Click on a thumbnail sketch to see the full size picture.
A part of the Eugene Celebration is the selection of the new raining queen. Specifically the Slug Queen.
Almost two months before the parade I was contacted by two of the Slug Queens from previous years, Accordiana and Radia. They wanted to arrange for the new queen to be towed by a Kinetic Sculpture. Dave and I were eager to provide this service to the incoming royalty. We didn't really have time to create a litter for the queen. About the only thing we had time for was to create the tow hook.
The queens contacted Burley Bikes, who agreed to create the litter. I requested the litter be designed to interface to a bike seat post. Altho Frogasaurus Rex does not have a seat post, it was easy to drop a seat post sized pole out of the back of the Frog, so that it was as if Rex was a bike. Communication was not smooth, but two weeks before the parade Burley said they could interface to this.
Based on these communications we made plans to do the Eugene Celebration and cancelled plans to race Ventura. Unfortunately we had to choose. The two events were the same weekend. Please note that this was not an easy choice for me to make. My parents live in Ventura. I would like to have visited them during the race.
But then, the day before the Eugene Celebration Burley sent word that their litter could not be towed! It wasn't designed for that. Wow. What an amazing level of ineptitude! These people really need a...
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You can be sure I will never buy a Burley product!
Altho we could not tow the new queen, at least we gave two princesses rides. These two girls are very sweet and well behaved.
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After the parade I gave some rides. One of the people who rode was Peter Defazio, U.S. Representative 4th Congressional District. Maybe that is why the Register Guard identified Frogasaurus Rex as part of the Democratic Party entry rather than the Queens Contingent.
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Copyright 2004 C. Allen Brown