Burn The Town Down

While Gabe sat on his balcony and watched firework displays from New Jersey to Philadelphia we wore closed toe shoes and tried to protect ourselves from being burned in Crouch's Annual "Burn The Town Down" (that's what I call it). But before we get to that here are a few of our 4th festivities:

We floated the middle fork of the Payette and the river was much warmer than the south fork. You have to be desperately hot to jump in the south fork. After our float we went to the Starlight Light Mountain Theater's "Footloose". It was opening night and I am sure it will be much better in a few weeks.

Noah, Hannah, and Ike at the Starlight Theater.

Hannah chillin' in the creek before the parade.

Ike saw this "cake" in a cooking magazine and begged to make it. This is the finished result and it was gone in about 45 minutes. I think it might be a tradition now. The recipe calls for 2 cups of heavy cream.

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After our 4th picnic in the front yard we went into town for the parade. Lots of horses, candy and water canons. Roland would throw water balloons at the canon guys and then act surprised when he got doused.

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Crouch, Idaho turns into war zone after the parade. There are no stop lights in this town made up of 1 road. People line the street (in front of the Longhorn Bar, the Merc, and the Trading Post) and drink and light illegal firecrackers for 4 hours until the big fireworks go off. I'm not kidding when I say it is a dangerous place. Be ready to duck at any time, wear closed toe shoes, a hat to protect your head, and leave the younguns at home. It looks and sounds like a war zone with smoke, fire, bombs, and yelling. Everyone is laughing and pleasantly hammered - so they are extra friendly. You have to watch out for the friendly folks, they can be as dangerous as the pyros. This event doesn't seem to draw the quiche eating, safety conscious, big city cats in white capri's and seersucker sundresses. No, its more of a cleavage bearing (top and bottom), tobacco spitting, non-flossing crowd.

We love it.

Noah and Roland risk turning their backs on the action for a photo op.

There are cops every place, making it convenient to find the Sherrif's cruiser and lay down with your PBR.
The dress code is pretty much "come as you are" and if you are a manly man you can wear your kilt with a t-shirt that says, "What you lookin' at!"

Did I mention the noise? There are probably 48 fireworks going off at any given time, m-80's, 2 foot rolls of firecrackers, whistling (screaming) petes, rockets, mortars, canons, bottle rockets and more. Much more. Last year the river bank caught fire and it got big fast, but the townsfolk didn't even pause in lighting their loot. I was freaking out, but they weren't even phased. The volunteer fire department handled it with grace. They do that a lot on the 4th.

Oh - the reggae band. What self respecting mountian town doesn't have a reggae band for the 4th?

Peace out.