Rough Riders St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Ybor

It came. It went. There were a lot of green beads and drunk people.

I’ve started to realize that when it comes to Krewe-based parades in Tampa, they really are all quite similar. The floats change a bit, but the general way it’s run, the who and the what remain unchanged. Turn up the green and turn down the pirate angle (though there were still plenty of pirates there) and you have this parade. That said, if you like parades and you like the Knight Parade, the Rough Rider’s Parade can also be a lot of fun.

For several reasons, I didn’t get any pictures this time.

Firstly, I was in both Channelside and Ybor earlier (much earlier, around 2PM) and everything was already crowded. I knew I had a very long walk/trolley ride/magic carpet ride ahead of me, so lugging a bunch of film gear didn’t seem like such a good idea. At very best, I’d be annoyed. At worst, the crowd would turn on me and break my gear. Considering some of the drunken debauchery I saw later in the night, I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

Secondly, as it was much the same parade as the Knight Parade, I’ll simply refer you to the 800+ pictures from that album here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denisbaldwin/sets/72157614013237602/

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, is that I decided to really embrace the spirit of the Irish and jump headlong into a dozen pitchers of beer at the Boneyard during and after the parade. Even if the first few points didn’t apply, every picture I would have taken last night would have been a mix of motion blurred and out of focus.

That said, the parade was still fun, especially with the booze flowing. My two friends and I ended up with something like 300 beads, thanks to one friend’s overzealous pandering. I ended up with an awesome hangover. That must mean the Rough Riders St. Patrick’s Day Parade was a success.

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