This is small town America! It started out with the proverbial 4th of July parade down Main Street. Lots of cowboys and cowgirls, old cars and trucks, marching bands, a few floats, and the inevitable Shriner’s in their small go carts, these all having tortoise shells for bodies. The little kids loved it.
The marching bands really had to watch their step due to all the horses that preceded them in the parade. The fire trucks were showering the kids on the side of the road. And it turned out the Grand Marshal of the parade this year was the Sheriff of Absaroka 
County, and he even had his sidekick Ferg. Only Starbuck was missing, that was a bummer!
We also got to see that last mounted Marine Color Guard in existence. I’ve seen lots of Marine Color guards living in San Diego, but never one mounted on horseback.
I still think the Coronado 4th Parade is the best. Maybe it’s the cool weather… But had Starbuck been there… you never know.
We decided to skip the Rodeo due to the heat. Moving it up to 5 from 8 pm was putting it in the hottest part of the day here. It doesn’t get dark here till close to 10 pm, so that is when the fireworks begin tonight.
We drove over to the hospital parking lot where we could see the fireworks going off, amazingly there was only a small crowd. Nothing like trying to get to a fireworks display in San Diego. We brought the dogs and chairs and it was great. Dusty was bored with it till someone walked behind him and he perked up to growl. Baxter was a bit scared and pushed his head into Kathy’s shoulder toward the end.
They were shooting them off in a big field with lots of dried grass, so we also got to be entertained by the fires the falling embers started. One of the flareups got fairly big where the flames looked to be 10 feet tall or so, but before long that one seemed to burn itself out. We couldn’t see anyone fighting the fires prior to us leaving after the show. I was hoping all the firemen in the parade weren’t at the bars!
Kathy mentioned it was odd as almost no one there spoke, no oohs or ahhs at all. And there were some very sophisticated (expensive) fireworks, a few I have not seen before. And no music. Not like the Lake Murray fireworks at all. I hope you all that went there had a great time!!!
There was a bit of traffic on the way out, though, because they don’t have many intersections with traffic lights, so that reminded me of home.
Tomorrow we are off to Buffalo, Wy.