Day 4 – New Year’s Eve

It is interesting how a day that has all the characteristics of any other day is treated differently just because of its’ location on the calendar.  December 31 is such a day.  It has a lot of hoopla because it is the last day of the year.  But how does it really differ from say, June 6?  Sorry, just waxing philosophically.

This AM breakfast started out with biscuits and gravy.  Roxie and I did not do too much this day except for a bit of shopping across the street (there was a mall of sorts).  We knew that most activities were going to happen in the evening.  She even tried to take a nap before I woke her up securing the awning.  A few of the airstreamers were playing a bean bag tossing game:

That evening a meal was provided.  Then the decision was made as to what timezone we should celebrate the New Year in?  I think the Central Time Zone was decided upon.  That way everyone could be in their trailers shortly after 10pm.  We didn’t make it that long.  Wow!  We are getting old.  It was also pretty cold.

We hung around the group under the tent while the vast majority decided to start dancing.  Below is a short video clip of some of the festivities.  In the foreground, albeit dark, is Tom Smithson.  He was the DJ for the music, using his iPad.  He also was enjoying YMCA:

 

This was a very fun group!

We had heard that there are a lot of people camping out on Colorado Blvd to get good seats.  Luckily we weren’t some of them.  However Brad and Karen (from Georgia) got some shots on their blog: www.travelwiththeslowskys.com  Go check out their blog.

Day 5 – Happy New Year!

We got up around 7am and it was COLD!  We knew that and bundled up appropriately.  It is nice that the parade starts around 8am and we were very close.  We walked down there around 7:45 and got to our bleacher seats.  A recap about that cold:

Low 30’s to start.
Aluminum bleachers.
Highest row of seats, farthest of ground with nothing below.
In the shade of a large building.

The perfect storm for cold.  I normally can tolerate the cold pretty well but it was cold even by my standards.  Here is a view of some of the other airstreamers in our section:

Before the parade I also took a panoramic shot of my view:

I did take many shots of the Rose Parade itself.  I will put those somewhere else and post a link later.  The B2 flew over to start the parade but I missed that shot.  That’s OK.  I have seen it before…  I will post one parade shot here.  The tribute to Louis Zamperini.  Louis was the Grand Marshal of the parade.  He was the subject of the movie Unbroken but unfortunately he died in July at 97 years.  They brought out a riderless horse with the boots backwards in the stirrups:

 

His family followed in a vehicle.

Hey!  Did I mention it was cold?:

The parade was enjoyable but would have been more fun if it was warmer.  My rear, toes and fingers were very cold.  I couldn’t take my pictures with gloves on.

At the end Roxie and I did the selfie!

I was thankful to be able to put on my gloves and walk back.  Get some blood flowing.

We came back to the trailer and decided to head back to Lucky Boy burgers for lunch.  We drove this time.  There was a bit of traffic but we were south of the parade route and I210.  After another nice lunch we went back to the trailer and got it all setup for travel.  Next stop Desert Hot Springs.

We got the DHS about 4pm, setup the trailer and settled in for the night.  It was sure nice to take a long hot shower!  We declined on getting in the hot pools that evening as we were just too tired from all the Rose Parade stuff!