I've spent the past week in Southern California with the New Mexico Tourism Department working on our entry in the 2010 Tournament of Roses Parade, "Enchantment Is In The Air". 60 volunteers from New Mexico made the trip to Pasadena to work on the float, which featured Warner Brothers cartoon character Pepe LePew courting Penelope Pussycat, who was making her getaway on a hot air balloon.

Our float was awarded the Grand Marshal's Award for excellence in creative concept and design. We won this award two years ago with our "alien" float; last year we were awarded the Bob Hope Humor Award for our entry featuring Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner across the desert on an ACME rocket.

After the parade ends, the floats are all moved to Victory Park in Pasadena where the public can get an up close look. The New Mexico float attracted a lot of attention, and thousands of people visited our mobile Visitor Information Center (lovingly referred to as "Moby VIC") to learn more about New Mexico and the visitor attractions that we have to offer.

It was an overwhelming, delightful experience and hopefully we will have funding available to enter a float again in 2011. I can't think of a more unique and memorable way to promote New Mexico to the world!