Manuel Cruz brought a pickup truck and trailer so that we could haul droids, Jawas, Tuskens and whatever other denizens needed a ride. I backed the Element up for an easy transfer, at the tender hour of 7:22am, as some 70(!) characters got into costume.
We lined up behind a cool, old-time fire truck, which hosted bottled water and more characters.
The troopers took one last breath before their march.
Around 10:00am the parade started, and we were under way. Vader and the Stormtroopers lead the Star Wars group, followed by the firetruck, then us, then the Tuskens and Rebels. I was riding in the passenger seat of the pickup, so I could only take pictures in our immediate vicinity. I'd never been in a parade before outside of being cramped in the back of a Humvee, so I didn't know whether to wave or not. I did end up waving a little bit, but I mainly left the waving to R2 and his flag.
I was told last year there were 10,000 people along the 2.5 mile route, and that this year far surpassed that. I must have heard, "It's R2-D2!" hundreds of times.
A video clip amongst the pics.
And finally, video at the finish line.
The full photoset is here.
2 comments:
I was at the parade and my friends and I LOVED the Star Wars group. I've been telling people about it all week! How did this group from a galaxy far, far away end up in little ol' La Verne?
Thanks for writing and the nice comments!
It turns out one of the costumed participants is also a La Verne police officer, and he organized the appearance of all the Star Wars characters. He got an absolutely amazing turnout, it was one of our largest events ever.
I throughly enjoyed having R2 out there. It didn't hurt that I got to ride in an air conditioned truck either. :)
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