Where did December go? Christmas arrived and was over before we knew it! Carol, Gene and I hosted Christmas Eve at our house for all the Browner clan, then we drove to California for a holiday get together with the Crabbs followed by a trip to the Rose Parade in Pasadena.
We'd been planning the Rose Parade trip for about a month and made reservations through Sharp Seating for a reserved parking spot for the RV right on the parade route. The "spot" turned out to be a Volkswagen dealership where Gene and Janet bought a new 1968 VW Squareback for delivery in London. Small world, huh? We arrived the day before, planted our folding chairs on the median on Sierra Madre just north of Colorado Blvd. and took turns making sure they didn't get picked up or moved. At midnight we were allowed to move the chairs onto the street behind the "blue line" and ended up with front row seats for the parade! We were so close to the parade that we had to move our feet back so the marching bands wouldn't step on our toes.
Gene has been to many of the parades, having grown up in Pasadena, but this was a first for me. Gene even worked on the floats as a teenager pasting on flowers for about 75 cents an hour. The hourly wage always increased the closer it got to parade time, usually ending at about $3 an hour after midnight.
Attached are a few photos of the floats. One of the most colorful was the China Airlines float. If you've never seen the parade in person, it is well worth the effort. And going by RV was really quite simple, traffic was kept moving and the total experience was a great start to the New Year.
Happy New Year to all!!!!
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