Old West Days

There will be some kind of activity in Jackson Hole just about every weekend from now until October. This weekend kicked it off with the annual Old West Days:

which included a parade for Memorial Day Weekend. We went early to find a good parking space and arrived at around 9:15 for the 10 AM parade. After having a latte at the local bagel shop in town, we found a good spot to watch the parade:

Right at 10 AM there was a flyover by an old biplane:

and the parade was started.

There was the usual color guard:

and many different themes, floats and clubs. We took about 120 photos for the day so we can only show a small sampling.

There were mountain men, such as this one:

 Lots of horses:

 Covered wagons:

 Pack Mules:

 These sled dogs pulling a truck:

 Smokey the Bear representing the Forest Service:

 and the usual fire trucks from the local fire department:

 The crowd was huge and following the parade, everybody that was staying for more of the festivities went over to the Town Square:

We spent some time walking through the Square and captured this sign:

which was made funny as there is a dog in lower right of the photo. It wasn't the only one, so I guess signs don't mean much.

The Town Square is in the center of town and has this monument commemorating local soldiers who lost their lives in all the wars:

There were stands set up around the Square, and we snapped this shot of a local we saw who was dressed in a sheriffs outfit with his dog, who had a deputy badge and 2 six guns strapped to his back:

Entertainment began at 11:30 and included the group from the Bar-J Ranch where they have the dinner and western show held each night during the summer:

This is the 36th year that they have been entertaining at the Bar-J and we will certainly go again this year to the dinner and show.

We had lunch downtown at the New York City Sub Shop where they have what is advertised as the 3rd best Philly cheese steaks in the country. It was a favorite spot last year and thought we would try it out again. We splurged and enjoyed every bite.

Today begins our second summer of working at the Virginian Lodge and we start at 3 PM and will work until 11 PM. We're not sure yet what the final schedule will look like, but we expect a mix of late shift and day shift with having Thursday and Friday off again - the same as last year.

A couple other notes- today is Pop's birthday and he would be 92 today, and our grandson Austin is graduating from high school today -  he will have a couple weeks of free time before heading to Western Michigan University to begin his football camp. Congratulations to him...