Event Summary

TBGO is headed to Auburn, Washington for the 61st annual Veterans Day Parade. The parade steps off at 11 am on Saturday November 7 with over 150 units including over 15 bands. It's a one-night trip for us, departing Gresham on Friday November 6 and returning home the following day after the parade.

As an added bonus, our Friday lunch stop in Tacoma includes a ticket to your choice of two museums to visit:

• Museum of Glass - A premier contemporary art museum dedicated to glass and glassmaking in the West Coast’s largest and most active museum glass studio. The Museum has a reputation for hosting impactful and engaging artist residencies, organizing and exhibiting nationally traveling exhibitions, and creating unique programs for visitors, all while building a growing permanent collection chronicling the development of the glass art form.
• LeMay - America's Car Museum - Harold and Nancy LeMay amassed the largest privately owned collection of automobiles, other vehicles and related memorabilia in the world. At its peak, the LeMay Collection numbered in excess of 3,000 vehicles and thousands of artifacts. The Collection is broadly American and spans the 20th Century powerfully demonstrating both the dominance of the American auto industry in that time period as well as the American experience with the automobile.

NOTE: You need to choose which museum ticket you want when you sign up for the trip.

 

Parade Day Logistics

Departure from Hotel:   Motor coach departs the hotel at 910 am for the Veterans Remembrance Ceremony. (earlier than previously announced). The coach will drop us off near Veterans Memorial Park.

Veterans Remembrance Ceremony:   Our first location on parade day is the Veterans Remembrance Ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park (405 E. Street NE; location #4 on the parade route map). The ceremony includes city leaders along with past & present military and our own Ken Aiken has been chosen to play Taps. The ceremony begins at 945 am and runs about 30 minutes. Following the ceremony we will walk as a group to our parade staging area (about 1/2 mile).

Parade Staging Area:   THe staging area for bands is on J Street NE between 4th Street NE and E Main St. We are unit #36 of 163 total units. The parade steps off at 1100 am and is about 1/2 mile long. We should be at parade's end no later than 1230 pm.

Info for Self-Drivers:   Event organizers recommend that you park at Sound Transit Parking Garage, 110 2nd St SW (map and directions). I believe parking is free and there are 636 available spaces. Self-drivers should meet the band at either Veterans Memorial Park by 930 am or our parade staging area on J Street NE by 1030 am. The walk to either location from the parking garage is about 3/4 mile.

Uniform:   DRESS uniform: TBGO polo shirt, TBGO hat, black PANTS/belt, BLACK socks, BLACK shoes. VETERANS may substitute a service hat for the TBGO cap. You may also substitute one of the sparkly red white and blue fedoras that we used at the State Fair (although that may not be a great choice if it's rainy). Add an optional black turtleneck or similar beneath the shirt for additional warmth. You may add a clear plastic raincoat if the day is wet (although I'd prefer to avoid these if possible since they're not our best look). Red, white, and blue decorating is the order of the day.

Jackets:   It looks like we can expect something like 50 degrees and possible showers on parade day, so we'll use the TBGO letterman jackets. If you think the jacket will make you too warm (or if you don't own one of the letterman jackets), you can go with just the polo shirt with or without black turtleneck underneath and you'll match fine. If you don't have a letterman jacket it's also okay to wear the TBGO lightweight black jacket or any PLAIN black jacket. We have a limited number of letterman jackets (mostly in smaller sizes) available to borrow for $5 each (contact janet@tbgo.org for details). Let's try to look sharp for this BIG parade.

Parade Rules:  

• Entries are prohibited from posting commercial advertisements on their parade vehicles or person. Commercial material of any kind – including logos and company insignias on vehicles – must be covered.
• Auxiliaries please note: All groups must maintain a forward motion leaving no more than 30 feet between units. Seafair Parade Marshals will help monitor forward progress. Due to the large number of groups in the parade, we cannot have large gaps between groups. Groups violating this may be pulled from the parade procession and/or be unable to participate in future years.
• CAUTION RAISED ROADS: Please be aware of a raised sidewalk on the parade route at B Street & Main AND at the end of the parade route, the intersection of 1st Street NW and N Division Street, is now a raised intersection. Slower speeds may be required at both locations.
• END OF PARADE ROUTE: Please refrain from stopping at the end of the parade route. After you pass the Review Stand, entries must make a right on A Street NW and another right on 1st Street NE. Dispersal must be done East of N Division Street.
• RESTROOMS: Portable restrooms will be located at East Main & L Street NE, East Main & K Street NE, East Main and I Street NE (at parade check-in) and East Main & F Street SE intersections. There will also be portable restrooms at the ‘Mural Parking Lot’, at the corner of Main and B Street NE. City Hall will also be open for public restroom use, from 9:30am – 2:00pm and there will be portable restrooms on South Division Street.
• FLAG ETIQUETTE: It is important that all entries show patriotism, by properly displaying flags, wearing red, white and blue and/or playing patriotic music. Please follow the Flag Code. Thanks for showing your support of Veterans and active military personnel!

Parade Music:  

1. National Anthem March
2. Tribute to America
3. Fireball
4. Veterans Salute

Hotel

Our home-away-from-home for this trip is the Best Western Plus Mountain View Auburn Inn (401 8th Street SW, Auburn, WA 98001). Build-your-own breakfast burritos, rice bowls, and gluten-free options lead the full hot breakfast (included with your stay), and guest rooms add free Wi-Fi, a flat-screen TV, microwave, refrigerator, and coffee maker. On clear days, Mount Rainier crowns the horizon. Other amenities include an indoor heated pool, a spa, a fitness center, and guest laundry.

Trip Itinerary
Date	What's Up?
Friday November 6, 2026	MEET OUR MOTORCOACHES at 700 am in the rear parking lot of Lyft Fitness Gym (23500 SE Stark St, Gresham) (map and directions). To reach the parking lot, turn down NE Cleveland Avenue and take the SECOND driveway entrance. Lyft Fitness management has asked that we park in the extreme SOUTH end of the parking lot away from the entrance to the building. Our coach DEPARTS ON TIME at 730 am (earlier if everyone is on board). HEADS-UP, ESPECIALLY TO THOSE NEW TO THE BAND: Please be sure to understand well ahead of time how long it takes to get to Lyft Fitness from your home with morning commute traffic so you don’t miss the coach. And yes, we have left latecomers behind. If you arrive after our departure time, continue driving to Napavine and meet the coach at our rest top at Love’s Truck Stop. Arrive at Love’s Truck Stop in Napavine at 920 am for our rest stop/coffee stop. Coach departs Napavine at 1015 am. We arrive in Tacoma at the Museum of Glass around 1130 am and drop off those who chose this museum. We then make the short drive to Lemay-America’s Car Museum, arriving around 1145 am. Each museum has its own café for lunch or take in lunch places that are nearby each museum on your own. Departure from Lemay-America’s Car Museum at 230 pm and at 245 pm from the Museum of Glass. We then head to Auburn, WA, arriving at our hotel near 315 pm. Best Western Plus Mountain View Auburn Inn – 1 Night with hot breakfast 401 8th Street SW Auburn, WA 98001 Phone (253) 887-7600 Dinner on your own. Since the hotel is a couple mile walk from downtown, the motor coach will leave the hotel at 600 pm for those who want to try the downtown restaurants. The coach will depart downtown to return to the hotel at 745 pm. Downtown restaurants include Oddfellas Pub & Eatery, Serious Soul At Cubby’s (soul food), Manraj’s Kitchen (Indian cuisine), Cow & Cod (fish & steak) Subway, Panera Bread, Rail Hop’n Brewing, Haru Haru Sushi & Teriyaki, Hawkers Bar & Grill, Joysticks, Koong Thong Thai Cuisine. Near the hotel are Marvel Food & Deli (European) and Dubai Shawarma. As we get closer to mid-October Tom will try to learn what is happening on the evening of Nov 6 at the large Muckleshoot Casino across town. Generally there will be a band for dancing and or other musical entertainment. If so, he will get the motorcoach for those on the hotel/coach package to take us to the casino for the evening.
Saturday November 7, 2026	PARADE DAY!!! Breakfast at our hotel. Coach loads at 855 am and departs at 910 am for the Veterans Remembrance Ceremony and parade staging area. Parade steps off at 1100 am and is about 0.5 mile long. We depart for home post-parade by motorcoach, arriving near 105 pm for our lunch stop at the South Hill Mall in Puyallup just south of Auburn. Many choices including the Food Court, Olive Garden, BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse (one of Tom's favorites), Hops n Drops, Golden Corral (lunch buffet), Red Robin, Applebee’s just to name a few. We depart our lunch stop at 230 pm. Arrive at Love’s Truck Stop at Napavine at 350 pm for our rest stop. Depart Love's at 430 pm to arrive at Lyft Fitness in Gresham near 615 pm.

Lyft Fitness Gym Gresham.

Auburn Parade Route

Pricing

Since we have reserved only one motor coach and it is likely to be full or nearly full, we cannot offer a Self-Drive Package (hotel and parade transportation only) for this trip. Self-drivers are very welcome, but you'll have to make your own hotel and parade-day transportation arrangements.

Full Package includes:

• Round trip chartered motor coach transportation from Gresham to Auburn, WA with driver gratuity.
• Best Western Plus Mountain View Auburn Inn – 1 Night with breakfast.
• All ground transfers round trip.
• Your choice of ticket to Lemay-America’s Auto Museum or Museum of Glass in Tacoma with lunch on your own.

Early Booking Discount

The TBGO Board has approved an Early Booking Discount (EBD) of $50.00, available to all TBGO band associates (musicians, auxiliary unit members, and support staff) who have performed regularly with the band and purchase the Auburn travel package by September 27, 2026. The EBD will be applied at the time of your final trip payment.

The Early Booking Discount is not available to friends and family traveling with the band.

Travel Assistance Program

TBGO is not offering Travel Assistance Program (TAP) awards for this trip.

Travel Insurance

TBGO travel packages (like so many travel packages everywhere) are non-refundable. To protect yourself in case of problems that prevent or interrupt your travel, you may wish to consider purchasing travel insurance.

Travel insurance can help protect you if you must cancel or modify your trip due to illness, injury, or death to yourself or immediate family members. It may also help if you incur medical costs while away from home. Your premium is based on your age (younger = lower premium) and cost of the trip (lower trip cost = lower premium). Tom will be happy to get you a customized quote for your situation.

You will be offered an opportunity to purchase travel insurance when filling out the Survey Monkey sign-up for the trip.

SIGNUP SURVEY

Use the survey link below to sign up for the Auburn trip. The survey can be used to do any of the following:

• purchase the Full Package;
• let us know you'll be attending but will make all your own travel arrangements;
• let us know you won't be attending this event.

TBGO traditionally participates in Portland's Veterans Day Parade every year on November 11.  See the Portland Veterans Day Parade website for latest info.

Event summary:   Parade steps off at 9:45 am from NE Beech St and MLK Blvd, then proceeds north on MLK, ending at NE Emerson St. Parade is about 0.85 miles long.

Uniform:   DRESS uniform: TBGO polo shirt, TBGO hat, black long pants/belt, black socks, black shoes. VETERANS may substitute a service hat for the TBGO cap. You may also substitute one of the sparkly red white and blue fedoras that we used at the State Fair if it's not rainy. Black turtleneck worn beneath the polo shirt is optional. Since it may be cool in the morning, we'll use the TBGO letterman jackets. If you think the jacket will make you too warm (or if you don't own one of the letterman jackets), you can go with just the polo shirt with or without black turtleneck underneath and you'll match fine. If you don't have a letterman jacket it's also okay to wear the TBGO lightweight black jacket or any PLAIN black jacket. We do have a limited number of letterman jackets available to borrow for $5 each (contact janet@tbgo.org for details). VETERANS may substitute a service hat for the TBGO cap. You may add a clear plastic raincoat if the day is wet. Red, white, and blue decorating is the order of the day.

Meet:   At 9:15 am in the parade staging area on NE Beech St east of MLK Blvd (see route map). (Map and directions) We are Unit TBD.

Parking:   Parade organizers recommend taking public transportation.

If you drive: In previous years organizers have said: There is a large lot south of Alberta between NE MLK & Garfield (west side of MLK), which can accommodate trucks, trailers, and parking. We will try to have someone at the lot to assist with parking. This lot is located near the end of the parade route, so consider dropping folks off and then parking. Alternatively, look for on-street parking at one end of the parade route or the other.

On the Parade Route:   Most of the parade route on MLK is a TRUE BOULEVARD, with trees and dividers in the middle of the street. Rather than splitting up the band, we will all stay on the one side of the street. Follow whichever side the rest of the parade is using.

Music:   We are currently NOT planning music at the post-parade ceremony this year, but I've listed a couple of tunes "just in case".

For parade:

1. National Anthem March
2. Tribute to America
3. Fireball
4. Veterans Salute

For possible post-parade use:

America the Beautiful

You're a Grand Old Flag

Parade Staging, Route, and Ceremony Location

Please read if you have a comcast.net email address

I continue to have issues sending TBGO email to Comcast email users. Delivery may be delayed or refused, and I cannot predict what will work and what won't. Evidently, Comcast is convinced that TBGO email is spam.

If you haven't been receiving email from me, I have a couple of suggestions:

• Complain to Comcast. I can't find a way to do this, but you may have better luck as a customer.
• I recommend that you obtain a free gmail account and set it to forward mail automatically to your Comcast email. Then let me know your new gmail account and I'll add it to the outgoing email lists. Evidence so far suggests this works okay.

Recruiting fliers:   The Recruiting Committee has created a new page-size PDF for you to use to help build the band. It uses the 2027 Hershey trip as a recruiting incentive. Feel free to print and hand out to friends, post on bulletin boards, etc.

In addition to the page-size PDF, there are two PNG files. One is 300 dpi (5 MB), the other is 150 dpi (1.7 MB). The latter may be a better size for posting to your social media accounts.

Click the images below to open the fliers. You can also right-click the images and choose Save Link As to download to your device.

PDF (7 MB)	Full-Size PNG (5 MB)	150 dpi PNG (1.7 MB)

Long-Term Travel Plans

Major Road Trips

The Board talks with members informally to get travel ideas, and there's no shortage of fun things to do. We've built a long-term travel plan using these criteria:

• Take account of the "recurring themes" we hear when talking to band associates about travel opportunities.
• Target events with "cool factor". If we only get to do one a year, it oughta count!
• Emphasize trips that center around existing events with large, enthusiastic crowds. It's more fun to play for lots of people, and it's a lot easier to draw a crowd when someone else has already done all the work.
• Have a reasonable belief that it's a trip/event we can successfully execute.
• Target locations that are likely to have broad appeal to members as "destinations" - there should be fun, exciting touristy things we can do while we are in the area.
• Try to keep major events 9-15 months apart.
• Work to keep each trip affordable to the best of our ability.
• "Start spreading the news" - work on bringing the band to each major area of the country (and beyond).
• In general, avoid duplicating major trips that we've done previously - we ain't gettin' any younger and there are LOTS of places to go!
• Look beyond one year to put a multi-year plan in place. We think that a roadmap makes it easier for both the band staff and band associates to plan ahead, and it can also act as a recruiting tool.

Regional Trips and Mini-Trips

Besides our annual "big road trip", we make a conscious effort to broaden our reach in regional events. This will certainly include day trips, but we'd also love to add one or two "mini-trips" each year if the band can support it. In general, we'd try to space mini-trips so that they don't fall right on top of a major trip (i.e., we'll try to create "breathing room" between trips as much as we can.) A mini-trip would typically be closer to home, include a 1-2 night hotel stay, and have lower cost. Examples of mini-trips that we've done include the Autumn Leaf Festival in Leavenworth (WA), Wenatchee Appleblossom Festival, Pendleton Round-Up, Medford Pear Blossom Festival, White Rock (BC) Sea Festival, and Rogers Santa Claus Parade (Vancouver, BC).

Active Travel Plan

In September 2026 the TBGO Board shared a new multi-year travel plan, including both regional and major national/international trips through 2031. Here are several options for viewing the plan.

Click the grid at right for a one-page PDF summary of the plan.
Click the page image at right for brief summaries of the events on the travel plan.