Here are samplings of the costume creativity at the Tour de Fat last Saturday:
These crayons were near the end of the route—there were about twice as many colors when I saw the group of people in this set at the start of the parade—maybe the others melted in the heat?:
I never did see my cousin's daughter and her friends. I'm not sure I recognized more than a handful of people in the entire parade. All ages participated, from babies to seniors, although the 20s to 40s seemed to be most heavily represented:
Some people made quite amazing and relatively practical outfits. These unique additives, for example, were probably pretty easy to ride in, although I'm not sure how heavy they were:
Some people had very thorough visions of what they wanted to be:
Some folks were likely pretty warm in their feathers or fur (at 90+ degrees F), while others, like the person in back here, probably stayed relatively cool, although I hope they remembered sunscreen (the photo shows the costume in its entirety):
While homemade costumes (like the one front and center here) always appeal to me, people cobbled together whatever they could get their hands on (this included me) and the overall effect was exuberant:
Funny where the need to use a cell phone shows up:
Imagine 8,000 variations on the idea of "costume" + bike. At a future parade, it would be interesting to pick one theme and snap photos of representative interpretations . . . say, "superheroes" or "vegetables" or "cleavage."


