The parade began with an
official vehicle followed by a
motorcycle club and too many hotrods and classic cars as well as
politicians stumping for office. For full coverage of the parade, click here.
Once the
color guard arrived, the National Anthem was sung and the parade
continued. Union Pacific Railroad was the
2008 Portola Railroad
Days parade Grand Marshall. Local businesses entered
floats which
were amusing and imaginative. Without the surveyors, the railroad
would not be here. One cannot help but think about the
difficulties which surveyors faced 100-150 years ago when searching for
potential routes through rough terrain. Modern day surveyors have
Global Positioning, aerial photos and other electronic tools to aid
them. Of course, the band of westerners followed the surveyors. Native Americans were probably
here for many centuries while Caucasion man has only been here for
several hundred years. At least one renowned pioneer was a black
man, Janes Beckwourth and one can still visit his log cabin. Now
forward several thousand years, Luke and Darth made an appearance on
retro equipment. Darth's horse is a beautiful one. Proceeding backwards into
history, several groups had fancy steam locomotives. First, on the left with narrow gauge, is the
Boca-Loyalton Railroad number 22. The log says "Chipmunk Hill
Crew Pat's Meadow and Lewis Mill." With very broad gauge on
the right is the Rotary Club of Portola. The Wolf Meadows Express stage
coach approaches. Various odds and ends passed
by. Emergency
responders and classic
heavy equipment followed the classic pioneer era transportation. The parade ended with vintage
mechanical equipment.
