WASHINGTON STATE APPLE BLOSSOM FESTIVAL GRAND PARADE

Saturday, May 1, 2010

WENATCHEE

by Carol Kapua:

I was going to send this out yesterday but we had an electrical outage for several hours that put me behind again.  Imagine that.
Thursday several of us left for Wenatchee. That would be Jodi, Greg, Amy, Payton, Tylene and Tom flew up from Vegas and myself.  We had a very late dinner and Tom stayed in town and the rest of us stayed at the Estate.

Friday we went to town to put the float together and worked on it. The guys did what they had to and the girls did the fufu work. We added a few more things and that gave us more color.

That day Jodi moved to town and stay at the hotel with Angie. I prefer the estate and the drive.

On Saturday we all met at the park and were joined by Arvin, Joan, DC and the Royalty - Queen Kaija, Princesses Haley & Ella and Chaperone Debbie.
 
We left the generator running to burn off some fuel from a diesel/gas mix when suddenly large amounts of smoke were coming out of the exhaust of the generator. The float in the carburetor of the generator and was dumping excessive amounts of fuel causing the generator to smoke. Nothing serious thank goodness. THANK YOU Greg for being able to fix it. The judges were most accommodating and they were able to give us time to get it repaired and came back or should I say stood close by to judge us. That was very nice.

Besides the wind it was a beautiful day and I believe we all got a little sun burnt. Hope the girls were able to get back in time for the prom. It was hard because we were #105 in the lineup. We made them sandwiches and sent them on their way. We did win an award and it was the Golden Apple Award. Thank you all for a job well done. I know that everyone gave it their best. 

We had 2 couples of Applarians escort us - Ellie & Marv Gellatly and Donna & Gary Bates and were honored to have 4 from Astoria also join us President Dan Arnoth , Nancy Kennell, Fran, and Chuck. These 8 really worked the crowd. Thank you to all of you guys.

Our next parade is this coming weekend at Sequim. Not sure of the departure time because we are working on it and then I will get a quick email out to all going.

The following weekend is Spokane and we are still working on that one too. Should have those both worked out this week so that you all will have the information.

Thank you all for all the help you have given so far. If you have not seen the Royalty in action you are missing the boat.

Oh, one last thing our banner carriers for Wenatchee were Payton (who really cleans up well), Tylene, and their Mom Amy. Thank you and you did a great job. Only 3 floats from the West side won awards. Daffodil won Community Sweepstakes and Olympia won the Sponsor's Choice Award and us.  The overall Grand Sweepstakes went to Sunnyside.

On a personal note over the weekend we - Chuck, Joan, and I lost another high school classmate to the big C. She was also Chuck's first sister-in-law and I ran around with her in high school.

Karen are you out there? Have not heard from you and an update on your husband.

You all have a great weekend.