of backsides as people rushed for the loot!

Fulton's town trolley. How many towns do you know that measure 8 blocks by 5 and have a trolley to call their own?

Biggest pink flamingos I ever saw!

The Boiling Pot is a nearby seafood restaurant. It's the first place we ate the first time we visited Rockport. And it's still one of the most popular restaurants on the beach road. Love the lobster outfits!

These Sea Queens were a riot! A whole float full of blue sequin covered buxom women, and they would jump off the float and dance alongside, shimmying and shimmering!

This little girl got her beads, and the woman in front of me sure wants some!!!

I wish I could have gotten a photo of the most amazing float, but I never had a clear view. It was a flatbed trailer carrying women of all ages, sizes and shapes, dressed in camo. It was an outdoor adventure group for women, called Women in the Wild, or something similar. But the funniest thing was a bright pink sign on the side that said,

                         "ASK ME HOW YOU CAN WIN YOUR CUSTOM PINK AR-15!"

Only in Texas!!!

After the parade, Terry and JoAnn took us in their golf cart to see their little vacation spot here in Fulton. It's a darling Park Model home, 399 square feet, on a lovely lot that they took from a viney jungle to a beautifully shaded, manicured oasis. What great vision and talent...and LOADS of hard work!

Then Curt and I went and "did" the OysterFest. There was a huge long line to get in, but it moved quickly.

 Once inside the tents, we really couldn't get out quickly enough. The mass of humanity all pressed together, shuffling counterclockwise around the vendors...

And in the food tent (which the locals call the Beer Tent, which gives you some idea of its main purpose), the band was cranked up to full volume and every seat at every table was taken. Again, shuffling once around the tent, pressed against everyone else, was enough to send us outside at the first exit, gasping for air!

The cool cloudy weather certainly didn't dampen the enthusiasm for OysterFest!

Our favorite part was back in the Midway, watching the kids on the rides. They loved them!

This kiddie Dragon ride is the one that's set up literally in our front yard.

It was also great fun watching the young men, all of whom were certain they could swing the hammer hard enough to win a prize. The game is obviously rigged...none these buff young guys at the peak of their strength could ring the bell...but that didn't keep them from trying!!

These next two shots show you how close the midway is to our cottage... There's our sun room right in the center of the picture!

Sleeping was a little difficult for me last night...not so much from the noise of the carnival, though. What kept me awake was the band at the bar down the street. They usually play at a reasonable volume, so all we hear (or rather, feel) is the thumping of the bass, and that lulls us right to sleep. But last night the band had to override the carnival noise, so they were cranked up full throttle. It probably would have been ok if I hadn't known all the songs, but I lay there in bed singing along. Finally Curt suggested that I might get up and move the melodies to the other part of the house. Good point. I sang along till 1 a.m., when the band finally resumed its former decibel level. And technically that was 2 a.m. because we had to set our clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time. A short night, to be sure!

Today's OysterFest festivities will no doubt be dampened...we have a strong, steady rain that's supposed to turn into major thunderstorms later on, with a total of up to 5" of rain! I feel sorry for all the carnival staff. I won't be surprised if they start taking it down today, well before the scheduled end of Oysterfrest at 6 p.m. 

But we've enjoyed--and survived--our first Fulton OysterFest! Hope you enjoyed it, too!