I awoke as the sun rose with my eastern facing tent and began to pack it up to head off to Magic Reservoir figuring there’d be some festivities there. Lex met me with some morning coffee and let me know this was not to be the case. Over a delicious hot oatmeal, eggs, toast, and coffee breakfast as my tent stayed up they told me that Bruce Willis had bought tons of fireworks to set off in nearby Hailey that night and that I should stay and come to see. Reminded again that I was not in any hurry and more I figured, yes, I should, what am I doing rushing around still?
We headed up to Hailey and had a great time watching a staged shoot out in the streets followed by a parade. Their son and his friends joined us as we watched and had hot dogs. Kids scampered about the edges of the parade line scrambling over each other for tossed candies off floats, and a constant water fight raged between the floats and the sidelines. Some of the fire trucks had light hoses they’d hit the crowd with and a huge fire truck from the airport shot bursts into the air getting everyone. Good times, good times.
All the while Val and I had laundry going in the laundromat and after the parade we collected our things, bid the son adieu, and drove north into the mountains so Lex could show me the wonders of Idaho I’d miss. First stop was the playground of the rich, Ketchum, and, more over, Sun Valley.
Sun Valley is the haven for celebrities and apparently the center for a yearly meeting of the economic and political minds of the world, very akin to the Pentaverate of “So I Married an Axe Murderer”, where gas prices and other such things are decided. It was a sprawling ski resort/sunny retreat, ice rink and all, that was beautiful and daunting to take in. We left there for the mountains and I was then shown the amazingly enchanting back country of Idaho.
Late in the afternoon we headed back and got some pizza in Hailey; again they were refusing my money. We did some grocery shopping then retired to the homestead once more for an hour or so before the fireworks. I couldn’t have been happier that I took the day off. I was rushing too much and pushing mile into mile. Sometimes I need a little reminder that I should slow down and take in what I’m doing.
That night we returned to Hailey and camped out in a field to watch the show. It was a spectacle to see but what I liked most was watching the little ones run around with fireworks and just sitting still for a moment under the bursting stars. Following the main show we had an after party behind the van with private works courtesy of their son and his friends. By the end of it all I was quite exhausted so we returned home and I passed out like a light.