The 4th starts early. I joined Rob Schumacher (builder, golf partner, friend) at 5:30 to take chairs down to Park Ave and set them out in a primo spot. Then you leave the truck in a close parking space and walk the two miles home at a time when the town is just waking up.
We met with tons of friends, including the Schumacher's, Benson's, Covaleski's, Lee's, and more. Kathy Covaleski brought her dad (Charles) out from Arkansas to enjoy the festivities. In his eighties, he's in great shape, walking all over town with us and then playing 18 holes today. Go Charles!
This little sweetie was the grand daughter of Ron and Carol Lee, who brought her to let her folks go off and do some mountain biking. It was her birthday and we're pretty sure she thought the whole parade was for her.
The parade was a blast, as always. They said there were 20,000 people there to watch. Not bad for a town with only 8,000 permanent residents. Of course you have the traditional marching bands.
And the not quite so traditional marching bands.
Some horses. Big, big horses.
And since we are a mining town, you have to have the mining car full of authentically dressed passengers.
I remember this guy from last year. He seems to just love being part of everything. Why not? He has a hot chick on the back and a live parrot on the handlebars. What's better than that?
One of my favorites: the local boys hockey team walks by looking bored. All of a sudden, every one of them drops their sticks and starts fighting. It was hilarious. The true spirit of hockey.
While most things in the parade were great, you just can't have it all. These are the kids who had to follow the big horses. Shovels and a wheel barrow. Nice job.
Talisker Club is a multi-gajillion dollar development here in Park City. Nice to see them really throw the time, energy and money into their float. I think this is about one notch up from a guy walking down the street with a cooler.
Every shred of this guys existence said "I hate my mom for making me do this."
Even today I can't begin to come up with ideas for why there was a squirrel on a Harley. Perhaps it isn't a squirrel? Nope. That doesn't seem to help.
Nice to see a huge boat in the parade. Too bad there is nowhere close you could use it. The sign says "Learn to Sail". Perhaps it should say "Learn to Sail Somewhere Other Than Park City".
A collection of 30+ self-proclaimed math geeks. I think it is wonderful that they had one extrovert who would sign them up and make them come out.
General Douglass MacArthur?
It kept going, even when we got home from the parade. These are the people renting our condo next door. They had some friends over and were all out on the deck wearing festive hats.
No pictures from the evening's events, but we went over with 20-some people to Bill and Loris Benson's for a great barbeque. Then we wandered over to sit on top of the water tower to watch the fireworks. The water tower was actually crowded this year. How do people discover these things? After the show we walked to the Schumacher's for dessert.
My favorite quote of the day came during an exciting part of the fireworks show. Chris (Wasabi) shouts out "North Korea can suck my left nut!" I guess that was just an outpouring of misdirected enthusiasm for America on the 4th!
What a glorious day.
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