Cattlemen's Days Parade

On Saturday, we went in to Gunnison to watch the Cattlemen's Days Parade. The information we could find did not indicate the parade route, but it isn't a big town, so we figured we could find it. We got to town a little before the parade was to start, and quickly saw that US-50 (the main east-west route) through town seemed to be impacted (closed) at least partly. We turned off, and also found that the north-south route (Main Street) was also impacted (closed). We found a place to park, got out, asked a local if they knew the parade route -- no one seemed to exactly know, but the feeling was that the parade would be traversing Main Street. Sure enough, soon after 10am, we saw activity coming up Main Street from US-50! 

Honor guard with flags

Float honoring all of the military branches

One of two Grand Marshalls of Cattlemen's Days

We realized that the sun was making pictures difficult, so we moved to the other side of the street... less sun in our eyes!

I remember us having a tractor like this one when I grew up. I don't know what the trailer was representing (in general, the signage about each participant in the parade was lacking!).

Smokey the Bear in a US Forest Service truck (we wondered why they weren't having to fight the wildfires that are burning in the area)

A Brahma bull broken for riding

This group *did* have a sign on the front of the truck "Future Fitters" -- I guess future pipefitters? They had super-powered squirt guns and large barrels of water on the truck and were generously spraying any of the audience if they were given any encouragement. They were also kind enough *not* to spray folks (like me) who weren't asking for a dousing!

These appeared to be 4-H livestock winners -- as part of Cattlemen's Days, there were various 4-H contests over the past several days. Wednesday had the 4-H Rabbit & Poultry Show, and the prize winners were on the front of the trailer. Friday had the 4-H & FFA Cattle Show, and the winners are near the middle. Next on the trailer were Swine winners, and their 4-H & FFA show was on Thursday.

The trailer display finished up with the Goat winners, whose 4-H & FFA show as on Friday, and Sheep winners, whose 4-H & FFA show was on Thursday.

Just before this car got to the part of the street where we were standing, it must have stalled, and the driver could not get it re-started. No problem, a number of folks came out from the audience to help him continue in the parade!

We weren't very far from where, I think, the parade turned down another street and ended, so I guess the volunteers pushed him all the way to the end!

The sign on the truck's door indicates "Etsy Ranch" and the sign on the body indicates "High Quality Rocky Mountain Grass Hay". Not sure if he was in the parade to show off his pretty truck or to advertise his hay!

Finally a vehicle with a sign -- "Colorado Farm Bureau"...

... the trailer for the Farm Bureau had what looked to be a traveling kitchen setup!

"The Risen Church" - evidently a recently started church in town...

... there was a fellow being towed behind on skis on wheels!

I think this was to make people aware of the "Book Bus".

Another neat looking truck, this one advertising Gunnison Valley Orthopedics and Sports Medicine.

It was not obvious what group this truck was representing -- maybe just a chance to ride on a neat truck in a parade!

This one had a couple of signs: "Gunnison Trucking 1919 Stutz Fire Truck" and "Coleman Family and Friends" (Imagined conversation: "Let's take the truck and put it in the parade and, hey, y'all, c'mon and ride along with us!").

One of the Gunnison Volunteer Fire Department trucks

This tractor was pulling a trailer with a car wreck on it...

... here you can see the car wreck. I don't know whether they had demonstrated some of their extraction tools earlier in the parade. But... the tractor was another stall casualty of the parade. You might notice in the  picture above, there is a chain from the front of it. The ambulance vehicle just in front of it was pulling it down the route.

It was fun to get to participate by watching the parade. There were a *lot* of folks throwing candy to the kids during the parade. There was one person walking the route who is running for an office (I think Colorado member of congress). There were no bands (I guess with school out of session, they weren't available). There were a number of horses and riders -- some were cowboys, I think, here for the PRCA Rodeo (they had performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights), others were in some kind of costumes, like representing folks who were coming to Colorado to settle years in the past. There were a number of folks who were graduates from Gunnison High School -- I think we saw 10 year, 25 year, maybe 30 year, and 40 year reunions represented. All-in-all it was fun to watch and enjoy with other folks in town.