July 4, 2024-Celebrating the 4th in NW Arkansas, Oklahoma, and in Panama City

(click for today's pictures)

Robby and I took a shorter walk this morning, but we did walk up to the tent sites. It was straight up a hill, and I thought that I just might die. If we would walk that little stretch every day we would be fit as a fiddle.

We then took the morning slowly before heading back to Pawhuska. There was a little more activity today, but it still wasn't crazy crowded. They had some areas where the kids could earn points by playing games, and then they could cash the points in for a little prize. Whitman did this and ended up with some bubbles.

I think that his favorite thing of the day was riding the mechanical bull. He fell off pretty quickly the first time, but the second he stayed the whole 8 seconds. And since we were nearby the ice cream shop, and since it wasn't crowded we did a repeat of yesterday's ice cream.

Next we came back to the campsite, and Whitman put on his new bathing suit that we bought while watching the Blackstone man cook. We went to the pool, and he swam for about an hour. They also had a rock wall on the edge of the pool that he did a couple of times,

When he was finished, we came back to the camper and heated up some leftover bbq for our supper. We ate that, and around 7 or even a little bit later we headed back into town. It was a happening place tonight-there were people everywhere. 

We brought in our chairs and found us a spot right in front of the Boarding House. We just randomly picked the place, but it was a great spot because every Drummond (Pioneer Woman's family) walked in and out of the Boarding House hotel right by us.

They had a live band plus around 9:30 the fireworks started. Robby and I have been to a lot of fireworks-we were in D.C. during President Bush's inauguration when fireworks were exploding on all sides of us, we have been to Disney countless times, we grew up during the hayday of Jennings Osborne's fireworks in Little Rock, and we have been in Washington D.C. at least twice on the fourth of July. We have seen many firework shows.

But I do think that this one topped them all. It was like we were watching a firework grand finale that just kept going and going and going. It was quite something to see. It lasted over 20 minutes, but it just kept going-and they were not shooting one or two fireworks at a time, it was so many fireworks-my ears are still ringing!

After the fireworks, we even stayed for some more of the band. It was fun watching everyone dance and enjoy the evening. Around 11, Whitman was eventually ready to leave, so we headed back to our campsite. He put on his pjs while Robby and I picked up a few last things outside. 

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