Back by popular demand, (Well not really, but I wanted to do it again.) I give you a new “Where in the Sierra is it?”
Good luck!

Well another Mule Days has came and went. Everyone has returned from where they came and Bishop is back to it’s normal mellow pace. Monday of Memorial Day weekend is one of the strangest days of the year for me. For two weeks the atmosphere in Bishop builds up for Mules Days. Then the week of Mule Days all of the people and mules arrive, the weekend hits and all of the excitement is here. Then comes Monday, and everyone leaves. By Monday evening you can’t even tell that anything happened in town. It’s over for another year. It’s like the day you take the Christmas lights down, the world seems a little darker and things just aren’t the same for awhile.

I want to wish everyone a happy and safe Memorial Day.

I especially want to say thank you and God bless to all of our veterans out there and to those that never made it home. We will never forget what all of you have done to protect the freedom that so many take for granted in this country. I for one will never take our freedom for granted. Many lives were lost in gaining it, and many more have been lost in protecting it.

And to those who are still fighting the evil that tries to consume our world, I send you my prayers and thoughts that soon this will be over and you can all safely return home.

Here is the poem “America- Why I Love Her” it was written by John Mitchum and recited by John Wayne at the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, California

“Why I Love Her”

You ask me Why I Lover Her? Well, give me time and I’ll explain.
Have you see a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?
Have you watched a cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay?

Have you heard a bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines,
Or heard the bellow of a diesel at the Appalachia mines?
Does the call of Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar?
Do you look with awe and wonder at her Massachusetts shore,
Where men who braved a hard new world first stepped on Plymounth’s rock?
And do you think of them when you stroll along a new York City dock?

Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies, way up high?
Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea,
Or bow your head at Gettysburg at our struggle to be free?

Have you seen the mighty Tetons? Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you see the Mississippi roll along Missouri’s shore?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan when on a winter’s day
Her waters rage along the shore in thunderous display?
Does the word “Aloha” make you warm? Do you stare in disbelief
When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea Reef?

From Alaska’s cold to the Everglades, from the Rio Grande to Maine,
My heart cries out, my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.
You ask me Why I Love Her? I’ve a million reasons why:
My Beautiful America, beneath God’s wide, wide sky.

Happy Memorial Day everyone. I’m headin’ up to Rock Creek Lake and goin’ fishin’.

Another Mule Days Parade is over. It was a little hard for me this year, Tammy really loved Mule Days, so there were a few tears shed here and there. But all and all I did pretty well and enjoyed the parade as much as ever. The biggest high lights for me were the Clydesdale’s and the Texas Thunder Draft Horses. Before the parade even started these two teams got a police escort down Main St to the start of the parade. It was awesome to see both teams together coming down Main St. I was on the phone at the time with Tammy’s mom and couldn’t get a picture of them together. We were both crying as I was telling her about it.

So here are some sights from the 2007 Bishop Mule Day Parade. If you hover over the picture you’ll get the description. Enjoy.