Pasadena Trip update #4 December 31, 2017

Day #4 – Sunday – December 31--Petal Pusher Trip

Sunday in California is nearly over and so is 2017.  In some parts of the world, the year has already changed.  I think that is just wrong because the earth is one place and we should all enter the new year at the same time.  Now that I got that off my chest, I can focus on the events of the petal pusher’s day.

We had a leisurely breakfast without an early start since we got back to our hotel so late last evening.  Ellie was kind to us but she might have faced mutiny if she hadn’t been.  We met at 10 this morning in the meeting room for devotions and sharing.  There was no church nearby for us to attend.  We spent time praying for specific things and then shared God stories and special events in our lives that have strengthened our faith.  Tears were shed and bonding took place.

Next, we did something unique I am betting nobody else in all of Iowa did today, or ever for that matter.  We moved our uncompleted towel kits and the boxes of supplies purchased yesterday onto tables in the swimming pool area so we could complete the project outdoors.  Who signed up for this trip thinking we would be doing such a thing?  I’m betting nobody!  The young trainee girl manning the front desk didn’t know what to say when we asked her if it would be alright to do that this morning.  She was a little hesitant but Ellie convinced her that if it didn’t specifically say it was not allowed in her list of rules, it would no doubt be okay.  And that is exactly what we did.  She was a little taken back when I told her if we had items left over we would just throw them into the pool.  I want you to know we didn’t do that, but it eventually brought a smile to her face so it was all worth it.

The people swimming and playing cards around the pool said they didn’t mind as we took over the pool area and began our massive towel kit project for the homeless once again.  Yes, people were in the pool in case you are reading this from the frigid landscape of Iowa.  The sun was shining and before long we were removing our petal pusher sweatshirts and working in short sleeves.  Working in the hot sun was a dirty job but someone had to do it.  The project was completed in about two hours under the California sunshine and warm temperatures.

At one o’clock we boarded the shuttle and Lonnie drove us down to Huntington Beach where we spent a couple of hours shopping, eating and exploring.  It was cooler by the Pacific and sweatshirts went back on.  Everyone had good food wherever they went in their small groups.  Some had tacos, some burgers and some seafood.  All I can vouch for is the delicious mango BBQ burger I had at Dukes.  The shoppers returned to the shuttle with their treasures, some claiming they found good sales.  I’m sure they did because petal pushers do not lie, especially when in sunny California.

We saw the sun setting over the Pacific as we left the beach area. This is where Lonnie lives so he gave us a short tour of Huntington Beach as he drove through the city.  In the area a couple of blocks from the beach he said the small lots sell for 2 million dollars and the houses add another 5 million.  The city is upscale but those numbers mess with my Iowa head. We also stopped at a grocery store for a quick shopping trip to get food for tomorrow since we leave before breakfast is served in the morning.

Our day ended early with devotions at 7 o’clock.  Tomorrow we awaken early into a brand new year.  The shuttle leaves at 5 a.m. for the Rose Parade on Colorado Boulevard where seats are being saved for us overnight.  We look forward to the gigantic party with a million of our closest friends on Colorado Boulevard.  We can’t wait to see the floats as they come down the street.  I know we will break into cheers as The Lutheran Hour Float passes by, always a special moment to see the work of our hands as it passes by proclaiming Christ!

An early to rise petal pusher – Lynn Menz - Good night and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Day #3 – Saturday – December 30- IOWAY Mission Team

We had a leisurely breakfast this morning because our first group meeting was not until 8 a.m.  The goal was to get ready for our day at Skid Row on January 2^nd.  We brought with us a great many completed towel kits for the homeless but people brought more items with them and gift cards from back home to purchase more supplies here.  We used the meeting room to spread out the extra items and began assembling additional towel kits.  We put together what we had and counted what we still needed to complete the extra kits.  These items will be purchased at the Dollar Store near our hotel later.

The level of excitement in our meeting room was interesting.  Imagine 29 people packed into a room not large enough to begin with.  Now add a number of tables filled with towels, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, etc.  Before long it was a din of noise and laughter.  A couple of people began singing songs from “The Sound of Music” and before long everyone joined in the craziness.  I can only wonder what the hotel personnel were thinking.  It could be that remorse set in for agreeing to let us use the meeting room.  Or maybe they began to hum along with us.  We will never know.

When we ran out of many supplies, we ceased operation and had our morning devotion time.  Ellie focused on the subject of prayer.  At the end she gave everyone a “Take Five” candy bar.  The wrapper was to remind us to take at least five minutes each day to pray.  Then we had about an hour to calm down and rest until we boarded the shuttle for what I assumed would be the annual chaotic trip to the 99¢ Store.  By this time everyone is getting to know each other pretty well so we are bonding and the fun is really beginning.  I have been on this trip many times and know what usually happens on this shopping trip when you turn 29 dressed alike, goofy, bonding adults loose in the Dollar Store.  You have to experience it to understand and I assumed this year would be no different.

Actually, this was the calmest shopping experience I have witnessed.  The store was large and very clean and organized.  Ellie had given each row of people in the bus a list of what they were to buy.  We exited the bus, grabbed carts, and headed down the aisles in search of all those items.  People who had brought debit cards or cash from their home congregations stood at the check-out counter and paid for what each group brought.  There were carts full of toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, socks, etc.  Everything was loaded into the back of our shuttle and off we went to have lunch, or dinner as we call it in Iowa.

We drove some distance to the nearest ‘Hometown Buffet’ only to discover it had closed.  So our next stop was at a ‘Soup Plantation’ like the one where we had eaten yesterday.  When we were stuffed to the gills, our driver took us to the work site. 

We worked the 4 to 11p.m. shift on the ‘Lutheran Hour’ and ‘City of Alhambra’ floats mostly.  Judging takes place tomorrow morning so everything had to be finished before we left.  The beautiful, gorgeous ‘Lutheran Hour’ float was completed at about 10:30 in the evening.  A number of our group put all the roses and asparagus fern along the sides, a major task.  Some have thorn wounds and aching spots on their hands to prove it.  As each float is finished, a general announcement is given from the loudspeaker system and everyone in the building cheers and claps.  I do believe when our float was announced we were the loudest.  I was cheering with most of our group right beside the float so maybe that wasn’t a fair comparison.

As we entered the building, Jennifer, crew chief for our float, grabbed Ellie and had her talk to a reporter from ABC.  He had to have a script to read as our float moves past his viewing stand but he wanted about 20 seconds of extra ‘color’ to present, something interesting and out of the ordinary.  Jennifer thought Ellie was the right person to give him what he wanted for his presentation.  She told him about our group and what we were going to do on Skid Row the day after the parade.  He seemed happy with that and repeated back what Ellie had told him.  Time will tell whether he will say it correctly during the parade.

Kimberley, teacher and frien joined us to work tonight.  She brought some of her former students to give them an opportunity to be part of float decorating, something they normally would never experience.  Kimberley will be joining us the day we serve at Skid Row and will come to our hotel and tell what life is like in her neck of the woods.  She has done this in past years and it is always a highlight for our group because she is a great speaker and shares such interesting stories.

On the way back to our hotel, Lonnie turned on the speaker system in the shuttle and played John Denver and Neil Diamond songs we all knew from the good old days.  We joined in and rock and rolled much of the way home.  It kept anyone from falling asleep after an exhausting day.

Once back at Residence Inn we had to unload the $2,000 worth of items purchased earlier in the day.  Our plan was to take them to the meeting room so we could finish our towel kit project in the morning.  We needed a new plan because we were informed the meeting room was needed as an additional breakfast room in the morning.  The hotel was totally booked and the normal breakfast room was not big enough to handle everyone.  This meant that we had to move everything we left in the meeting room this morning into our rooms.  Everything we had purchased that morning went into our rooms as well.  How we will complete the towel kits for Skid Row remains to be seen.

I will not think about it until morning when I will defer to Ellie since she is in charge.  Somehow she will figure it out.  Day three of decorating will not happen tomorrow either since floats had to be finished tonight.  That means we will need a new plan for the day, probably about plan D or E by now.  I am too tired to think about it now and Ellie is already sleeping so time will tell what happens.  I hope she is planning in her sleep because in the morning 28 people are going to be up and ready for an adventure!  She sleeps soundly so perhaps this will be a morning disaster waiting to happen!  J

Tiredness has overtaken me so goodnight!  Lynn – tired and done petal pusher - signing off.

Pasadena Mission Trip December 29, 2017

Day #2 – Friday, December 29, 2017

Our California day began early with a delicious breakfast at the Residence Inn.  The room filled with blue shirts and chatter as we fueled up for our day ahead.  By 6:45, Lonnie was there with the shuttle and we clamored aboard and we were off exploring the highways and byways of southern California.  We were thankful for the California sunshine, especially as we checked weather conditions back in Iowa and saw frigid and snow.  I hate to admit it but some may have even snickered a bit when they saw it, now that they are in sunny California.

Before much of the morning had past we were beginning to understand when the locals said they were having a heat wave.  It reached 80 degrees by afternoon and many of us took our Petal Pusher sweatshirts off.  Even a photo on a cell phone of snow falling back home didn’t cool us off.  While we survived, the flowers will not be so happy with these temperatures.  Yesterday work on the floats was slower because many flowers that should have been put on would not last until the parade.  We understand it is to be a little cooler tomorrow.

The new building we are working in this year is very large.  I estimate it may be over four times the size of the Rose Palace where we have worked for many years.  The flower tent is no longer a tent.  It is now a special section inside the building and much easier to access.  The area set aside isn’t large enough for the flowers as they arrive and are prepared for the floats.  Next year I’m sure it will be larger.

Our group was directed to the flower area for our first assignment.  Our job was to cut stems from the yellow roses and trim them to the correct length for placing in water filled vials.  As the lady in charge was showing us what to do, I asked how many yellow roses she needed us to do.  She pondered for a few seconds and estimated there were about 100,000 of them!  I have no idea how many we did but it was nowhere near that number even with our Iowa work ethic in play.

Our crew of 29 worked at top speed for over two hours on this task.  There were young people from other groups moving away our 50-gallon barrels of stems and trash, barrel full after barrel full.  Another crew brought bundles of yellow roses to each of the 6 tables so we could keep up the pace.  Just outside the building there were other young volunteers filling the green vials with water and bringing buckets of them to us.

After about two hours we were taken to other jobs in the building.  It was a deliberate move since two hours of standing on concrete was not as much fun as when we started.  An effort is made to keep the volunteers happy.  I lost track of where everyone ended up but many worked on the Honda float and I was taken to the City of Alhambra float.  There are two signs that go onto the float that needed to be redone.  The letters will be covered with overlapped red carnation petals glued on one at a time in a day or so.  The rest of the sign was covered with powdered white rice and was not smooth enough for

the glue had been put on too thick.  It had to be scrapped off and the task done over again.

Later in the day we were directed to pop off the heads of red mums, lay them flower side down in small cardboard boxes. Then we put a circle of clear glue on the underside of the petals and a drop where the stem had been.   The boxes were then handed to another crew what was on scaffolding gluing them onto the float.  Others were working with white mums preparing them for another area of the float.  Kathryn worked with white baby breath for the Lutheran Hour float.  

There was a hum of activity in the building and there seemed to be more people involved than other years but it may have been because the building is larger with more floats making it seem that way.  While we were working, small groups of people were ushered through the building to watch the decorating process.  I believe this is a fund raising effort and I expect many more people will pay to see the volunteers in action as the floats near completion.

When our shift was over about four this afternoon, our shuttle took us to the Soup Plantation for a wonderful meal.  There were more fresh salad fixins than you can imagine, delicious soups, pasta dishes, pastries and many other assorted foods and drinks.  Everyone seemed to find the twist ice cream and toppings to finish their meal.  We rode our shuttle back to the motel. The crew was tired, no doubt about it.  Ellie directed everyone to rest a bit and meet again at eight o’clock for devotions and a discussion of tomorrow’s schedule.  At devotions we talked about our experiences of the day and shared ‘pows and wows’ with each other.

Tired Petal Pusher – Lynn Menz – signing off.

Pasadena Mission Trip December 28 Update

Day #1 – Thursday – December 28

Before the sun sent streaks of dawn into the eastern sky, Ioway Petal Pushers were up preparing to head to the Des Moines airport, ready for their adventure to begin.  We were greeted by very cold temperatures and by snow squalls and slippery roads, making it even more desirable to get to Pasadena where we understand it is much warmer.  And of course, there is the excitement of being able to decorate floats for the famous Rose Parade. 

The Petal Pusher sweatshirts were backordered so they were distributed at the airport and we then became a team all looking alike.  With 29 people dressed in these colorful sweatshirts, you create quit a stir wherever you go.  Such was the case today as we moved through airports.  Many people took note and asked what we were doing opening up witness opportunities.  It was easy to engage people in conversation.

One such encounter happened in the Des Moines airport while we were waiting to board our plane for Dallas, the first stop of our journey to warmer climes.  I sat beside a young lady and found out she was flying first class so I tried to get her to trade tickets with me.  This got me nowhere but it made her smile at least.  Then I heard my name announced and low and behold, I was selected to get an upgrade to first class as well.  I gladly accepted!  Then the pressure was on so I gave up my newly acquired first class seat to Ellie.  What a guy, huh?  What else can a guy do with more than twenty of my closest Ioway friends look on?

So back to bargaining with the young lady sitting beside me in the waiting room.  She still wouldn’t budge but I got more smiles out of her anyway.  Being able to sit in the back of the plane right beside the toilets wasn’t even appealing to her.  She didn’t know what she was missing.  We arrived in Dallas and it took me twelve minutes to get out of the plane once it stopped.  She could have spent that much longer on the plane had she traded tickets with me but she missed out.

Once in Dallas, we rode the Skylink train to another terminal to a slightly larger plane and back into the wild blue yonder we went.  By now the sun had set but we got high enough to see it once again.  Flying west kept the sun in view for some time.  After a three-hour flight we dropped down onto the runway with a bump and discovered we were in Ontario!  I know what some of you are thinking.  You think Ellie, and in her fifteenth year of leading the trip, routed us to Canada. 

All was not lost.  We were indeed in Ontario but it was Ontario, California, a smaller airport than LAX and closer to where we are staying and working.  This is a year of firsts.  The buildings where the floats are constructed had gotten too expensive to rent and the Tournament of Roses decided to use buildings ten miles east of Pasadena instead.  The building where we are working will be new to us and we are staying in a different hotel too. 

In our day of training in early December, Ellie told everyone to expect plan B and C.  Already tonight we hit plan C because the buffet where we were to eat closed before we got there.  So, plan B was that we ate at In-N-Out Burger, which was a little chaotic, but we were hungry and made due.  We got to plan C when our shuttle couldn’t hold our luggage and it had to put in the aisle so nobody could move until it was all unloaded at the hotel which is why we missed our appointed restaurant.

It’s late.  The Ioway team is sleeping I’m sure.  In the morning it is breakfast at 6 and on the shuttle to head for decorating before 7.  It will be a short night.

Lynn Menz - One tired Petal Pusher signing off.