After the up and down year we had in 2023 with my breast cancer diagnosis, surgery, and recovery, to end it by joining the Escapees Tournament of Roses Parade HOP was perfect and emotional.

When I was diagnosed in May, I told my oncology surgeon I would do whatever it took for me to get to the Rose Parade at the end of the year. And that’s what we did.

Our Wonderful Hosts

We met up with Jan Chamberlain and Wendy Stanwood, a mother/daughter duo who were phenomenal hosts for this week-long event. If you ever get a chance to do a HOP with Jan and Wendy, we highly recommend it. Everything was seamless and timed perfectly so that we didn’t miss a minute of this amazing week.

Float Decorating

We all boarded the tour bus and headed into Pasadena for a day of float decorating. As luck would have it, our “float barn” was located near the Rose Bowl, which we had visited earlier in the week.

Check out our tour of the Rose Bowl here.

We were at one of three float decorating locations around Pasadena. Each location creates from start to finish about 9-10 floats over the course of a year. Planning begins shortly after the last parade ends once the theme for the following year is announced.

It was so interesting to see the drawing of each float, and how it is basically a paint by number system once the float is built. Only, instead of paint, it is glue and natural materials. Every inch of the float must be covered in organic material. The horses on the float we worked on were covered in ground coffee!

We also learned that you do not need to be part of a group to volunteer. If you are in the area, especially the last two weeks of December, they would love to have your help.

Tournament of Roses Parade and Float Fest

Of course, the main event of the week was the Tournament of Roses Parade. We had to be on our bus ready to depart the campground at 4:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day! Needless to say, we did not party into the night to celebrate on New Year’s Eve.

Having watched this parade for years on television, the excitement of finally being there and seeing it in person was almost overwhelming.

We had great seats, even if we were packed into the stands. Also, we were higher up which allowed for excellent viewing of the floats, bands, and equestrian units as they came down the parade route.

On January 2, we were able to go to Float Fest. All the parade floats are brought to one of the local schools for fans to get an up close look, and smell, of each float.

It was exciting to see all the intricate work that went into each float and the different organic materials used. And we did have a bit of pride seeing our float up close and knowing we worked on a small part of it.

Conclusion

If you ever have the opportunity to volunteer and/or experience the Tournament of Roses Parade, we highly recommend it. And if you like to do this kind of thing with a group, there are many tour options out there. If you happen to be a member of Escapees, then the Escapees Tournament of Roses HOP is the one you want!

One More Thing

Here’s my story of how the choices I made during my breast cancer journey got me to the Tournament of Roses Parade. If you know of someone who is waiting for the right time to do whatever it is they want to do in their life, this book is for them. As I learned, there is no “right time”. Don’t Wait to enhance your life, change your life, and maybe even save your life.

We’re Mike & Jennifer Skinnell, and together we are The Rambling Quilter. We travel the country full-time in our 41ft. fifth-wheel pulled by our F-350 – affectionately named Beauty & The Beast. Jennifer writes our blog, travel articles, contemporary romance, cozy mysteries, and “Don’t Wait – Our Full-Time Journey Through Breast Cancer”. Our blog is purely for information and entertainment purposes. However, if you’d like to support Jennifer’s writing career, her author link to her books is below.