I woke up and tried to move my limbs. Um - just a bit difficult. Can I roll over, can I sit up, can I put my socks on? All of these will take more time than usual. I just keep whispering to myself: No Pain, No Gain. Now, I just need to figure out what ‘gain’ I’m trying for. The question becomes, why in the world do we tackle these hikes when we know we will be sore the next few days only to hike again when the soreness disappears. Ah, but the challenge, the views, the feeling of accomplishment.
Today, there was a big Veterans Day parade with 100 units in Mesa, the next town over. But there was also a B-17 fly-over scheduled. Not only one but two, the B-17 flew down Center Street where the parade and the crowds were to the south, swung around and then flew up Center Street to the north. What a terrific show. Imagine flying into Phoenix on a regular passenger jet, looking out your window and seeing this huge B-17 prop plane flying over also. What a sight. Must have given some passengers real pause.
The parade had the usual Girl Scout, Boy Scout, religious, school and political units but it also had a lot of military units, from equipment to Veterans groups to current platoons. However, the most poignant display was the High School ROTC’s carrying signs with pictures of all those from Arizona who have died in recent wars. Pat Tillman was one of the signs but there were loads of others, way too many.
A second unit had signs on front of the vehicles that said: ‘Never again will one group of veterans abandon another.’ The car was driven by Vietnam Vets and I’m sure that they not only felt abandoned by their country when they returned to the US from the Vietnamese War but also by other vets. Again, I’m just speculating but how sad if it is true.
But the whole parade was a great memorial to the Veterans who have served.
Meanwhile, Mesa was also having a Western festival with a gun fight at 2:15, quick draw contests along with lots of food and craft booths, music and kids activities. Two of the gunfight participants were watching the parade while we were and here Gary with them. Gary’s seriously thinking about the hair and moustache styles.
We watched part of the quick draw contest and saw this young woman - does she look like someone who is going to try this? But she was pretty fast.
Before we left, we stayed to listen to the Women’s Air Force Band from WWII. They hadn’t lost their touch and still sounded great.
We got home too late to watch the national news during dinner so watched the local news and then segued into MeTV, you know, the mixture of old TV programs. We got to watch an episode of Mary Tyler Moore and an episode of the Dick Van Dyke program. Too funny and the humor did not depend upon: grabbing body parts of other people, vulgar words or sexual innuendo. Nope, the humor depended upon witty writing, facial expressions and body language.
Isn’t it amazing how many candidates God told to run for the Presidency of the US. Is he hedging his bets? I’m confused.
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