We don’t usually go to the parade because I like to sleep in on the weekends, but we figured since it was the last free event associated with the Greeley Stampede (see earlier post about the Stampede charging admission), we’d ride our bikes down and check it out. It is the Greeley 4th of July Parade, even though it was actually on the 3rd of July.

Us at the parade. (These pics holding out your hand and clicking are hard to take!)

It was pretty fun. We saw old vehicles like horse and buggies, old fire engines, even a covered wagon. We saw all the political figures (congresspeople, city council members, etc), police, and military. We heard music from marching bands and noisy trucks honking. There were over a thousand people! We even saw a bunch of longhorn cattle walk through downtown Greeley! Not something you see every day, for sure. Apparently Britton’s sister, our niece and nephew were on one of the floats, but we didn’t know it.  We even rode down 10th Ave on our bikes just before the parade began…It was like we were in the parade with everyone watching us. We should have had a sign that said Go to Lifetransplanet.com! lol…

It was cool to see so much of the city come together from all sorts of segments and organizations. But what if the Stampede charged to get into the parade? Could they? Well, the Stampede runs it, and they apparently can charge to get into a public park (at least it’s public the rest of the year).  But the philosophical question is, does it belong solely to them? Or does this parade, and the Stampede celebration as a whole, really belong to the community? Just food for thought…

Here are a few more pictures and a video of the fun.

With my bike, and look at the crowd!

Check out those horns!

An old hearse

Square dancing -it seems this would be tough to do on a moving trailer!

Britton took this video while we rode our bikes just before the parade started. Lots of peeps