JUDGEMENT DAY!

We were on the road at 7:30 am (in full 17th century attire) heading to the float barn for JUDGING.
The theme of this year's Rose Parade is HOPE.   The name of our float is "The Voyage of Hope-1620".  As the judges came around, our group next to Plymouth Rock, we greeted they by saying " Good Hope to you in the New Year."  (Maybe we will will the "Theme" prize??!!

This is Sherry (our Float Supervisor" standing by a sign I worked on.

There were TV cameras everywhere yesterday and today.

Bill was on TV three times in this news show...you can just barely see the top of my pink hat behind Bill near the end of the clip.

The ropes were still being installed late last night.....

and ROSES.

There was a rose in a vial of water labeled with the name of all 102 Mayflower passengers placed around at mast on the top deck.

Below is a mix of more photos.

This is the LAST DAY to work on the float!
The crew working on the masts were slow, which slowed down what our volunteers could do as far as adding the "Up in the Ship" roses!

Some trim was missing on the front of the ship, and since Bill is tall, he was recruited to fix that.  That took 2 hours!  They originally did not line up properly, and were not seeded with the proper colors!

Next came some really hard work.....waiting for over an hour while the Pre-Judge Team went through the float barn.

Next came some light iris and dark purple iris to blend together around the waves.

It is great fun to walk around our float barn and check out the other floats.  I LOVE all the tropical flowers on some of the floats....too bad the Mayflower did not land in a tropical location!

Some chores were a bit boring.....using 2 scissors at a time to super chop bags of corn flowers to be applied to mast.   (Wish I had my food processor here!)

JUDGING IS TOMORROW MORNING!!!!

Third Day in the Float Barn

This morning, I was working on the upper level of the ship. (because I raised my hand when they asked for people who did not mind some climbing. ) Today at 6 am, we passed the "60 second test" for the masts.  They need to be lowered in 60 seconds as part of our tech test.

While I was up on deck, I was able to slip into the "brake/hydraulic lift cabin."  The woman in this cabin communicates with the driver in the the back of the float. (This is her view!) The driver looks down at his feet and follows the line on the road.  The Brake woman brakes as necessary and needs to lower the masts in order of 1 2 3....so they fit down...and raise them 3 2 1 so they don't smash into each other.  

I made sure NOT to TOUCH anything when I was in her cabin!!!!

While I was up top....guys were welding the crows nest and sparkles were flying...while six people were applying chopped straw flowers....YIKES!  ( I took note of the closest exit!)

After lunch, I worked on this wave...applying orchids to this coconut/statice base.

Viola...much more lovely....supposed to look like froth on waves.

We could have used ear plugs today....the metal shop in the barn was grinding, soldering and in general making a great deal of high pitched construction noise.

The float riders (and their plus one) came back for a fun party and could tour other areas of the float barn.  I thought I'd keep my eyes open for new ideas for the Flower Team at church.  Maybe this one would be a bit over the top!

I did think these might be nice in the autumn for church!

Second Day Working in the Float Barn:

Today was lots of tiny detail work on the signs which will be on the sides of the ship.

So much has happened with the second shift yesterday...this is a panoramic view of some of the floats around us.

The second shift put the Black Letters of "niger seeds" onto the Mayflower Compact I worked on yesterday.

Last night, they put the "White Rice" onto this sign.  We added the red lettering, which was cranberry seed.  Then we went to work on the ship, which was going to be made from statice flowers.  We had such fine line to fill, we had to chop the statice with double scissors for about  30 minutes before it was fine enough to utilize for this detailed work.  

Some of the rice that was put on overfilled into the space we needed for the riggings of the ship...which meant we dug it out with tweezers!

It took all day, but our team of four finished both of the signs which will be mounted on the sides of the ship.

That is where I will be on the float....in front of the ship, to the right of the "Plymouth Rock".

We have been putting on rice, seeds, beans, etc. so far.....but buckets of flowers marked "Mayflower" are now surrounding one side of the float.

We should have fun with flowers tomorrow!!!

First Day At the Float Barn for "The Voyage of Hope"

The first thing I did at the float barn was pick off tiny bits of yellow seeds that should not have been on the "Mayflower" that will go on the back of the ship.

Later that day it was mounted on the back of the ship.

Then a group of four of us went to work on the "Mayflower Compact"  

Here it is with just the paint on the canvas.

We put "light color sesame seeds" on all the surfaces that should be light colored....including all the folds etc. that could be seen by standing back a few feet.

Maybe we should have asked for a college volunteer to crawl in there!

Looking forward to working with the Gorgeous Flowers and Plants!

This is a drawing of "The Voyage of Hope-1620"

I will be with the group in front of the ship, near Plymouth Rock.
Our float will be the 6th unit in the parade...the 3rd float.