Bit to Do [1]

Saturday afternoon, the temporarily risen Colonel Harland Sanders led a “bucket” of extra crispy Kentucky Colonels upon his remote-controlled Hoveround from WHY Lou Two: Electric Nulu [4] at 806 E. Market St. west to Garage Bar [5] at 700 E. Market St. for the inaugural March of the Colonels. Colonel Will Russell, owner and founder of both WHY Louisville [6] and WHY Lou Two, created this event to celebrate the original store’s eighth anniversary of keeping Louisville weird:

“We just opened [the East Market Street] store two months ago. We acquired through Joe Ley Antiques [7] a bunch of wonderful fixtures from Fontaine Ferry, including this ticket booth, the funhouse mirror and the fortune teller. He also sold me a wax Colonel Sanders figures, which is wearing one of the Colonel’s original suits. And one of my crazy friends… who is also a Colonel, he said, ‘You need to put that guy in a Hoveround and march down the street with a bunch of Colonels behind him.’ And I said, ‘I think that’s wonderful idea; let’s do that!’”

The project went through one of the Grand Canyon-rated mobility devices – given to Russell for free by a fellow Colonel – before paying $100 on Craigslist for the final, functional chariot of the fried chicken god. The Hoveround was then rigged by Colonel Joseph Clagg of local hackerspace LVL1 [8] to be operated via remote control.

At around 2 p.m., the original Colonel wheeled out of WHY Lou Two, nearly going off-ramp in his slightly buzzed and resurrected state. Behind Col. Sanders were around 20 of his brethren – decked out in their finest white suits and black ties – King Louis XVI, a devil, a random French woman, and an assorted cast of characters. The Colonels formed a protective “bucket” around Col. Sanders as he slowly led the parade down the sidewalk from WHY Lou Two to Garage Bar, catching the attention of passersby as the well-preserved restaurateur occasionally swerved into the crowd to greet a beautiful woman now and again.

Upon arrival at Garage Bar, the Colonel allowed for several photo-ops among the public after posing with his fellow Colonels – including Kentucky For Kentucky [9] founder Griffin VanMeter, Clagg, and the entire upper management of both WHY Louisville stores  -- under the hot summer sun, taking shelter near the “crashed-car” installation at the NuLu bar and restaurant.

Photos: Cameron Miquelon/Louisville.com [10] and Facebook/WHY Louisville [6].