Amazing...
What an amazing event! Members of the club turned out in
full-force to accept the challenge of hauling multiple groups of
scouts for this years annual Report to State parade up Congress
Ave. Arriving at the the TxDOT parking lot, the group
unloaded and prepared for what was to be an excellent event.
About 8:00am, we departed to the Austin American-Statesman parking
lot to wait for the scouts from Venture Crew 634 and Pack 395 from
Oak Hill. Slowly but sure as the sun rises each morning, the
scouts began to arrive. Then, the hot chocolate and
Krispy-Kremes which made the morning! Thanks to Pack 395 on
that one!
About 8:30 with scouts and parents loaded up, the group moved
to stage on the Congress Ave bridge. As always, this is the
'fun' part in that it's usually unorganized. This year took
a bit of time to move the front of the line 3. However, our
club surely made a statement to all the other participants that
'we were the best'. The pictures that were taken and the
pointing and comments about our magnificent vehicles just made the
slow trip to the front that much better.
When we got to our appointed staging point, we had accumulated
Danny K and his M151A2/M416 trailer, me and my M38A1, Toby and his
MB, John K and his MB, Herb T and his GPW, Rich H and his M38A1,
Rory and his Unimog and John S and his M35A2. It was a most
impressive display on the bridge.
Most of the time was spent waiting for the parade to start.
Tim spent an hour or so playing chess and I was busy selling the
club fund-raiser .50 cal rounds to eager scouts. By the time
the parade was ready to start, I had finished selling all the
remaining rounds. In addition a HUGE thank-you
has to be given to Pack 395's Shayne Reeves for the unexpected
donation to the club for our participation.
The parade was a good one in that the weather was super.
By the time we started, there were already scouts returning from
completing the parade that had left ahead of us. We made the
trek up Congress Ave. and were identified by Bob Cole, a local
radio personality and finished our trip at the Capitol.
Those that were carrying signs pulled them off their vehicles for
the trip back down to the Statesman lot where we unloaded the kids
and departed.
If each successive year goes like this one, we'll have many
good parades in our as well as the scouts future.