Today is Independence Day and we would be observing it in a traditional way. We would have a barbecue, watch a parade, and finish the day watching fireworks. I barbecued chicken for a late afternoon meal. After our early dinner, we went to downtown Boise to watch an old fashioned Fourth of July parade. I was surprised that we were able to find a very nice place along the parade route to watch the festivities. It was only a few minutes until the parade began.

An old fashioned Independence Day parade

A military color guard headed up the parade with an army band behind the color guard. As the color guard advanced along the street, most of the people would get up on their feet until the colors had passed by. This formed what looked like a very slow wave as people stood up and then sat back down.

The following procession had a lot of cars of every vintage carrying politicians and local personalities. The Marshals of Honor for the parade were the members of the little league baseball team that were runners-up in the 1999 World Little League Championship. It took four cars to carry them all.

Parade Marshals of Honor

Down the street we could hear the sound of a very loud siren. A fire engine was coming down the street with a celebrity on board. The truck had a long ladder with a gondola on the end. In the gondola was Smokey the Bear waving at everybody below him. Next to Smokey was a big Dalmatian dog wearing a fireman’s helmet. I don't know the name of the Dalmatian character. The little kids loved it.

Smokey the Bear waving at the children below

After a few more cars with local political candidates went by, we saw another fire engine coming our way. As it came closer, we could see that it a very long fire truck with steerable rear wheels.

A goofy fire truck driving a zigzag path down the street

The driver of the truck was slowly weaving back and forth from one side of the street to the other as the fire truck moved slowly along the parade route. At the same time, the driver of the rear wheels was taking the rear of the fire truck to the opposite side of the street as the cab. It was fun to watch and that is the closest I've seen that type of fire engine.

Long line of old cars carrying local personalities

Next came a long line of old cars of all types. It looks as if old cars are popular here in Idaho. I even saw an old Buick convertible that was from the same period as my first car, a 1938 Buick Special four-door sedan.

Old Car Photo Album

One of the old cars was being partially driven by a very small child. It looked as if a grandfather was letting his infant grandson stand in his lap and steer the old car. The little boy was barely able to keep the car between the curbs. Occasionally his grandfather would have to grab the wheel to make a quick correction in the direction of the car.

This old car has a very young driver

Following the old cars was a very large tractor-trailer rig. It was an Army vehicle that was carrying a large battle tank on the trailer.

This is a very big tractor-trailer rig with a very heavy load

We saw just about every type of military veteran represented and honored. There were floats carrying some very old veterans, women veterans, Viet Nam War veterans, and even Veterans of Peace. The people on the latter float were veterans of the Peace Corps. The people in Idaho seem to hold veterans and the people in the military in high regard in general.

We saw an equestrian group and a bagpipe marching band. Each piper was wearing a traditional kilt. I was amused when I saw one piper wearing a tri-corner hat of the type popular during the American Revolution. The band was playing Yankee Doodle Dandy.

A bagpipe marching band

Near where we were standing was a very cute little boy holding a small American flag. Each time a military man would pass by, the little boy would salute. I tried several times to get a picture of him with his hand up to his brow, but something or somebody would get between me and the little tyke. Finally, as a man dressed in a World War II U.S. Army Infantry uniform came by, the little boy saluted and I got an acceptable picture. It was the last picture I took of the parade. The parade lasted for about an hour, now it was time to head for home for a while.

A salute for a veteran

In the Treasure Valley of Idaho, the sun sets late in the summertime, so it was shortly before 10 PM when we found a place to watch fireworks. There were three main places in the valley to watch fireworks. We chose to watch the display in Meridian that was to be over the stock car racetrack. We brought our lawn chairs so we would be comfortable while watching the show. We parked in a local shopping center parking lot about a block from the racetrack. We could here the loud roar of the car engines as they raced around the track.

This area is famous for its beautiful sunsets

As I said earlier, the sun set late in this part of the country, as a result there was still light in the sky at 10 o’clock at night. Even so, it was dark enough for a fireworks show. We were to find we had to wait a while before the stock car races were to end. However, we still had a fireworks show, of sorts, while we waited for the big show.

When we arrived in Idaho, a few days earlier, I had noticed the large number of fireworks stands. I think the stands sell a selection of fireworks that are not legal in California, but not all-out stuff like what can be purchased in other states.

It seems that several families brought fireworks to the parking lot to put on their own show before the big fireworks display began. We spent about a half-hour watching various fountains, whistlers, and things that went bang being set off in different locations around the parking lot. All the while the sound of roaring racecars could be heard coming from the racetrack.

When the racing came to an end and just before the fireworks began, we heard something that sounded like a big jet engine revving up. All of a sudden the night sky lit up over the racetrack accompanied by a lour roar. This happened several times before the show at the racetrack was finally over at around 10:30. Finally the fireworks began.

As it turned out, we had a very good location for watching the Meridian fireworks show. The display was a good one that was worth the wait. The show lasted about 25 minutes, so it was quite late for a show to end on a night when many of the people in the audience had to go to work the next day. This is one part of our trip where I was unable to get any photos. We had a very full day, so with fireworks show over, we headed back to the RV park and our home away from home.

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