Here are some of the detailed shared by director of bands Bill Stultz and marching band director Keith Burton, with Indianapolis-based Music Travel Consultants handling most of the details.
TRUCKIN’ TO D.C.: A semi carrying Sound of North Marching Band instruments, uniforms and other accessories will leave Columbus the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 18, for Washington, D.C. The equipment will have a 12-hour head start on the students, who leave that evening. Who’s in the cab? Cummins Inc. is providing the driver, who will be accompanied by a North band parent.
- Video of the band preparing for the trip: Click here.
- Story, photos: ‘This is a huge deal for our whole city.’ Click here.
- Photos: The Mike Pence years at Columbus North High School. Click here.
SWEET RIDE: Four deluxe coaches, a nicer ride than school buses, will leave Columbus with the Sound of North band at 10 p.m. Wednesday. The students are expected to sleep much of the 602-mile trip to their hotel. About 10 hours of travel time is anticipated.
NEARLY 100 PERCENT: All but a few students in the 149-member Sound of North Marching Band expect to march in the inaugural parade. Why not all? The ones who won’t made other commitments before the parade invitation was received Dec. 21.
HOTEL BALTIMORE: The Sound of North group will spend the evening of Jan. 20 at a hotel on the south side of Baltimore, Maryland, located in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. It’s 37 miles from the White House.
SITE SEEING: Members of the band will go on a bus tour of the Washington D.C. monuments on Thursday. Their schedule allows about three hours to visit one of the Smithsonian museums — not a ton of time as D.C. tourist visits go. Before returning to Columbus, the South of North will be treated to a dinner cruise featuring the Baltimore skyline along the Patapsco River, which empties into Chesapeake Bay.
SHOWTIME: The inaugural parade is expected to begin about 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20, soon after the inauguration ceremony ends. After the president and vice president are sworn in, they typically dravel down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where they remain to review the rest of the parade as it passes by. The 2-mile parade route will be about 15 blocks — between the U.S. Capitol and the White House, running about two hours long. That’s roughly twice the distance the North band marched during the Dec. 3 Festival of Lights parade in downtown Columbus, its most recent appearance.
