Trip to Chicago, part 2
posted @ Monday, August 8, 2005
Continued from page one...
It was 10pm when I checked into the hotel (which was extremely difficult to
find) and it was after 1am when I finally called it a night. Knowing that
the WGN live shoot was at 6am, the last thing I wanted was to have to get the
truck washed in the morning and then drive the 40 miles to the studios.
When the wake up call rang at 4:40 in the morning, getting out of bed was not
what I really wanted to do. But the live shoot at WGN was such a great
opportunity, that with a little caffeine, I was on my way. Once again, the
Itronix computer and the GPS saved the day. It's hard to believe we used
to have to use paper maps. I got the truck to the studio and there were
several other vehicles from the show there. Project Responder was shown at the
beginning of the broadcast and again at the end and it was a lot of
fun.
From there, I headed into downtown Chicago to get a few from Lake Shore Drive. I can see why people fall in love with Chicago. It was a very beautiful city and the waterfront was definitely intoxicating. After a brief stay, I headed back to finish getting the truck readied for the lights and siren parade that evening as well as get a few minutes of shut eye. In the mean time, I found one of the local fire houses and got some photos there as well as photos of the dam and waterfall in North Aurora which was quite impressive.
That afternoon, after grabbing a bite to eat, I took the truck over the staging area for the annual Lights and Sirens parade from the Tinseltown Theaters to the North Aurora Days Festival that evening. The staging officially started at six. I was second in at five and the once empty lot started getting busier, fuller and louder as more and more emergency vehicles of all ilk's began pouring in. Everything from huge snorkel trucks down to the small model A ford clown car. It was quite a site to see, but not nearly the spectacle the parade turned out to be. Imagine over 100 emergency vehicles running code for several miles. It was one of the most amazing sites I've ever seen. Once we arrived at the fairgrounds, we parked the trucks and just had a great time listening to the band and watching the fireworks. The fair was a lot of fun.
I called it a night around ten and headed back to the hotel. Early the next morning, it was time to head out and get ready for the show. Dave Weaver was just awesome and he put Project Responder at the front of Fire truck row and all of the show attendees had a full, unobstructed view of the truck. I could not have asked for anything better. I spent the day getting baked in the sun, answering a lot of questions and turning on the lights and sirens for kids. I met and made friends with several of the other show exhibitors and just had a great, great time. The demonstrations were a lot of fun and the show was just super fantastic. Project Responder was entered in the ""Best Fire Demonstrator Vehicle"" class and so the truck was competing with the likes of E-One and Pierce which I thought was odd but Project Responder ended up winning first place in this division. I was extremely happy to be heading home with a trophy from the show. After all of the divisions (about 26) were announced, they had one last trophy to hand out. It was for Best in Show. I really didn't think anything of it since there were so many beautiful new and restored vehicles in attendance. When the announced the winner was Project Responder, I was completely floored. The trophy is over five feet tall and the honor was very overwhelming. For a minute, I thought that maybe Dave had rigged the voting since he likes Project Responder so much. But it was the other exhibitors that voted for the truck and that made it all the more special.
Continued...
Link: Trip to Chicago, part 2