Vintage park touring buses to be in Rose Parade
Two vintage touring buses from Yellowstone and Glacier national parks will help kick off the 125th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena today.
The buses, both to be driven by Billings-area residents, will travel side by side, carrying family members of the parade’s grand marshal, Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully. Known as the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Scully will begin his 65th year in the Dodger broadcast booth in 2014.
Scully will ride in a green 1950s Oldsmobile, to be followed by family members in a yellow 1925 Yellowstone bus and a red 1925 Glacier bus, said Bruce Austin, a Nye resident who will be driving the Yellowstone bus.
Austin, who will be marking his fifth time in the Southern California parade known for elaborate floats decorated with roses and fresh flowers, said this will be the debut of the Yellowstone touring bus.
The Yellowstone bus is owned by Barbara Carlsberg of Jackson, Wyo. Billings resident Sage Olson owns the No. 64 Glacier bus and will be behind its wheel.
“We will have limited decorations. We’ll have a wreath and some garlands. That will be the extent of it,” Austin said by phone from Pasadena. The Yellowstone bus will have a stuffed toy bear on its hood. The Glacier bus will have a toy goat.
“We’re in Pasadena having a great time, giving two of Montana’s national parks national exposure. The symbols of Glacier and Yellowstone will be running side by side,” Austin said.
“Both historically are all but perfect,” said Austin, who is Nye’s postmaster and also owns Carter’s Camp.
The touring buses are being provided to the parade by the Jammer Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to operating and preserving vintage touring buses in the Western national parks.
Austin started the trust several years ago and has two touring buses of his own.
“It was a hobby that got way out of hand,” he joked.
The two touring buses were hauled to Southern California and arrived Dec. 26. While in the decorating tents before the parade, the buses attracted hundreds of visitors, Austin said.
Driving one of the vintage buses takes some doing. There is no power steering and no power brakes.
“They take a touch. Anybody that’s really skillful would feel pretty much at home,” Austin said. “Yesterday [Jay] Leno wanted to drive one just to see what it was like and we kind of didn’t let him,” he said.
The parade begins at 9 a.m. MST, but Austin and Olson will begin staging with the buses a few hours after midnight. More than 1 million spectators are expected to line the five-and-a-half mile parade route.
Distributed by MCT Information Services