Parade Day, Behind the Scenes

The wagon was decorated with yellow roses at the Equestrian Center by the crew the afternoon of Dec. 31.  Jon, Tim and Joe delivered the wagon to the parade route and took pictures. The crew left the Equestrian Center at 9:30pm on Dec. 31. They arrived at the pit, which was a freeway below a viaduct, about 10:00 pm. They got a chance to walk through the float staging area.  It was crazy to see all of the folks celebrating New Year's as the floats began to arrive. As they walked back to the semi, they began to notice chairs, sleeping bags, air mattresses and people camping out to get their spots for the parade. After touring, they set up cots in the back of the semi. With all of the excitement and the horses pawing and kicking, they probably got an hour or less of sleep prior to the 4:00am wake-up call.  The crew watered the horses from water they brought with them in coolers.  Kennedy began braiding manes and Jonni foretops. They spruced up the horses one last time and harnessed them. At 6:21 they led the horses single file up over the interstate through some folks back yards, about 6 city blocks to the wagon.  Other horse units, such as the State Park Systems, Wells Fargo and the Calvary were all hitching up in this area. The crew hitched the horses to the wagon and waited for time to pass. Houston, Judith, their son Chris and his wife Jill and their children Catherine and Caroline arrived at 7:26.  They proceeded to the staging area, just prior to the chute. The chute area is where the bands, horse units and floats all come together. They waited until the South Dakota tourism float entered the chute.  They followed the SD float onto Colorado Boulevard.  Here it was coordinated chaos.  Everybody, including dogs, baby strollers, bikes, people selling programs, seating cushions and cotton candy were there.  They were blowing air horns and firing tons of questions at the crew. As the crew waited in this chaos, they knew it was show time, when they first could hear and then could see right up close, the Stealth Bomber. The fly-over indicated it was 8:00 am and time to start the parade.  The crew was amazing and held the horses who were very startled by the fly-over. They waited for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was only 16 minutes, to start in the parade. But, right as scheduled, they moved forward. It seemed like there were a million people at the beginning of the route. They turned the corner, which is called media corner at about 8:22. There are not words to describe the number of people they seen in the miles ahead. Solid people from building front to building front, building tops and every parking lot had bleachers that were filled with people. Among all the noise makers, blow horns, kids throwing whipper snappers, people yelling and screaming, confetti cannons being shot at the crew and horses, the horses did great. They were forced to stop several times during the parade and were blaming the band that was ahead of them for the stops.  It wasn't until after the parade, that they found out the stops were due to floats breaking down.  The horses and crew did a wonderful job at staying calm during these stops. One of the biggest highlights was the crew's cheering section where over the crowd, they could hear grandma JoAnn screaming. And when they listened closer, they heard grandpa Rog cheering on Mike, Kennedy and crew. There were some sincere folks waving large US flags that made the crew feel really good. The walkers had a tough 5.5 miles, starting, stopping, walking up and down hills on the pavement and they kept up the entire time.  Daryl rode in the semi to the end of the parade route and as always, parked in a spot easily accessible and pointed in the right direction to easily escape the chaos. The entire crew was exhausted and began unhitching, undecorating and loading.  The White Suiters were the Tournament of Roses support crew and were extremely helpful throughout the entire parade, especially Brad and J.J. At the end, many White Suiters came up and expressed sincere gratitude for all of the work the Dakota Thunder crew did and the outstanding entry.  Many even told them they were one of the best entries in the parade and that made the crew feel pretty good. Even though the parade supporters were amazing, the support from back home and from our horse family can't be topped.  We can't begin to count the number of calls, texts and facebook messages.  Folks were viewing, recording, throwing parties and cheering us on. It was phenomenal!!