Young Macalister Heath-Pearce, who features in today’s snapshot, enjoyed a ride in the lead police vehicle in Wednesday’s Supercars Driver and Transporter Parade.

It’s one thing to see the annual parade from William Street, but not too many people get to experience the parade from out on the road in one of the vehicles.

Parade assumes it was an experience Macalister won’t soon forget.

BATHURST in spring can be a shock even for regular visitors.

Parade had his lunch in Kings Parade on Wednesday, where he got talking to a couple of race fans who are camping up on the Mount with their kids.

Through a couple of minutes of conversation, Parade established their background: they hail from the Sunshine Coast, come to Bathurst each year and have done so for many years, and were recently at the Deniliquin Ute Muster (where they said the mud was calf-deep after all the rain in southern NSW).

What got Parade, though, was the fact the Bathurst weather can still spring a surprise.

“It’s been quite cold, hasn’t it?” the male half of the racing fan couple asked Parade, looking a bit unhappy about the fact.

Parade agreed that it had been a tad crisp in the mornings.

“It’s 28 degrees on the Sunshine Coast today,” the racing fan added wistfully, staring off into the distance.

Well, you can’t have everything.

The Sunshine Coast has the sun, but Bathurst has the Mount, so that makes the two about even.

PARADE stayed on the Sunshine Coast while on a driving trip many years ago, getting a room for the night at a ramshackle motel with louvres for ventilation and ancient fans on the ceiling that did not much more than push the hot air around.

Parade remembers there was a boat in the backyard with three-foot weeds growing up around its hull. On the boat’s side were these words: HASTEN SLOWLY.