Truckee Independence Day Parade

For the 4th of July holiday weekend, my girlfriend and I headed up to her hometown on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in Northern California.  As it turns out, we are really good at finding barbecues.  It was at one of these bbqs that one of my girlfriend's closest childhood friends mentioned that she was going to be Zumba-ing in a parade on the 4th.  (This same friend was featured in my first official class.  Thanks for making the shirts!)

It sounded interesting, so I wanted some more details.  Her local, Tahoe City, Zumba instructor had teamed up with one in Truckee to include a bunch of Zumba dancers into the hometown parade.  There were 3 songs that were choreographed, and they had been posted online.  As she was telling me about it, she looked at me and exclaimed 'You should come do it, too!'  (Paraphrased... she may not have exclaimed it.)

My first thoughts were, 'Thanks, but I don't know the instructors, and I've never seen the choreography, and I would really feel like I was imposing.'  Skip ahead 18 hours or so, and I'm standing next to her in the parade lineup with my favorite Zumba outfit on ready to dance and sweat and cheer.

Why did I decide to do Zumba in the parade?  She fessed up to not really knowing the routines, and she waited until I was in a food coma to have my girlfriend coerce me to committing.  After all, I could look at the videos online, I was pretty confident in being able to pick up on dances quickly, and it made for a good story for you guys (my readers).  As it turns out, they were more than happy to have me.

A few minutes into the parade, I was called out by a radio station announcer.  "Hey, is that Richard Simmons?"  (I'll blog more about this often-made comparison later.)  I took the opportunity to shimmy and really show off, and the crowd ate it up.  I'm happy to take advantage of moments like that, and it was probably the best part of the parade for me.  Here are some photos that were snapped along the route:

I'm a little bit of a ham. I regularly ran out into the audience and got them to dance with me!

Shimmy-ing to 'Livin La Vida Loca' at the judges booth.

I've since added two of the parade songs to my list of go-to Zumba songs.  I also got to hand out some of my business cards to the lovely people that I danced with, in hopes they might be able to swing by one of my classes in the Bay Area if they are ever visiting.

The group that we were dancing with ended up winning for 'Best Commercial Float'.  Our superb dancing didn't go unnoticed!

So, morals of the story are: the Zumba community truly is inviting and gracious and fun, and you should take every opportunity to just go out and dance.  Oh, and Go America, too!!

Happy Dancing,
~RoB