Dubuque Halloween Parade or Convoy Brigade?

The twenty-sixth of October with kids roaming all over.
Main Street was all cluttered with folk.
Coming down the street was a royal fleet and the diesel was-a-blowing smoke.

“Cause we gotta great big convoy, rocking through the night.
Yeah we gotta great big convoy, ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on an’ join our convoy, ain’t nothing gonna git in our way.
We’re gonna roll this trucking convoy, cross the USA.
Convoy.”

Well that’s what it seemed like.  Ok.  It was just the Annual Dubuque Halloween Parade, but it was a big deal with a lot of big vehicles and Dubuquers made a big whoop-dee-doo over it.  And rightfully so.  A parade is a show and it takes a lot of work and organization to put on a good show.  You can tell that many of the participants put forth a lot of effort and we applaud them. 

It was my first time at this annual event and I was impressed.  There was fun to be had by all.  I would estimate there were probably around 3000 people taking part and observing from the sidelines.   The weather stayed very cooperative as the temperature hovered around a comfortable mark — even after the sun went down it. 

There were marching bands, plenty of big vehicles, some very elaborate floats, plenty of candy for the cherubs, cute costumes worn by even cuter kids (the Little Fry Daycare) had some of the best kid costumes.  They didn’t have a bear in the air, but there was a gorilla on a bike.  And my personal favorite was the 50 or 60 dancing Michael Jacksons from Studio 5678.  They were dancing before the parade started and they continued dancing for the entire route.  I’ll bet they were plumb tuckered out by the time it was all over — but they put on a great show and that’s what this parade was all about!!!  (You can check out the dancing MJ’s in the video of the parade below.)

Runde Auto Group had a strong showing.  They entered the Split Decision Chevy 4500 truck with it’s infamous custom paint job.  They also had one of the Runde golf carts and the Runde Community Service truck.  The folks from Runde handed out bags full of Tootsie Rolls and about 1500 mini Nerf-like footballs. 

Jeff Kueter

Jeff Kueter of Runde Chevrolet drove the Split Decision diesel truck and had a good time.  He got carried away and at one point started throwing the mini football out of the truck’s driver side window.  He had to be reminded that the parade organizers now frown on throwing items into the crowd.   This was the 2nd time Jeff participated in the Dubuque Halloween Parade as he also drove a vehicle for Runde in 2008’s parade down Main Street.   Jeff commented just before the parade: “It’s good that a lot of people take part in this.  When people put on a big event like this for kids of all ages, it shows that they really care about this community.  Have you seen all they people along the street?  There must be thousands of ’em.”  

Hannah, Jeff & Logan

 While I was walking along the parade route, I ran into Hannah, Jeff, and Logan Heiar of Dubuque.  They have purchased 4 vehicles from Runde’s over the past few years and they had some kind words to say about Runde’s (check out the video below to find out what they said).  Their son, Logan, who is beyond cute, was born a year ago and he will be getting either a baby brother or a baby sister in a few more months.  We wish the Heiar Family well.   You can bet that they’ll be back again next year and so will Runde Auto Group as we look forward to participating in this annual tradition.

Below is the video we shot of the event.  Check it out and if you weren’t able to attend the Dubuque Halloween Parade this year, there’s always next year.  The more, the merrier.