Back in the day, on the 4th of July, we would always have the bright idea to go get doughnuts from the store. We would all pile into Russ's car, and proceed to immediately get stuck in traffic.
On the 4th here, there is a 6:30am balloon festival. There is a 7am foot race. There is a 9am parade. (The parade is on a fairly large scale for this city. 2 off the main streets in town become unusable until about 1pm. This makes it very difficult to get from this side of the city to the doughnuts.)
Anyway, it takes some creative driving to get anywhere. I seem to nearly always get caught in it. Last year I avoided it by staying home. This year, I wanted to go to the new alumni building on campus for the balloons, but couldn't get onto campus. The end of our street was partially blocked off. I turned right, and saw that it was totally blocked off ahead for the race, which hadn't yet started. I drove up and around Kate's school, thinking I could get through onto campus that way. By the time I got there, the race was going, and the only choice the officer gave me was to turn right. (Going straight was the preferred method.) This is the way it goes on the morning of the 4th. I saw plenty of people walking over to the parade route. The mile or mile and a half walk is preferable to trying to get a car down there and parked.
Anyway, the urge to drive out on the 4th to get doughnuts is mostly, but not totally, watered down these days. It's just not worth the hassle. (Maybe I should call Drew.)
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