Strut nuts hit the streets in style

The King Mango Strut went on today -- it's 28th -- without a hitch. And despite my apprehension over the Gripe Vine unit, that ended up being the best of the day! The Gripe Vine strutters were funny, clever and I was amazed at all the people who ended up being in that one group. Tomorrow I'll feature lots of photos of just the Coconut Grove Gripe Vine group.


Jimbo, in red, was the Grand Marshall, he did a little dance to the theme song based on Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville and then he road the rest of the way with his pretty entourage. Irena Patterson, performance artist, marched along with the juggler group.


Nathan Kurland (left) and Buzz Fleischman did a great job emceeing at the starting point. They worked well off each other. Balloon Boy (right) was one of the first featured marchers.


Barbara Lange was one of Tiger's girls and Antoinette Baldwin showed up as Sarah Palin, again this year, her nemesis son-in-law Levi Johnston, followed along. That's my buddy Ken behind the mask with the funny t-shirt.


One of the best bits was the recreation of the destruction of St. Stephen's Little 1912 Church, which happened earlier in the year. They did this right in front of the actual site.

As usual, the weather was sunny and nice, it never seems to rain on the Strut. Thousands lined the streets of Coconut Grove, filling restaurants and bars along the way. It was nice to see so many friends out and about enjoying the yearly tradition. I enjoyed my favorites along the way -- a Bloody Mary at Greenstreets, a beer and bathroom stop at Mr. Moe's, another beer at The Ivy and Mango Salsa Burgers and Coke at Focaccia.