2010 TRAVELING FLOAT

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

January 18 - 24, 2010

by Tom Grady:

DC Picked me up from the airport and took me to Omnisistem in Kent. They specialize in lighting, sound and special effects for night clubs, discos, meetings, conventions and that sort of thing. We did business with them several years ago. I am familiar with the owners, the Giannoulas family - a very honest and hardworking family. I value their opinions and sought their advice on our lighting and sound concerns for the 2010 float. It is a great feeling to have the owner deal with you directly and to see the excitement from them when they show you their products. They are wholesalers/distributors who participate in the big tradeshows in Las Vegas and they sell name brand and their private label products all over the world.

I picked up generator from Hinshaw's Motorcycle Store in Auburn and met the mechanic who worked on it. He happens to be the brother of one of the Daffodil float contingent, Tim Smith! Wow! What a small world!

Greg met us at the float and then we got to work. Our mission was to solve the folding bottom part of the sides. And we did. It is a little more complicated than you would think as we are making it horizontal this year. Plus with the footprint change to a peanut/hourglass/guitar shape (choose your description) AND with an upper level folding side we had quite a few considerations. The most important consideration was to make sure that it would fold up and fit into the trailer. Then....believe it or not the second most important consideration that we had was that it was stable and secure enough so that if we had a lot of people pile onto it (like we do before and after parades) that it would not collapse. A lot of headscratching went on during this part of the meeting. But we have a great solution in place. You will see from this week's photos that the shape is beginning to take place.

Darrell Wigdahl, our Past President from 2006-2007 came out on Saturday and solve the engine starting problem for us. Apparently our coil was not getting the proper power at the appropriate time. So...he wired us a starting button to replace the traditional "key" start that we have. He also discovered that we had a bad wire to the choke on the carburetor. So he replaced that wire too. This should solve our "cold starting" problems. He also determined that our gas gauge had power all the way up to it....so the gauge is bad. I will replace it this upcoming week. Darrell then took the time to carefully remove all of the stereo equipment from the float. At some point, Carol will decide how we will sell it - most likely to another festival. 

We removed all of the unused motors and continued removing excess steel. Over the next two weeks - up until we re-deck the float - we will be removing excess steel as we gain access to those portions of the float.

We also took a first look at hinging the front and rear panels that will be installed. We have never had a front panel - and in years past have always had a slide-in rear panel. It is our hope not to remove any panel - just fold and secure upright for storage. We also hope to store our signage on the folded upright sides - we think that it is possible. It will be innovative and very practical. It will sure minimize those trips back and forth to the trailer!