CELEBRATING THE 4TH

It seems that every small town around has multiple activities planned for the 4th.  They do a very good job of staggering when they will have those activities. 

Yesterday, July 3rd, South Fork was having its activities.  The day started out with the volunteer fire department hosting a catfish lunch that is their annual fund raiser.  The lunch started at 11:00 and lasted until 2:00. It was held at the fire station. We arrived at 12:30 and the line was out the door and down the sidewalk.  Teri and Jim were a few minutes late getting there, so by the time we got in line, it was still out the door but was only about a 5 minute wait. 

The cost was $15 per person.  One of the workers said they had set up 512 places to sit and eat. He also said that it had been consistently full since they opened the doors at 11:00. We asked the same worker if this was their major fund raiser of the year and he said it was pretty much the only fund raiser. With that kind of attendance and participation, I can see why.

The food was really good.  For your $15, you got catfish, hush puppies, cole slaw, beans, potato salad, chocolate chip cookie and ice tea.

They also had a silent auction with several donated theme baskets.  I walked around and looked at the baskets and they were not lacking for bidders. It looked like their fund raiser was going to be really successful when it was all said and done.

At 3:00, the parade was starting in downtown.  Mr. W and I arrived and found a place to stand and see the procession. Promptly at 3:00 the parade started.  Each vehicle was decorated in red, white, and blue and each vehicle had someone onboard that threw out candy to all the kids standing along the parade route. I just love small town parades.

They had a rodeo that happened after the parade.  We didn't go to the rodeo.  We did some driving around looking for wildlife.  Our friend, Terri, is going to bust a gut if she doesn't see some wildlife SOON!  While we were out, we did see a deer. I guess that's better than nothing.

We had to get back for the 9:15 fireworks.  Again, we traveled to the downtown area.  We found a place to park, got out with our lawn chairs and sat in the perfect spot to see the fireworks. It's always neat to see the fireworks above the mountains.

We called it a night because we were getting up at 6:00 a.m. to head to Creede, Colorado for their parade and celebration.  We had been told that last year, Creede had 10,000 people in attendance for their parade.  We were also told that we needed to leave South Fork by 8:00 if we wanted to find a place to park and a place to sit.  Luckily, we took that information to heart.  We got there and found our seat by 8:45.  I am sure there had to 10,000 people again this year.  It was UNBELIEVABLE!  They also had 2 city blocks of vendors as well as food vendors selling some really good looking and good smelling food. 

We sat by 2 brothers from Texas that have been coming to this area for many years for vacation.  They were a wealth of information.  They told us where to see wildlife, where to fish, what restaurants are good, what roads to take, even that the sheriff's office opened their restrooms for the parade crowd to use. That was the most important information as far as I was concerned! Very nice people. Well, at 10:00 sharp, the parade began.  It was just as good as the one in South Fork. There's just something about the pride and sense of community that these people in Small Town America have.  It brings back the memory of when this country still had some innocence. It sort of makes you feel like you are missing out on something that is important in life.  I'm glad that I got to be a small part of this celebration. Happy July 4th to everyone.

The sheriff really does ride a horse.

The Shriners