SATURDAY - JUNE 30, 2001

TODAY WAS VERY EXCITING. It started out with the sound of sirens. Lots of sirens. Sirens everywhere. It seemed as if the whole town of West Chester was under attack. But it wasn't an emergency. It was the annual Freedom Days parade, which just happens to pass right by the corner of Shade Tree Drive and Kingsgate Way, right at the end of our block. It starts at Keehner Park, and it's from there that we can hear the fire engines. They won't be here for about half an hour, plenty of time to get to the corner to see the parade.

The parade isn't a very big one, nor very elaborate. Just a few cars with local officials -- one contained Miss Ohio -- and a lot of fire engines. But all the politicians threw out candy, and us kids got all of that. And there were clowns and performing fourwheelers, some old-time cars, some riders on horseback and a small band. We sat on Mr. and Mrs. Bishops' lawn and watched it all.

AFTER THE PARADE, we went to lunch at Arby's and drove out to West Alexandria to visit the animals at Heaven's Corner. We went here last year, too. Donna and Mark were there, and of course Rick. They all remembered us. We really enjoyed seeing the animals. We got to see the new areas they're building for the alligators and the snapping turtle. And Rowdy, Rick's big Siberian tiger, came out of his shelter and posed for us. But with all the big and exotic wild animals to be found here, Rachael's favorite was a little groundhog in a cage in the front.

Bud...  Wise...   Errr... Hey, whaddya say we blow dis joint?	Ho.. Hummmmm! Rick's big Siberian, Rowdy, enjoys hamming it up for the camera.
Ryan, Mark, and Rachael watch as Rick plays with a new wolf.	Shadow is a beautiful and rare Florida panther
Sunshine, a Bengal tiger, relaxes in a sun beam. Ahhhh...  Life is good.

THIS EVENING after dinner, we all went over to the Voice of America park for the fireworks show. The Voice of America park is the site of what was once the greatest world-wide broadcasting center ever created. Its dozens of AM, FM, Shortwave, and other antennas sent out United States propaganda programming throughout World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, and all they way until the fall of the Soviet Union. It still exists as a website, but the awesome of it is lost now that satellite coverage makes live world broadcast easy. In those days, you needed enormous antennas, and lots of them, to accomplish that feat. Those great forests of antenna towers are gone now. They were taken down within the last few years (they were still standing when Grandpa and Aunt Linda moved here in 1995). But the building still stands, and the community of West Chester is making an historic park and monument here. The 4th of July fireworks show is presented here this year, and it's a good one. We arrived too late to go on any of the rides tonight, but Aunt Linda bought us some glow bracelets and and we had fun running around in the field with them. Tomorrow we'll come back for the rides.

All text and photos ©2001 by John Lipman, except as noted. All rights reserved.