Snowy Range Pass

Snowy Range Pass

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Humboldt, Iowa


The Fourth of July holiday was spent at the fairgrounds in Humboldt, Iowa in advance of the Winnebago State Rally here.  The day started with meeting the fellow campers who were also here early and then we were off to the races.  For some reason, we have never attended a horse race, but we had no excuse now as it was a two minute walk from the motorhome.  We were given our race information sheets and instructions on to fill out the forms for picking our winner for each race.  You could win a small amount of money for each winning pick, if your name was pulled from the bucket of winner’s tickets for that race. This was clearly not a big time gambling situation, since you could bet on all ten races for your five dollar entrance fee.  It was interesting to watch the first couple of races, but honestly, we found it to be a bit less than exciting.  Perhaps, the nearly 100 degrees temp also dampened our enthusiasm.  We did pick a winner in the second race, but did not win the lottery draw. 

Next was the parade which was luckily scheduled for 7PM, thus saving us from standing out in the midday sun.  As I have mentioned before, we always enjoy the small town parades.  Perhaps because I grew up in this kind of environment, it seems more representative of the local lifestyle than big city parades.  Certainly, watching this parade, you learned a lot about the town and its businesses.  If you had your eyes closed all the way to Humboldt, you would now know that this is a farming community.  At least half of the 160 entries in the parade were farm related with lots of the old and new farm equipment on display. Then all the church, youth groups and locals businesses had some sort of entry in the parade.  It was clear that most everyone knew each other with the parade participants and onlookers exchanging greetings by name with inside jokes tossed back and forth.  It is what we think a small community is like.  

No Fourth of July should end without a good fireworks display.  Humboldt had a good one right in front of our motorhome.  It was great display, especially for such a small community. 

 It was a great Fourth of July in Iowa!





















15 comments:

Travels with Emma said...

What? No marching bands?? I was in the Kirby Community Band for years up in New York. We did tons of those parades, but we had our own wagon to sit on. :)

Kenny And Angela's Adventure said...

That looks like a lot of fun.

Paul and Marsha Weaver OCT. 17, 2009 said...

I love going to horse races. We just do the $2 bet. Maybe we will win one or two races. Usually only break even but makes for a fun day.

WOW...160 entries in a small-town parade is really good. Really enjoy local events. Great parade photos.

The plane was my favorite float...I think that is the real thing.

Sue and Doug said...

small town america 4th of July!..great parade!!

Jim and Sandie said...

I love those small town festivities but not so much in the heat. Nice that everything is close by so if you wanted to go back home you could.

Peter said...

Looks like you had a great parade.

meowmomma said...

I'm with Judy... marched down many streets playing my clarinet!

Custer, SD's 4th of July parade started with a B1 Bomber flyover and consisted of mainly fire fighting equipment from all over!!! And ended with... well, nothing! Too dry! But we did have a potluck dinner at our campground that was great!

Sherry said...

Great looking parade for sure. If there's no tractor it isn't a good parade is my theory. But did you have all the people running for local political offices in their cars?? Glad it wasn't at high noon given the temperatures.

Paul and Marti Dahl said...

Nice to have fireworks right in front of your site, nothing worse than getting caught in after show traffic!

Paul and Marti Dahl said...

Nice to have the fireworks in front of your site, nothing worse than getting stuck in after show traffic.

Carol K said...

Your photos reminded me of my time growing up on a farm outside the small town of Osage, Iowa. Thanks for the memories!

Rick said...

Great looking parade. Sure liked that monster red machine right at the end.

Jeff said...

Good ole country parades are the best!

Phyllis said...

Living in a farming community, I would suspect people are not quite as happy to see some of that equipment when it is moving down Main Street with a line of traffic behind it!

The company I retired from is a frozen vegetable professor. I lived but 3 miles away and my route was all back roads. Oh yea, lots of times the only traffic was a combine.

Bob and Jo said...

Bob was born and raised in Fonda about 40 miles from Humboldt so we enjoyed the small town parade.