Live from Wasta, South Dakota

Today we celebrated American Independence Day in grand style. We went to the home of Stan and Kathy, who are friends of my in-laws. They live in Wasta, a small country town at the edge of the Badlands. Each July 4th, they have a town parade in which the majority of the town participates. There were also people from surrounding towns. This is the 100th birthday of Wasta.

Kathy invited us to participate in the parade. She decorated her little tractor and its trailor in red, white, and blue and with flags. The 3 children and my wife and mother-in-law rode in the trailor in the parade. I photographed and filmed the event. To me, this symbolized what is best about the U.S. The whole town appeared to be unified today. Many people appeared to have cookouts in their yards after the parade.

Our hosts had sloppy joes and baked beans for lunch. These are a couple typical American foods that I haven't had for years. Kathy then got her horse Lucky out and let my wife and 2 oldest childen take turns riding. They all had a blast. I passed on my turns in order to film.

We had the first car problem today while in Wasta. The rear window of the hatchback has been giving us problems the whole trip, as it has slipped out of track. Today it completely got out of line and hasn't been able to close. When my father-in-law pulled off the nuts and bolts to try to line it up, we discovered that the bottom track supporting the window was broken due to rust. So we may be spending $500+ to get a whole new hatchback door. We'll try to get this in order tomorrow, as we don't have much time to spare in order to make Friday's wedding.

If there is a bright spot to this, it is that my father-in-law is a super handyman. If it were anywhere else, we wouldn't have his expertise or connections in knowing where to get it replaced. I'll need wisdom tomorrow, as he'll be at work and I'll have to handle dealing with garages and auto parts places tomorrow.