Fourth of July

Today's the Fourth of July and it's been a great one so far.  Ahh, but a hot one, but that's the joys of summer. 

Sweetz and I went to a community July 4th celebration this afternoon, complete with a hot dog eating contest, free bottled water/snow cones/lemonade/copy of the Constitution/flag/popcorn and a huge water slide.  There were several musical groups, reading of the Declaration of Independence, singing of the National Anthem, and salute to the American flag.  I guess the town's taxes paid for this little shindig but it was nice.

We were able to go in several restored buildings which had a guide in each one.  The first was a small museum of tobacco memorabilia housed in a tobacco factory. 

Another building was a log schoolhouse complete with a teacher in period dress teaching a class to some fascinated pupils. The final outbuilding was a restored tobacco barn with a gentlemen who explained the growth of tobacco from seedling to sale.  All were quite interesting. 

The local mineral club sold bags of "dirt" for $3 which you could wash through a strainer in a running water trough to search for minerals. There were vendors selling the best hot dogs in the state, handmade craft items, as well as volunteers presenting demonstrations on various period activities from wild turkey calls to crocheting.

Our church is sponsoring a Fourth of July cook-out and fireworks beginning at 7pm tonight so I hope I have enough room in my tummy for a hamburger complete with all the trimmings.  There are to be over a dozen ice cream freezers offering some of the best flavors this side of Baskin-Robbins.

My headache, you ask?  It's still with me but should be fading soon as this is the tail end of day 3 and the bottom end of a container of Aleve.  Gotta love OTC meds but a Rx for something more powerful would be even better!  Oh, but maybe I'll never have another migraine...ever...the rest of my life... 

11pm:  We went to our church tonight for cookout, homemade ice cream, and then fireworks.  The kids had a wet slide down a hill plus lots of  other games so they had a ball tonight.