Cody July 4th Parade - Part 1

Last summer LC, our neighbor and I headed downtown early so that we could get a wide-open and unobscured spot to view the 4th of July parade.

LC and I loved it but our neighbor (who has lived, worked and traveled extensively throughout the west) remembered times when the Cody parade was much larger and much bigger and so she was disappointed in it last year..

The biggest parade I have ever been to is the Toronto Christmas Parade many years ago when my children were still small boys.

After that parade on that freezing cold December day I took the boys into a restaurant to get them something hot to eat, and when the soup and toasted sandwiches were brought to us my oldest boy Sean saw the broccoli, stood up out of his chair in outrage and declared loud enough for everyone in the packed restaurant to hear "TREES??  I'm not little eating trees in my soup!!!"

We had been calling broccoli little trees for years and when I think about that incident now it makes me smile.

At the time of the incident however, I simply told him sternly to sit down, shut up and eat his soup.

And to eat around the little trees.

This year LC and I again headed down to the July 4th parade.

We left the house late, arrived downtown late only to find that a parking spot downtown was impossible to find, and ended up going back "up the hill", parking at the recreation center and walking back down the hill.

An open and unobscured spot was impossible to find by that time. 

The entire downtown area had been turned into a sea of cars and horses and floats and humanity.

We did eventually end up finding a semi-decent spot to view the parade, but it was not a great spot and many people were in front of us so these pictures are not great.

But the parade WAS great and lasted for over 90 minutes.

This was the second day of the parade.  The same event had been held the day before to accommodate the large number of visitors Cody had during that weekend.

Not surprisingly the parade included lot of horses.

A lot of military and emergency responder floats, and marching bands.

A lot of business floats.

And many other touches that were uniquely western and uniquely of Cody Wyoming..................

Oh yes.

And lots of good looking, clean cut cowboys..................

These riders wearing red shirts and numbered horses were.............there's probably an official cowboy name for these guys but I don't know what it is..............riders who watched for safety issues, ready to take control of any horses, mules or teams of horses who may present safety issues for the crowd.................

Evidence everywhere in the street of the sheer number of horses involved in this decidedly western parade.................

This period costume wearing young lady was milling through the people greeting and smiling and happily posing for pictures.

When she saw me raise my camera she obligingly stopped for a moment so that I could take a picture of her.............

And then surprised me when she turned around....................