The fruit sales. The exhausting practices. The extra pushups.

The big parade is only two days away.

For four years, the Broughton High School Band has been waiting for the opportunity to march in Pasadena, Calif., in the Tournament of Roses parade -- "The Granddaddy of All Parades."

In 2004 and 2005, Broughton submitted audio, DVD, resumes and recommendations. Twice, it was rejected.

Then, in 2006, parade organizers asked the band to reapply. That fall, Broughton found out it was finally in.

The reward: the chance to march on New Year's Day before more than 40 million TV viewers among rose-studded floats, high-stepping horses and 21 of the world's best marching bands. The 2 1/2-hour parade precedes the Rose Bowl college football game.

Broughton is the first band from Raleigh to march in the parade in its 119-year history.

The 186-member band has been practicing up to the very end.

The day before they left for California on Friday, band members spent all morning running through the foot-stomping, Latin-flavored, seven-minute field show they will perform at a "Bandfest" in Pasadena this morning. They also marched about four miles around the high school track to rehearse the songs they will play over and over in the televised parade -- "Grand Ol' Flag" and "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

"I felt like passing out," said Jon Edwards, 16, a bell set player.

The band is using special arrangements for the parade -- cutting out two of the most difficult parts of "Stars and Stripes Forever" -- the piercing piccolo part and the brass "dogfight."

When you are lugging a 30-pound tuba or just trying to hold a petite piccolo to your lips for 5 1/2 miles straight, playing any tune is hard enough.

About 2 a.m. Friday, students boarded buses at Broughton to catch planes from Charlotte to Los Angeles. That evening, they filled the paved lot behind the Hilton Hotel in Costa Mesa, Calif., where they are staying with the South Dakota State University Band and Zurich City Police Band.

Broughton's band members lined up in a semicircle below palm trees and parking lot lights. They filled the night air with warm-up scales and festive beats, drawing out curious neighbors, parents with camcorders and fans applauding on hotel room balconies.

They squeezed in one more rehearsal Saturday at Bonita High School in La Verne, Calif., between previewing parade floats and visiting Mann's Chinese Theatre to check out movie star handprints.

An epic undertaking

The sightseeing is a reward for traveling the long, hard road of preparations.

To help pay for the $700,000 trip, band members began as early as last year hawking $100 grocery store gift cards, from which they got a $5 cut. They sold magazine subscriptions, Chick-fil-A calendars, the band's own "Eat to the Beat" cookbook.

And they hit up "fruit lists" of customers passed down through generations of band students. This winter, they sold 4,059 boxes of Florida citrus and 1,112 pieces of smoked ham and turkey.

Students say the band director, Jeffery "JR" Richardson, also cracked the whip more this year.

He docked time from lunch if they weren't performing up to his standards. He made them walk a mile every day during lunch for about two months.

And Molly Le, 18, a senior, said Richardson doled out more pushups. Once, the whole horn section got 10 pushups as punishment for playing poorly, she said.

One student complained, she said, and Richardson tacked on another 10. Another student laughed, and Richardson said, "That's 30!"

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