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Michaelangelo
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« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2009, 08:19:21 AM » |
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Saturday morning Miki and I got to the Science Center, at first I was going to look for free parking I read about on the web, but when I saw the Turtle Bus sitting in the Handy cap parking area I knew I could for the first time park near it. And not have to walk a long walk between the car and where we're hanging out.
So I went in and cringed at the $8 parking price... better than most cities so I couldn't really complain, just we left on this trip with very little money. Blah hate money. I parked right next to the Turtle Bus, got pictures of where I was parked so I will show everyone when I get them loaded on here.
After parking we got out and said hi to the guys running the tour, they told us the Turtles were going up to the Race for the Stars across the street, the bus don't open till 10:30am. Miki and I headed up to the race for the stars, we got picture and video of the events before the race than went back to the car to have a break while the Turtles were breaking. We ate some food, had something to drink and played on our laptops for about 40 minutes. I talked with Mike, the TMNT bus driver.
At this time I learned that they were getting ready for something really cool. The Make a Wish Foundation was doing something for a young boy, he was from TN and is a big TMNT fan, he became a fan from the 2007 movie and is about 6 years old. Of course with all kids who get something from make a wish, he had something different about him. One of his legs was not real, though that didn't stop him from enjoying his life and the things that make him happy.
Make a wish brought him and his family in for the TMNT Tour, so Mike was getting things set up. At the time he didn't know anything about the child being brought in, just that it was happening before the bus opened that morning. As I was talking with him, a lady came up from Make a Wish to talk so I noticed it was time to head back to the race to see what happened at the end. Miki and I went over there, got some more pictures and video than headed back to the bus.
People started to come, a line was even forming to go into the bus. Though the bus was waiting for their guest to show up. The word came, the boy showed up with his family and the Turtles went over meeting him with Balloons and a welcome sign. They brought him over to the bus, and April O'Neil gave him a personal tour in the bus. We could hear his excitement from outside as he went in. April later told me that he loved all the videos playing in the bus, and he kept pointing at the toys.
Once they moved out of the bus he got to play the Turtle game and hang out with Mikey and Leo. The ATA team was also there. Mark (leader of the ATA) came up and asked him if he wanted to learn how to break a board, he did, so Mark taught him what to do than let him break a board. All the ATA and Turtle team signed the board for him. They hung out for awhile, which is when the kid showed the Turtles how he loves to break dance. He's really good with that leg, and was showing just how he's going to go far no matter what problems get placed in his way.
We took lots of photos during this as we sat at my car for the most part. I helped entertain the crowd that was waiting to go in, by having the remote Turtle Monster Truck zipping around the area. Than things started back up to normal as the bus opened to everyone. Leonardo stayed out to hang with the fans as Michelangelo went for a pizza break. They took turns through out the day.
We met many new fans this day, one group traveled down from Chicago because their son missed the event there and really wanted to go. So they let him play the game and hang out for awhile, and than had to drive back home. Another group came in from KY, though they didn't talk with me to much they did hang out around the bus a lot. A lot of people were local, driving one to two hours away for the event. One of the local groups was very creative, they were all wearing TMNT shirts but one of which I knew I never saw in stores was on a young child who had to be like 2 years old, the shirt he was wearing had the Toddler Turtles on it! I went up and asked about that shirt, and they said they made it. I really thought that was cool, since I keep saying the Toddler Turtles would make good for children sales and such. It looked really well done!
One of the kids from the ATA really loved my Turtle Monster Truck, he kept wanting to do tricks with it. So we hung out a bit. I talked with any Turtle fan who showed up and wanted to talk. Because my car was so close I was able to show them stuff that I brought like the TGRI jumpsuit from TMNT 2 and Michaelangelo's combat coldcuts. I had Turtle plushies in my windows, a Turtle CD player playing the japanese cd, my car playing "Coming Out of Their Shells" with so much more. It was nice having it all so close to the event.
- Well I'm running low on my battery here with no plug in for the laptop. I will review more later. With photos... now that we're on the road I should be able to catch up on the photo thing.
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