Parading Across America

In the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 1993, as trees burned in the distance and the ruins of their home smoldered in a blackened heap, Megan Edwards and her husband, Mark Sedenquist, surveyed the damage wrought by a Pasadena wildfire and made an important decision:

They resolved to buy a $75,000, 32-foot-long, off-road vehicle equipped with two cellular phones, two computers, a television, VCR, satellite navigating device . . . and one white suit.

Sedenquist, 42, who has been a proud member of the Tournament of Roses for 10 years, took only a one-year leave of absence from the organization to enjoy what he thought would be a six-month sabbatical on the road in his “truck.”

After some soul-searching, the couple decided to keep their lifestyle rolling. And the following year, for the 1995 New Year’s Day Parade, Sedenquist rolled the truck--dubbed the Phoenix One--onto section K of the Rose Bowl parking lot, put on his tournament-required white suit and got back to work.

“I’m a tournament member,” he said, holding up his credentials. “You don’t give that up.”

Sedenquist, Edwards and their dog, Marvin, have been traveling the blue highways of North America, writing a newsletter and online publication (https://www.roadtripamerica.com) that delves into the smallest, most obscure towns they can find. But for the second year in a row, RoadTrip America will spend at least a week highlighting one of the nation’s largest, most celebrated spectacles.

Parked by the float-building tent, Phoenix One attracts the attention of thousands of parade preparers. From schoolchildren who help with decorating to the corporate representatives sent to monitor their floats’ progress, just about everyone gawks at the couple’s impressive 7 1/2-ton home-office-lounge.

After a full year of chasing the world, “It’s nice to have the world coming to us for a little while,” said Edwards, 44, who enjoys hearing the stories and fielding questions from the tournament people who wander up to her home.

A freelance writer, Edwards is not an official tournament member, but she spends this rare stationary time helping Sedenquist fulfill his 24-hour-a-day “float barn chief” duties, which includes groundskeeping and electrical maintenance.

“Everywhere we go, we meet storytellers,” Sedenquist said, and the Rose Parade is no exception. The thousands of readers who have logged on to RoadTrip America’s site in these days before New Year’s have had a chance to “meet” some of those storytellers while getting a sneak peek at the pageantry that goes into making the annual celebration.

But after the last rosebud is glued onto the last float, that behind-the-scenes 1997 Rose Parade coverage will end: For her birthday this month, Edwards received two tickets to watch the parade from the stands.

“It was a really nice gift because we don’t like to get stuff,” Edwards explained. “We like to get experiences.”