Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

Independence Day here in Cody is a HUGE deal. They bring in the PRCA to the rodeo (basically all the professionals) for 4 days, have 3 separate parades, a special ceremony at the Memorial Park, and a big fireworks show. I went to 2 nights at the rodeo....Coy had gotten some tickets from one of the board members who wasn't going to be in town. It's nice to have friends in high places. :) We took a couple of the interns with us who are from England and Spain, and they'd never seen a rodeo before. It was really funny to see them watching it.

Tuesday's parade was the kiddie parade where all the kids in town get to ride their bikes or horses or go carts or 4 wheelers or whatever they want to in the parade. Wednesday was a preview of the actual 4th of July parade. I only went to the biggest one on the 4th....it lasted 2.5 hours....what a parade! My favorite entry this year was the batmobile....somebody in Cody owns 2 Batmobiles....one that looks like it's from the 60s show, and a more modern fancy car with a tailpipe for the turbo booster part. It was awesome! Here's some pictures from the parade....

 

Craig Johnson was the Grand Marshal of the parade....he's the author that writes the Longmire series...(people who read westerns will know who i'm talking about). He's a very jolly fellow...he came into the museum on Wednesday...

 

And of course a Hazel picture :) 

 

 

After the parade I took a nap...it was fantastic! We had a thunderstorm late in the day, and so I didn't know if we'd still have the fireworks show or not. I had planned to go over behind the museum to watch the fireworks with the interns and a few other folks, but with it raining I just wasn't sure. Like most storms in Cody, it quickly passed and we had a gorgeous sunset to watch. I sat in the car awhile while it was still raining before going down the hill behind the museum. The fireworks show was ok, but not spectacular. I think they've had to do some budget cuts and fireworks weren't too high on the list of things to keep. It was still fun to watch some though. They set them off across the river, and it is probably 3 miles away by air. The fireworks would go off and about 5 seconds later we'd hear the bang. The fireworks that make the really BIG bang were awesome, because they'd set off 3 or 4 of those at a time and the echo went forever....I bet animals in Yellowstone could hear them!

 

It was a good 4th of July with lots of celebrations all over town. I hope Mom and Dad can get out here one day for the parade....Dad would really like all the animals.

 

I'm enjoying my first Saturday to sleep in and be lazy in 3 weeks! It is so nice! I'm headed in to the museum to give a special tour this afternoon, but i'll only be there for about an hour. Just long enough to give the tour.