What has 24 wheels, 2 door, 78 teenagers and 9 adults? Two motorcoaches headed back to Fishers, IN with a very tired bunch of marching band members. Just after noon on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week I climbed aboard bus #2 for a 20-hour overnight ride to Disney World in Orlando for the Royal Command & Guard's 2009 Disney Performance Tour. I was going to photograph the trip and help as a chaperone. As I write this post our buses are about two hours outside Nashville, TN on the trip back home.
It was a great trip, though I really missed being with Flora and the kids for Thanksgiving. did 4 parks in 4 days: Disney Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. On Friday night, the RCG led the SpectroMagic nighttime parade through the Magic Kingdom. After going "backstage" to assemble, dress and warm up, the band stepped off from the park entrance on Main Street and headed toward Cinderella's Castle, then made the turn through Frontierland. The whole thing lasted maybe 15 minutes for them, but it will be 15 minutes they'll long remember. According to our Disney escorts 60,000 people were on hand to see and hear the RCG. The kids were really excited and more than a few had a bit of a struggle staying in "marching mode". And why not? Flashes were going off by the thousands as they became part of the photographic & video memories for visitors from all over the world.
Thanksgiving night was also neat: The group enjoyed a private dinner at the Coronado Springs Resort. A Disney DJ kept the kids hopping on the dance floor, while Mickey & Minnie made an appearance for about 90 minutes to be photographed with everyone. They also posed for a group photo, dance to YMCA and Thriller, and added quite of bit of the famous Disney "magic" to the night. Say what you will about Disney -- especially those rather significant Disney prices for everything from park tickets to sodas -- but they are incredibly successful in getting everyone -- adults included -- to suspend reality and be a kid again.
I'll be glad to be home; we arrive at 4:30 this afternoon. With both Mark & Liz graduated and out of the band program it was nice to be able to accompany the band and share in the some of the fun. While I didn't get to ride much in the parks I'll be back in June with the family, Flora's sister's family and parents for our 25th anniversary and my brother-in-law's 40th birthday. Make mine an Epcot ticket.
Oh...lest I forget: Say what you will about teenagers, but these young people represented themselves, the RCG, their school and community with real class. Zero problems, lots of compliments about the group from park visitors & other hotel guests, and no one was ever late getting to our meeting locations!





up on the highway and there were no salt trucks in sight. I decided that I'd gone too far to turn around, but I wasn't going to push it to Lan



