Months of planning, designing, welding, bolting, forming and engineering are over. All that’s left is the decorating.

Galactic Expedition, the Cal Poly Universities’ latest and 63rd consecutive Tournament of Roses entry, has made the 26-mile annual trek – this time in a driving rain – from the Rose Float Lab on campus to the decoration tent in Pasadena.

In the last few days leading up to the parade, volunteers will cover the float with thousands of roses and carnations, as well eucalyptus and oleander leaves. Rose Float team members will check and double check to make sure the animation, mechanics and other operating systems are in good working order.

Galactic Expedition depicts a planet and a rocket floating amid clouds as children work to assemble the spaceship of their dreams. The 2011 parade theme is “Building Dreams, Friendships and Memories.” Michael Roussin, a third-year mechanical engineering student from Cal Poly Pomona, submitted the winning design in the annual design contest.

The Cal Poly Universities made history at the 2010 parade when Jungle Cuts won two major honors: the Bob Hope Humor Trophy and the Viewers’ Choice Award, which is decided by an online vote of fans. Cal Poly students will go for their third consecutive Viewers’ Choice Award in 2011. Voting can be done online as well as via text message. Voting will take place Jan. 1 from 8 a.m. (PST) to 2:10 p.m. (PST), with the winner announced later in the afternoon.

To vote online, go to the Tournament of Roses website at
www.tournamentofroses.com/viewers-choice-award and follow the instructions.

To vote via cell phone message, text FLOAT 14 to 50649. There is no charge to vote, but message and data rates may apply.

Five votes per email and five per text message are allowed.