July 4th Parade, Picnic and Fireworks

July 4th

This morning we all gathered in front of La Casa in “downtown” Monument for one Great parade. (Believe me, it deserves the capital G.)

A town with a population of only a few thousand people had many times that number on had to see the parade. Streets were closed to traffic for both the parade and street fair that continued through the morning into the afternoon. The parade started at 9 AM and was composed of two parts. There was a half-hour long kids parade in which scouts and any kid who wanted to could participate and hundreds of them did. There were kids on stilts, kids on bikes, kids on horses and kids on floats. One of the cutest was of two little girls dressed as mermaids being pulled by an older fella (possibly their grandpa) as Poseidon on a lawn tractor. The tractor had two dolphin cutouts on its sides and a trident mounted next to Poseidon. The float had a banner proclaiming “America the beautiful…from Sea to shining Sea” and the two mermaids were throwing candy to the crowd.

America the Beautiful



The “adult” portion of the parade had antique cars, beauty queens, politicians, llamas, elephants, camels, horses, tractors, muscle cars, Chevy Stingrays (red, white and blue among many others), knights in shining armor, and lots more. The Shriners from the Al Kaly Shrine of Colorado Springs were in abundance with a band, motorcycles, miniature antique cars, motor bikes and clowns. Among the tractors was one older gal, “Jane Dear” on her pink tractor. That was really cool. The fire trucks from the surrounding area were the last ones on line and the parade ended around 11:30.

El Paso County Fair Queen



Kit Carson Riding Queen



Al Kaly Shrine Drum Corps



Jane Dear



We walked through the street fair and had a barbeque lunch at the Bistro on the edge of town. Here we could sit inside, away from the crowds and enjoy our meal while availing ourselves of the restrooms. Neither seating nor many restrooms were present at the fair and the noise and crowds made it difficult to talk.

After lunch, we walked back to the campground and we gave everyone the nickel tour of our home on wheels before I drove them back to their homes for a well earned rest period.

That evening, we drove up to Palmer Lake for a picnic part with some friends of Jerry’s. Another of the guests is a very noted watercolor artists, Joe Bohler. Terry and I would buy some small prints of his work the next day in the local gift shop. Patty has one of his larger prints of the Star of Palmer Lake. It was painted from just about where her new house will be. After some good food (and too much of it!) it was on to Patty and Matt’s property to view the fireworks over Palmer Lake.

If the crowd at Monument’s parade was impressive, that at Palmer Lake was truly amazing. I’d swear half the people in Colorado were in attendance. Looking down at the town and lake from the curb where Patty and Matt plan to build their home in two years, you could see thousands and thousands of cars and people enjoying the festivities of live bands in preparation for the fireworks to come. We had some difficulty negotiating the streets to get to their property because people were parking along the roads a mile or more from town and walking. I feared there may be people parked all the way up to Patty and Matt’s property but there was enough room for us to park there and pull out our lawn chairs and enjoy the show.

And what a show it was. Once it started, light and sound filled the air almost directly over our heads and right over the future house. The mountains echoed the booms and blasts directly back to us and smoke from the pyrotechnics filled the valley and drifted slowly to the north. For a half-hour to forty-five minutes explosions and light dazzled the crowds.

When it was over, we could still see some of the show from the Air Force Academy to the south as well as the finally from another show that was going on to the southeast. They were too far away to hear any explosions but the lights could still be enjoyed. We stayed where we were as lines of cars attempted to make their way down the mountains onto highway 105 to exit the town. About forty-five minutes after the last of the official fireworks and while the private rockets were still bursting in a far more subdued display, Terry and I decided it was time to attempt our getaway. Traffic moved much better than I anticipated and we were able to get back to our trailer by 11:30.

Do any other cultures besides the Chinese (New Year’s celebrations come to mind) and the Americans have such a long tradition of just blowing things up for fun? Seeing all the official and unofficial fireworks exploded along the Front Range made Jerry and I ponder that question (and, probably, secretly wish we had some explosives on hand) and wonder how many thousands of dollars was going up in cordite that night.