"Let me tell you the story of the 'Midnight Rescue.' One year, when they built the model, it wasn't to scale so when they built the actual float it was too large. Then, we didn't have enough help for the size of the float. The fire department was here and Channel 9 came around to tell our story. In response, over 400 community residents showed up to volunteer. Now we had too many. They still didn't finish in time and they finally pulled out of here around 9 pm. We usually pull out around 5 to get to Pasadena in time for any last minute fixes and then the judging around 3 am. My wife was on the float and a bedpost fell off and nearly hit her.
"Kelly is our head builder and he worked at Knott's Berry Farm on the roller coasters. This year is the second time we've had a roller coaster on the float. During the construction of the float that had our first roller coaster, I got a call from my son asking me to bring a voltage regulator for a 1948 Ford engine. Now, where are you going to find something like that? Instead I rigged it so they had some extra fuel to run the generator for the length of the parade. But then the transmission was overheating in the parade. So, they took water from the waterfall that was on the float to cool the transmission. But they made it to the end of the route and didn't need to be towed. That would have cost us extra money."
~ Mike
Rick and I know him from Knott's Rick worked with him on projects!
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