Old Fashion Forks Fourth

The crowd gathers on Main Street in Forks waiting for the parade



Sasha's favorite float



The Irrigation Festival (?) Float


Lots of vintage cars



A logger and five very cold ladies


"Hey Toto, I think we're in logging country."



Sign on the Forks Community Hospital Float



The Forks Float



Even Elvis showed up



Just watching the parade



Sasha and I shaking it off



"I'm miseragle"



Larry and Marsha at the derby. Can you believe it, they are smiling.



Larry and Marsha weren't the only ones to show up for the demolition derby.



I don't get it. Stand in the rain and watch people destroy cars. Humans!


Date: Friday, July 4th
Day: 51
RV Miles: 4,713
Location: Forks, WA
Elevation: 299

Humans are so unpredictable; I’ll never figure them out. Anywhere else in the United States if you threw a 4th of July bash and it rained no one would show up. Here in Forks, they throw a 4th of July bash, it rains and everyone from 50 miles around shows up. While watching the parade, I asked a passing bloodhound why this was. He just said, “If you get scared off by rain here in Forks, you would never go outside. Some days it is cloudy. Some days it rains. What’s the difference?”

Well that explains it for the people who live around here who seem to come from rugged and hearty logger type stock; not so for Larry and Marsha. Back in Indy if it rained they would never go to a parade. Well it rained today, they had a parade and they went and watched it – and they took Sasha and me along. For once, Sasha and I agree, we would have been happier and much drier back in the camper.

Rain or shine, the 4th of July Parade here in Forks is the biggest goings on they have all year and it is quite impressive at that. The town is a mile long end to end. At parade walking speed I have taken Larry on patrol from one end of town to the other and it only takes 20 minutes. The parade lasted an hour and 15 minutes making it about three miles long and the parade route (there is only one route through Forks) was lined with humans two and three deep. The population of this town is about 3,900 not counting dogs, vampires and werewolves and I would say they had at least twice that number show up. Who’d of thunk it?

After things got started I got into the spirit of the thing cause they had some really interesting stuff like vintage cars, logging trucks, pretty (but very cold) girl laden floats and stuff. Sasha was pretty unhappy the entire time, except when the horses went by and she about blew a gasket when the Twilight float passed.

The end of the parade was not the end of the day by any means. After the parade the town threw a salmon Bake and demolition derby. The frog jumping contest was yesterday and we missed it -- Be still my heart. At this point I had a man-to-man talk with Larry and he agreed to take Sasha and me back to the camper and dry us off and leave us there. You see us dogs got enough sense to come in out of the rain.

Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow here in Forks.