2010 TRAVELING FLOAT

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

February 15 - 21, 2010

by Tom Grady:

Ok....we're back! I've been up here all week. This is a big week as we have to get the chassis work completed in order to be on schedule. That's the only thing holding us up from starting on everything else.

The design of the upper sides seemed to be a simple task...well on paper it was. Implementing it was our first real stumbling block. We spent more than a day scratching our heads figuring out how we were going to get it to fold properly, modeling and testing before we came up with the solution that you will see in the pictures. We disagreed a little bit about aesthetics - about how we wanted the float to look - nice, clean, sloping lines and such - and I'll tell you what - when it came down to it - there isn't another guy that I wouldn't want to have on our team more than who I spent this whole week with than Greg Edwards - the poor guy who had to put up with me! What a trooper! He really is like a little brother to me.

Greg and his family were involved in an automobile accident on Friday morning when he was taking his son to school - but he still showed up on Friday - Saturday - Sunday and Monday to help out....a lot. And his wife Amy and son Payton (who were also in the car) kind of helped out some too! Greg has a hip injury, Amy has some neck, back and abdominal injuries - Payton seems to be okay. And then his father, Jon - well, he worked his heart out on Saturday and Sunday for us and I think we overworked him because he now has a problem with his foot! I hope that you're okay, Jon! Thank you, the Edwards family!

On Monday Carol and Chuck stopped by to drop off a bunch of props that Carol had purchased at Display and Costume Supply and craft stores.

On Thursday, Carol, Chuck, Sheila and Judy stopped by for our weekly meeting. We discussed the progress and our plan for the week for the float. We also created the schematic for the major prop elements on the float. This was a big deal since we needed to have the deck on to determine how much space we had in order know where to put everything. I think that it will work fine.  

Saturday was fun. We had our consultants Ken and Glenda Goeddes from Goeddes Design (Cashmere) come over for a scheduled visit. We went over a few things and placed our order for our fringe and garland. It will be metallic emerald green and metallic silver. It was really good to see them and to have their expertise and another pair of eyes to look over what we have done to catch any mistakes that we may have overlooked.

At about the same time, Glenn Whaley (Past President) and Kent Baskett (2010 First Gentlemen - his wife Karen is the President this year) of the Daffodil Festival dropped by to see us. They were taking a break from working on their float (in Fife) and knew that I was in town and wanted to stop by and see me and see how we were doing. We are lucky to have such good friends from the Daffodil Festival.

We decided to add some box fans to the front of the generator to help cool it. It gets really hot back there. We also decided to add a little door above the batteries and the battery switch for access.

You'll noticed that we have switched from a column mounted gear shift to a floor mounted gear shift now. I know....whoopeee! Thank Chuck! We also moved the fuel filler spout to the deck level so that we don't have to use that funnel and hose anymore (another whoopee). Plus we will have a gas gauge that works. So there is a lot of good things at work here.

Well, things will be moving along pretty well here. We have less than 50 days to the Daffodil Festival Parade. More next week.

*L - Lighting, *L&A - Lighting and Animation