After the second major snow storm in eight days, Boston was pretty much brought to a grinding halt. The MBTA trains broke down and buses were stuck on unplowed streets. According to transit officials, regular service might not be restored until next week. Despite all this, the Patriots parade had to happen Wednesday because the players would not be available if it were delayed any longer.
Fans waiting next to the marathon finish line
Getting down there was kind of a nightmare. The bus from Brighton was about forty minutes late and took an hour to go four miles to Kenmore Sq. From there I walked towards Copley. The "rolling rally" was planned to go straight up Boylston Street past Copley and I wanted to be somewhere near the beginning of the route. Even though it wasn't as cold as previous days, it barely broke 30 degrees.
Fans on the balcony of the library
When I got there, it wasn't particularly crowded yet. There were a few dozen people lined up on the street but the vast majority of the metal fence was unoccupied. It looked a little more busy in Copley so I found a place in front of Marathon Sports and directly across from the Boston Public Library.
View down Boylston as fans waited for the parade to start
A group of fans were on the balcony of the Boston Public Library with signs they hung over the edge of the building on one side they combined to read "Dynasty" and on the other "Hey Gronk What's Your Fave Book?" (presumably a reference to the now infamous novel A Gronking to Remember about the Patriots Tight End).
The street filled up pretty quickly after I got down there. The vast majority of the people who I saw down there were college students. After a second week of back-to-back snow days, I doubt that many parents could miss work another day to take their kids to the parade.
Jonathan Kraft Team President
After waiting for a freezing ninety minutes the rally finally started moving. The various players, coaches, staff and others were all on a different Duck Boats ands flat bed trucks.
I was in a good position to see most anybody on the left side of their vehicle and I lucked out and got a couple of really good shots of players. Sadly, I missed LeGarrette Blount holding up a shirt reading "Bitch-Mode 24."
Cheerleaders
Malcolm Butler, Super Bowl Hero
Darrelle Revis
Julian Edelman
Josh McDaniels
Joe Andruzzi
Tom Brady
Shane Vereen
Rob Gronkowski