Friday night my wife and I went out to the Medford Jackson County "International" Airport to pick up our son who came from Kentucky for a visit.
Saturday he and my wife went to Winco to stock up on our food for the weekend. I went by a coworkers home to perform a wedding ceremony for some relatives of hers. My son and I then drove over to Ashland to pick up the race packet for his 6 mile race on the 4th. While there we used Duct Tape and an old tablecloth to reserve a space for us along the 4th of July parade rout in Ashland. The folks of Ashland have a quaint tradition of doing this, and believe it our not, people respect your "claim." We then stopped by my favorite CD Music store and then we drove over the 6 mile run route. We then drove back to Medford and went to bed early to get ready for the race.
Sunday (July 4th) we got up early about 5:30 AM and headed over to Ashland for the run and parade. On the way I played my favorite patriotic music on the cars CD player. We parked up above Lithia Park and walked down through the area where they were setting up the food and craft booths on our way to the 6 mile run start. We dropped off our sand chairs at our reserved spot on the parade route and waited for our son to start the race. I got a picture of him as he was getting ready and one when he was heading toward the finish line at the end of the race. He had a good time and I am proud of him. He has lost about 60 pounds since Christmas and he looks good. While he was running I sat on my sand chair on the parade route and just watched people. After the race we watched the good old fashioned 4th of July Parade with a "Liberal" twist. Ashland as I have said many times is a liberal bastion in conservative southern Oregon. Ashland it is a retirement community of upper middle class baby boomers interested in "the arts.". It's the home of the Oregon Shakespearean Festival and Southern Oregon University. I refused to go over there for the 4th of July two years ago because of the proliferation of Obama signs everywhere. I found the uniformity of opinion and lack of political diversity indicative of the "group think" found on many university campuses across America.Well, now most of the Obama signs are gone and those that remain are faded. It has the feel of a party that has ended but a few party goers refuse to go home. The parade was fun in spite of the many Democrat politicians and liberal political interest groups. After the parade we waited around for the raffle for the run participants. Our son won a gift certificate to a local pizza parlor. We then walked over to Lithia Park and got there in time to hear a Shakespearean actor recite the Declaration of Independence at the band shell and hear the Ashland City Band play Stars and Stripes Forever. All in all a good day. We then drove back to Medford where my wife had prepared a great July 4th dinner.
Today,July 5th, our son and I are going to take down an old patio cover on our back deck and put up a new gazebo in it's place.
