Welcome to Small Town America!

We’ve been here in Wyoming nearly two weeks. Last week we were able to celebrate our Nation’s birth in a small town way!

Due to family schedules, we chose to light off our fireworks on July 3rd… we weren’t the only ones. We spent a solid hour lighting fireworks off in the horse pasture behind my Grandparent’s house.

On the morning of he fourth, we went to a parade… the Lander 4th of July Parade… the longest running parade in the Nation! We had so much fun while we sat on the curb in the old-time Main Street, in front of the ACE Hardware. The kids stood on the edge of the street, waiting for the passing people to toss out treats. It was great to see how excited our boys would get when they would win the occasional piece of candy! They’re were cowboys (REAL cowboys) and Indians (REAL Indians), tractors and antique cars, go-carts and souped-up-manly-man-macho-trucks, trailers with High School Reuionites sitting on hay and even a float handing out fresh-from-the-tap beer (to the men who would run up to the side of it) – they didn’t even card them! :P For me the funniest thing of all was the high school marching band… marching in t-shirts and mix-matched shorts. They were out-of-sink and I just couldn’t stop laughing. Even though they sounded good, it was so very funny to see them marching without a uniform!

The end of the parade was extremely refreshing! For at least fifteen minutes five firetrucks sprayed water on the intersection of 4th and Lincoln. I wonder if they stop at 4th Street for a reason? :P In any case, we were just ½ a block away and downwind, so, we got a lot of the breeze-blown moisture. I guess this is how they literally “clear the streets” and signal the end of the Parade each year. It was a lot of fun!

The afternoon found us napping, followed by a family barbecue. A storm started to blow in around 6pm with VERY strong winds and rain, but by dusk it had all settled down and was very cool for the HOURS of fireworks that followed. People started lighting fireworks around 7:30 and didn’t stop until midnight… because of the city ordinance. There was actually an extra round of fireworks at 3:40 am on the 5th of July, from someone who was late or just wanted to wake everyone up.

We had my husband’s birthday cake just before bedtime and actually ate the homemade ice cream a few days later (we were too stuffed from the hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, chips, and corn to eat the ice cream on the 4th!)

Thomas declared that it was “his best birthday ever!” He didn’t receive one present wrapped in paper, just lots of fun times with his family in a calm, relaxing, cool rural setting. What a delight!

Suzy :)
PS: I’ve been having trouble finding a consistent internet connection, so, my log-ons are getting further and further between.