Happy 4th of July! Happy Birthday Luigi!
Today is what it is all about – our birthday. It’s a celebration shared by all, and done in many different ways. In Red Lodge it is done the traditional way, with a parade down main street at noon. People come from all over (Hawaii, Arizona,…) to be a part of it. In small towns across the country the theme is repeated, with many similarities. I love it. The parade in Red Lodge is great.
The day starts for us with picking up the boys. We grab a fairly quick breakfast at the Red Lodge Café – always good food – and then drive up to the ski area. Red Lodge is well known for skiing – that’s really, I think, the ‘busy’ time of year, although the 4th of July is certainly packed with people. We have never, in all these years, been to the ski area, so today is the day. We are skipping a puppy breakfast for this, so I hope it’s good.
It’s just a short drive from downtown, and easy to find, unless you miss the tiny brown sign with the picture of a skier on the main road! I would expect better signage, I really would. We didn’t miss the sign, because we knew where we were going. Whew. But when we got close to the ski area, the gate was locked! “Open Mon-Thur” the sign said, and this is Friday, and it’s the 4th of July, so I guess it just wasn’t in the cards. Well, we wanted to do some hiking, so we parked – the gate is no match for people on foot, so we hiked up the road to the ski area, about one mile, I guess. It’s an easy hike – fairly gentle incline through nice forest. No bear in site.
At the ski area the place is totally shut down – nothing to do, just look around, observe the lifts, rest and hike back out. There are some people up there doing whatever – couldn’t really figure out what or why. Very few people. There really isn’t a notable view from the ski area itself, although it’s beautiful in its’ own way. We hiked out and drove back to town. It’s almost time for the parade!
We took the boys back to jail and headed downtown. Found a parking place between the condo and the Snow Creek where we were all meeting, and hooked up with the group just before the parade started. It was just as in years before – déjà vu – only perhaps a little bigger and perhaps a few more parade-watchers. It was great. The Drum and Bugle Corp was there – they don’t make it every year, but when they do it is very special. After the parade they usually go down main street again, stopping en mass at each bar along the way, playing a song and having a drink. It’s very cool. I don’t know if they did that this year, because we had to leave just a little early.
Sally-Heath was not feeling totally well all this time, and about now I was wondering a bit too. So we decided to return to the house and skip the Rodeo (and the between Parade and Rodeo festivities). Drat, but we weren’t feeling well at all. So we came back, took a long nap, and that’s where we are right now. We’re deciding whether we feel well enough to go in for the tailgate party and remaining activities for the evening. I’ll let you know….
We went in to town to catch up with the tailgate. When we got there the crowd had dissipated, and we had no problem driving in to the fairgrounds parking lot, or locating the tailgate party. The whole crew was there, and it was a good party. I took a lot of people pictures.
After maybe an hour we decided to move to the condo, which we did, and at the condo we decided, sort of, what was coming next. There were several agendas. Ours was to get ice cream at the Red Railroad Car and get on home.
That is what we did, and on the way through Red Lodge we stopped at the Bull and Bear to see if Gary and Jane needed a lift home. The end result was that Lyle, Gary and Jane headed out just behind us, headed for home. Cindy is still in town, for fireworks and drinking and stuff. I hope we see her in the morning before we leave.
As we get back home, we are treated to the Luther fireworks display! Who knew Luther had fireworks! And once we were home, there were fireworks displays in the hills/mountains! Who knew! It was great. And fortunately, there was enough rain recently that the fire danger was low.
Goodnights all around, and up early to bid adieu, pack and continue our trip.
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