DETROIT (WXYZ) — It's hard to find a city with as rich of a Thanksgiving tradition as Detroit, and for many families, their tradition begins Wednesday night along Woodward Avenue.
"It's fantastic. I feel like I'm in on a little secret," said Alexandra Beverly of Detroit as she and her mom Michaele Miller walked the parade route on Wednesday evening.
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"We've been doing it for a long time, since I was maybe 5," said Beverly, who's now in her 20s.
The night before the parade as the floats sit parked along Woodward, families walk the route in the dark to get an up-close and personal sneak peak without the large crowds.
“There's no crowds and you can just kinda take a look at them and just be on your couch at home in the morning,” Erin Madden from Berkley said.
Madden's family has also made this an annual tradition, walking up close to see each individual design.
"They're cool," her 7-year-old son Jack said. "I like seeing all the floats and stuff. It’s fun.”
Jesse Henke of Windsor, Ontario, said Thursday is just a normal workday in Canada, so Wednesday night after work is his best chance to see the floats in person.
"The detail is amazing. The number of floats, I never imagined there'd be so many out here," Henke said. "It’s very nice to be up close to the floats and see all the detail and the hard work that went into it.”
As families strolled past the parked floats, workers made last-minute repairs as strong winds whipped through the city.
"I'm repairing all these different floats," said The Parade Company artist Ross Trumbauer, who was hammering away to secure a character on a float. "The wind is ripping characters off, ripping skirtings, ripping signs."
Trumbauer said this year brought some of the strongest winds he's dealt with, meaning more work for him and his coworkers.
"Preemptively, we cut about 300 pieces of metal and got everything ready. We can make these into giant staples, make them into long rods, so we can fix everything on the route here," Trumbauer said.
Tony Michaels, president and CEO of The Parade Company, said the wind caused some damage but nothing his team couldn't handle.
"The wind caused a little bit of damage but not horrible," Michaels said. "Our great art staff, we have the best team in the world fixing these things up and we're ready to go tomorrow."
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With nearly a million people expected at the parade and 17,000 runners in the sold-out Turkey Trot, Michaels expects the wind will have minimal impact on the parade itself.
"We might have to make a couple adjustments with maybe two balloons, but that's a game-time call," Michaels said.
The wind likely won't keep crowds away from the parade, and it's not keeping them away from their Thanksgiving Eve tradition either.
“We used to try to come down every year. Even when I was a kid, my parents would bring us down,” Miller said. "It really makes me feel like a kid. It brings out that kid spirit in you."
For those who attend year after year, their family tradition embraces their city's tradition in a place they're thankful to call home.
"We like the city of Detroit, so to be able to come down and explore, it is fun," Madden said.
"Detroit is awesome, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world," Miller said.
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