Was it a good idea?
Well, it seemed like it at the time. For a while I asked myself why I was knee deep in float building. And then someone pointed out that Humboldt County was the first county in Nevada and therefore needed to be represented in the Nevada Day Parade.
So a bunch of us set to work to build a float here, one we could dismantle here (you can't haul a 70-foot float down the freeway to Carson City at five miles an hour) and put back together in Carson City. We left early Friday morning and arrived in Carson before noon. We found an abandoned building with a paved parking lot and set up shop. We unpacked all the parts of the float, including the cannon, the full size horse from Rose Feed and rolls of blue fringe. It made life easier with a Wendy's across the lot. At least we wouldn't starve, and more importantly we had a bathroom!
As we worked the weather became more threatening. Knowing that if we put the skirt on the float it would be mush by morning, we covered what we had finished with plastic and stopped for the night.
The next morning we moved into position two hours before anyone else. After all, we had a float to build. Amazingly enough, we finished shortly before the "move out" time. There were a few glitches. Yes, we had the flags upside down. Thanks to the museum for the use of the 36-star flag. We also had to staple gun some of the potato bags Winnemucca Farms gave us so we didn't leave a trail of bags behind us. We got our music started courtesy of Performance Computing and it was actually audible.
The wood and fittings from Tallman and Reliable held together even as we rushed to move them into position. Our mining hats from Newmont made us look like the real deal and when we finally got the signs on the side of the float from Jim Dandy we looked almost finished.
The final touch was the two sheep made by Lowry Art. One lost an ear but we got it stuck back on before we pulled out on to the main street. By the way, while all this was going on it was raining off and on. But, we are from Humboldt County and we're tough.
We were proud to represent Humboldt County and we brought home a plaque designating us the oldest county in the state. It would be difficult to list everyone who helped because there were many. Much appreciated were the county commissioners who believed we could do it, and all the people who took time to stop and ask how it was going.
Susan Rorex and others spearheaded the building effort for the Humboldt County float that appeared in the Nevada Day Parade in Carson City Nov. 1.
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