LOPEZ ISLAND 4TH OF JULY PARADE
The parade started at 11 or so. We had a good breakfast and got in the car but were unable to get to Lopez village because the parade was blocking the road. So I and Lisa walked, passing the parade until we got to the middle or a little beyond. So we missed the tractors pulling floats, if there were any. But this year, unlike others, the main feature of the parade was about hundred or more people with home made signs who were demonstrating against the Supreme Court vote against Roe Vs Wade and women’s choice to have abortions. A few people along the route with sour faces gave the demonstrators thumbs down, but everyone else enthusiastically cheered them on. So the photographs that I took were one third of apolitical people riding horses or driving antique cars, one third are of enthusiastic demonstrators with smiles on their faces as they shouted “we won’t go back,” and one third are of spectators dressed in red, white and blue waving flags and cheering the parade on.
Following the three miles of trying to keep up with parade we visited the Lopez Farmer’s Market and then went back to the home of George and Mary Lou Hested and ate a good lunch and collapsed before riding through the red barn farms at the center of Lopez Island and taking the huge ferry that threaded the green islands back to the mainland and to Bellingham and the end of a marvelous visit.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 