h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On to Philadelphia! My first impression was "I'm scared!". my "group" went to the mall that our busses parked next to. But it wasnt like the malls you find in Reno or Salt Lake, it was attached to a subway system! And it was all scuzzy and just plain creepy! I was truley afraid, of what? i donno, but i was. Once we got out of that "mall" we went to go see the Liberty Bell, we were early so our group went to go see Betsie Ross's house (sorry if i misspelled that). It waspretty interesting, there was even a lady there that showed us how to cut a star out of paper with "one snip" snip! not a cut! a snip! hehe. i thought that was pretty awsome! After that, we went back to the Liberty Bell and went inside. The bell isnt as big as you would think! Its accually quite small compared to what i thought it was going to be, but marvelous none the less! And chris (my friend) took a picture from under the bell, and its amazing! they have a secrity system underneath the bell! wow! We saw the bell and got to go across the street to see the court houses and where they sighned the Declaration of Independance! It was very historic looking, but unfortunatly my pictures didnt turn out well. We got out and had a bathroom break and went to our hotel. It was the coolest hotel we stayed at! But the rooms were less than stuning! We had toilet problems and we had a cocroach! gross and i slept on the floor and it was COLD!! That hotel was HUGE! it had escelators and everything! and a piano!
Lets get to the parade shall we?
We got to get up at lovely 4 in the morning, and let me tell you everyone was bright and shiney! *cough cough* we had to go down to breakfast in our uniforms! i was sooo suprised that mr lovell let us! hes the strictest person ever! but hes being nice this year cuz he is getting sergery! GOOD LUCK MR L!! So we eat in the ball room, it was absolutly large! We eat, go back to our rooms and then go down to the lobby by the piano with our instruments. i love my sax! sorry... we got new gloves and everything! i was happy cuz my gloves look like they were run over! While we were waiting, we saw clouns, dancers and other bands go by! it was awsome! but we were all so sleepy! we only got an average of 4 hours of sleep a night! heesh! But once we got outside, most of us woke up. we had about a 4 block walk to the place where we had to get "blocked up" that means we have to be in the spots we are going to be in for the parade. i was by Spencer (a senior sax) Aaron (jr sax) Kelsey (a piccalo player) and some clarentet chick. We advanced to the "starting line" to start the parade. i was getting a little nervous, imean, its only national tv! and about a million people on the streets! Actually i was laughing at the start of the parade, we passed a float with Kermet the frog on it, I couldnt keep a straight face!! so we finally get to the area where we start playing and i cant brethe! I dont know if it was really humid, or if I was nervous, but i was having truble brething! it was so embarassing! i was blasting through my horn cuz I was having wierd brething patterns! ooh! i thought i was gonna die! But i didnt (aparently!) I couldnt look at the crowd, i wish i had now, but i think i was to nervous! TV cameras everywhere! We were practically running the intire parade! it was likemarching the rosebowl parade! (about 7 miles) ours was only like 2.5
The wind was really strong so we had to stop and let the baloons in about a block before the National TV cameras. Parade rest, we call it. thats when you arnt at attention but you arnt allowed to goof off. We stoped and i was staning there with my sax and i laid my head on the neck of it and (get this) i fell asleep!!!! It was the funnyest thing ever! when i woke up, we still handent moved, i think i doesed off for only a few seconds but still... im glad they didnt sart marching!
that woulda been embarassing! we march for a little while and then stop and go and stop... gruling! as we neared the area for the cameras, another bands' FREEKING drum line was warming up! absolutly RUDE!We are trying to play ghostriders with DRUMS!!! ugg! We were so close to the cameras we could see the lenses but we had to stop so some group could do their performance, just then a group of people on the side yelled "GO NEVODA!" i wanted to scream "ITS NEV-AH-DUH!" but i dont think mr lovell would be too happy. YES!! we were 2nd inline to go do our thing! but the cheerleaders in front of us stoped and did a cheer, we were in the middle of magnificent 7 and we couldnt just stop! we had to keep playing! so the cheerleaders had to do their dance to Mag. 7 and their music at the same time! I felt so bad! but then the call "MARK TIME MARK!" came and we started to move our feet! at this point in the parade i was sweaty and tired, but i didnt feel it, adranaylin was rushing through me! i was so excited!We marched onto the "central square" playing Ghost Riders In The Sky (a very neat song!) And the camera guy put the camera right in my face!! i had to try so hard not to look at it and just look atthe persons back infront of me! and not mess up on the music! wow! it was amazing! I cant describe it! I think wow! and noone but us pretty much describe the situation! We march on to the end of the parade where we got our pictures taken, and a huge rain clod came over head and you cant see our pictures! oh well, the memories will last forever! and when we were walking back to the busses, jake (a susaphone) tripped and smacked right into the concrete! owch!

well thats all i can put for the phili part of the trip...

haha... sounds cool... when we went to philly, we got locked in a WW2 sub. it was on display, and while touring it, we took longer than everyone else and the locked it up for the night... with us still in it.


good times...

WO! cool! bet you got on the news too then??
cheers
ford

no... the ganitor came on later before we even noticed we were stuck and let us out... BUT IT MAKES A FUNNY STORY!!!

it does i could see the head lines now
"ganitor saves million dollar sub from tenneagers"
lol
AAAAAHHHHH THEY ARE PLAYING MAKE ME SMILE ON THE RADIO!
cheers
ford