There was a rusty old oil drum out in the swamp next to the house. Dode got the inspiration to turn it into a rocket. The first hurdle was pulling it out of the swamp. The oil drum weighs hundreds of pounds. After years of sitting there, it had firmly settled itself into the muck. Dode wrapped tie down straps around it and slowly pulled it out onto the pavement with our big van. Then, he got to planning.
Dode's master plan
The skills Dode uses for drawing maps come in handy when we're designing something. He can draw something up in AutoCAD, add some "to scale" people, and we can see if the proportions are off. His vision was for a rocket that looked like something a bunch of kids could build in their back yard.
Everything on the rocket is metal and he used the help of his dad and a friend from church to do most of the welding. He also would do a bit of welding himself, then go watch a YouTube video for tips, then weld some more. The only things we needed to buy for the rocket was a sheet of metal for the nose cone, a pipe to attach the nose cone to, and some rubber guard to go around the raw edges.
finished rocket
Pretty close to what he designed!
Once the rocket was built, getting it onto our parade trailer was a bit of work. Dode build a wooden launching platform so the rocket would be at an angle. Dode, Isaac, and Jacob used every bit of strength they had to slowly hoist it onto the trailer. One difficult part is a little nozzle that comes out of the bottom back part of the rocket (part of the original oil drum). They had to lift extra high to get that nozzle up and over the wooden frame. I think they all walked away holding their backs!
A friend from church came over the morning of the 4th and worked with the children to decorate up the rest of the float. We re-used fringe I bought last year for the Nativity float. Everyone helped attach it to the float with stick on velcro. Then, they hid the ugly trailer with long lengths of muslin (also Nativity float!) We have a Yoda and knew he had to go somewhere on the float. He ended up perched on the cardboard covered lawn mower. We have a fog machine and Dode was able to rig it up in the back of the rocket, powering it with our boat's battery to add to our blast off effect.
We all dressed up in steam punk clothes (or a loose approximation of such!) that I'd gathered up at garage sales.
We had to get to the parade early to set up and since we were once again pulling the trailer with a lawn mower, Dode had to change the hitch on the trailer to the lawn mower adapter once we got to town. But, we got it all put together with time to spare before the parade.
Coming down main street. Our friend Brad drove the lawnmower covered in a cardboard rocket. Dode objected, he HATED the cardboard covering the lawnmower. I told him it would look like kid built rocket vs. grown up built rocket. Any doubt who won?! I'm sure the Girl Scout troop behind us loved traveling the entire length of the parade in our fog cloud!
My mom hollered for Isaac to stay with us long enough to join us for a photo but he bailed off to hang out with his friends at the end of the parade. Anastays's friend Sidney is standing between Dode and Anastaya. The children thought riding on the float was great fun.
My mom and Greg came up to watch us. Spotting Boma in the crowd was the best part for the kids.
2nd place, again!
After the parade, Boma and Greg took us out to dinner after which they headed home and we went to watch the town fireworks display.
Making the float was a lot of work (especially that rocket!) but more important than the float, we're making memories. That's what makes it all worth while. We plan to do it again next year with the cub camp theme of Medieval.
