Boise, ID

Leading the parade of antique cars was this guy at the left. Not the sort of thing you find in a Rose Day or Macy Day Parade-but the kind of small town feel that is part of the hometown atmosphere of this state.

How the fella, ever fit into such a tiny vehicle is beyond me, but he was happy to give a wave for the camera! Too bad his Schwab’s Ice Cream truck didn’t have any…we sure could have used some on such a hot day!

Floats of all kinds: From trucks & tractors pulling trailers, to flag waving ATV’s. I hollered out at one guy, to find out what he was riding on; “It’s a 1940’s era something or other…“ It was either a peddle type ice cream cart or an antique golf cart of some kind, lol! By the time I realized it, he was too far down the road for a picture.

Small kids on ATV’s would probably create quite a ruckus in a big city, with all the rules on safety. But in small town Idaho, an ATV is used more often than a horse on the farms these days. The kid in the front of the picture (Bottom Left), was painted from head to toe in Red, White and Blue!

Two dune buggies came down the road next. With engines revving and oily smoke permeating the air, they came down and stopped to our left. As we watched, a man in the rear one, revved his engine and jumped his front tires up on top of the rear wheels of the front buggy, causing a loud cheer to erupt from the crowd

Turnabout was fair play, as a women in the front buggy slammed her machine into rear gear and parked her rear wheels on top of the mans front wheels. An even louder erupted from the crowd.

As another antique car approached, I happened to notice a pretty young thing in her pink fourth of July garb. Wanting to snap a picture, I jumped in front of the lady driving the old car and darn near got paved into the road!

I don’t think the old gal was too happy about my technique, but her dolled up companion gave me a wink, and tipped me a doggy bone!

There were plenty of other things to see, such as these boys in one of the truck floats, with their funny headgear. One of my favorites , was this gal on an ATV. Like the dog before her I had to run out and stop her, just to get this pic. Seems she ran up and down the street tossing candy to the kiddies. When I caught up with her, she was empty handed, except for her flags!

After the cute girls and their horses passed us by, we made our way back to our van and headed for home. On the way, I stopped at the local park. I knew they had a tractor pull scheduled, but all I wanted to do was take some photos of old tractors to send to my grandkid.

I spent some time, touring the grounds and looking over the old equipment. One in particular was built in 1922. Although rusty, two old geezers sitting nearby, said that it still ran, which I couldn’t believe by looking at it. With only a few minutes to go, I made a quick stop by the tractor pull, which was just getting under way.

The first participant, was this 15 year old kid in the picture below, who was surprised by his start in the race!