Hello from 2009-2010 Rose Bowl Parade Rally

skigramp · 12-31-2009, 04:43 PM

The members met at East Shore RV Park in San Dimas, CA on Monday (Dec 28) afternoon. Gene and Ruth Scott are the rally leaders.

The RV sites are full hookup ... we are located on a plateau overlooking a valley with a snow covered mountain in the background.

The activities so far have been to visit the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, attend a performance of "The glory of Christmas" at the Crystal Cathedral, view Bandfest at Pasadena City College, view float building barns near the Rose Bowl, and a visit to the Farmers Market in downtown Los Angeles.

Tomorrow we will view the parade from reserved seats on Colorado avenue.

The performance at the Crystal Cathedral was noteworthy: during the finale there were 7 angels suspended from cables overhead, three camels on stage along with several sheep, 40 to 50 performers on stage and 7 trumpeters in the balcony in front of us. The program is a musical made up of well known Christmas songs as well as several dance numbers.

The weather was not the best for Bandfest. We watched in a steady misty drizzle ... but the show by Ohio University and Ohio State University were very entertaining ... the Ohio University band was extremely versatile playing, marching, dancing, ... they ended the performance with a dance which terminated with everyone doing the splits.

The float viewing was fascinating because we saw "up close" how the floats are covered with flowers, seeds, grass, bows, etc.

skigramp · 01-01-2010, 06:56 PM

We left the RV Park at 5 am ... parked one block from our seats. The seats were in three rows of the bleachers on Colorado Blvd (the seats were on the overpass for freeway 110)

We were about 2 blocks downstream from the NBC broadcast booth. It was chilly when we left the bus for our seats but we were packed together for the parade ... it was great to see the floats, the bands, the equestrian units ...

When the parade was over we loaded back onto the bus ... the traffic getting out of there was terrific ... it took us almost 3 hours to get back to the campground ...

We have our final dinner in the RV park ...

This is our fourth WIT rally ... it was well planned ... we would have never gone to the Rose Bowl Parade on our own ...

This has been another good experience ...

Grimesy · 06-13-2010, 11:00 AM

We have signed up for parade on 2011, however my wife has trouble walking any distance do you think this could be a major problem? She does use a walker at times and also has a scooter. What say you?

Don,WIT70041

skigramp · 07-28-2010, 03:46 PM

Sorry that I have been so slow responding to your question, Don.

As usual each day you are picked up by bus in the campground and driven to the events of the day ... I think that each place that we went was handicap accessible (I am not sure about the seats for the parade ... I think we had to go up several steps to get to our seats ... but I think they could probably get you a handicapped seat for the parade)

It is also true that in some cases we had to walk more than a block ... sometimes a couple of blocks from the bus to the event ... and we stood in line to get into the Bandfest ...

So it seems to me that there are a few limiting considerations:
1) Can your wife climb steps and get into a bus?
2) Will her scooter fold so that it will go into the storage bay of a bus?
3) If she has to wait in line to enter a place can she do that?