No place like home: Wrangell II: 4th of July

The day to which I had been most looking forward finally arrived with one of Lisa and Scott’s neighbors setting off some firecrackers which served as my alarm. We started the morning with a big breakfast and then were off to the parade. The photos speak for themselves so I will let them do just that. And, yes, the beard is real (just dyed for the occasion).

After the parade we stuffed ourselves with burgers and foot-long hot dogs (well the meat-eaters among us did) washed down with blackberry lemonades and followed by homemade pies and brownie sundaes. Once full, we sat down to watch the logging show. What follows are clips from two of the events: power bucking, in which a chain saw is used to saw off a cross-section of a huge log as fast as possible, and axe chopping, which involves chopping a log in half while balancing on it. Contestants were competing for a first place cash prize of $100 in each event ($75 for second, $50 for third); those who placed in a given event also earned points towards the $500 grand prize awarded to “all around logger.”

Following the logging show we made our way down to the dock for the highlight of the day, the log rolling show. When I was in Wrangell for the 4^th of July two years ago, Lisa competed in the event, but this year she sat and watched with the rest of us. Below is a video of the last roll of the day, for the championship. The woman who loses (in yellow) had been the undefeated reigning champion of the event for several years running until this year when she was dethroned by a younger contestant (in blue).

We ended the afternoon by participating in the egg toss during which the main street of Wrangell is lined with pairs of people for a far as the eye can see. The pairings are different for each round (i.e. mother-son, father-daughter) and contestants toss their eggs back and forth, taking a step back between each turn. Eventually you are left with just a few pairs whose eggs have not broken and they switch direction so as to have more space to step back. Dave and I participated in the husband-wife category. While we were far from winning, it was a messy, egg-all-over-everything end to a fabulous Fourth.