A Fossil-Fueled Fourth

The birth of our nation was celebrated around here in a classic American style: by consuming an obscene amount of fossil fuels.

For the 4th of July we decided to do a little stay-cationing and invite our friends all over to camp out here at the house. And unfortunately, because we live right near a well attended lake, many of our other friends who did not get invited, drove past our place and saw the mass of trailers, boats, motorcycles, and go-carts spread out like a used car lot on our drive and our little secret was out.

First thing on the agenda was the dirt bike track over at our friend Haedon's house. I was smart enough NOT to ride but instead I took pictures of all the boys racing the track so as to insure that the first of our weekend events DID NOT find me ending it all with a new set of crutches.  But the boys--they weren't worried at all and threw caution to the wind and pretended they were Evil Knievel. But old age caught up with the dad's because later that afternoon both Mark and Mont were all complaining of stiff joints, sore shoulders and backs, and drowned their woes with a cocktail of ibuprofen and Tylenol so that they could endure the next phase of planned activities.

Happily the only daredevil shots I got were of Mont and Haedon. Mark didn't do anything terribly radical because he said as soon as he headed for a jump, he suddenly remembered all the mortgage payments looming in his future that would be way easier to make if he was healthy enough to get himself to and from work. This backed him off the throttle.

Mark, Brandon Sharp, and Haedon Shields

Connor

Mitchell

Mont

Haedon

 and Yes, injuries abounded...

Here's Broc after his track mishap

Then to wash off from the dirt track, we soaked in a warm bath at the lake at speeds up to 22 miles an hour behind the ski boat with lots of wake boarding, which of course required a bit more fuel.

Afterwards we dried off by gassing up the go-carts for some drag racing on the driveway.  And that wrapped things up for Saturday.

Sunday we decided to calm things down a bit and played games at the house. Thanks to Sharie Petersen who gave me the idea a few years back, we played a hilarious round of Human Battleship which required no fuel at all but an intensive round of water balloon making.

On the Fourth of July we headed downtown for the parade. Incredible as it sounds we all rode our bikes. Yes, under our own natural powers, but don't tell anyone. And actually, for the record, we did drive our bikes in a trailer which was hooked up to "The Beast" so we could start riding a little closer to town. So there was a wee bit of fuel involved there.

While peddling my way to the parade I may have had a little skirmish with a car that decided to rudely and vigorously brake suddenly--not that I was following too close behind it or anything. Thankfully no pictures were taken so lucky for me my oldest daughter, who's suddenly decided to start blogging the embarrassing stunts of her mother, can't post any photographic evidence of my little brouhaha with a stupid hybrid.

Our hometown parade was full of the usual unusual flavor I love about our freaky little town. I took many a picture of crazy parade outfits but, because this is a family sort of blog, I dare not post any of them. You can thank me later for not subjecting you to shock therapy treatments to rid yourself of the mind boggling display of fleshy fanfare.

The weekend's capstone was the most traditional American pastime of all...by almost accidentally lighting on fire the driest parts of our  
'land of the free home of the brave' with a slew of unauthorized fireworks.

And that is how we celebrated our nation's birth!  
Indulgently American.