July 4th SILVERTON PARADE

The town has really filled up with people.  The population has swelled from around 500 to several thousand.  It always amazes me that such a small town can come up with a large parade every year.  It lasted about an hour and we have almost 200 pictures; I tried to pick just a few.  A World War II vintage plane opened the parade by flying over leaving a smoke trail.  It was unexpected and we only caught a couple of pictures as it soared away.  Four F16s buzzed the town during the parade.   (You can double click any picture to enlarge it.  Use the back arrows in the tool bar to return to the blog.)

 Note the F16 just above this guy's head next to the tree:

 That's our new friend, Gary in the front.  We met him at a fish fry a few nights ago hosted by a mutual friend from Texas.  He is the Commander of the Silverton American Legion and also owns the Weaving shop in town.  He and his wife make upscale woven items:

 Silverton's own band.  They perform on the corner every Sunday evening:

 Uncle Sam passing out flags:

 Some of Silverton's gunfighters who have scheduled "shootouts" in town:

 There's a rubber duckie race on the river.  You can buy numbered rubber ducks; cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners!  Janet had several entries, but did not win.

 These are the crazzzzy people that will be running the 100 mile endurance race over several mountains in a few weeks.  More on that later.  Note, many of them are wearing flip-flops.  Seems to me like they would be taking better care of their feet???

 Sig & Denny, the owners of the campground where we stay:

 Bob & Linda gettting into the spirit of things:

 Even the cemetery had a "float"

 Probably about the only thing you can do with a sailboat around here:

 The annual "hosing" from the fire department:

 Patrick & Janet's solution to staying dry: