Too Cool for British Rule!

Independence Day at the Rez!

Independence Day is one of those memory-soaked summer celebrations that I always look forward to. If you know me, you know how much I love fireworks. And the pesky laws in Mississippi pretty much limit you to using them in July and January. So when I have the opportunity to shoot some fireworks, I believe in going BIG. 

Since the holiday fell in the middle of the week this year, I squeezed in not one, but two fireworks extravaganzas! 

High flyers! 

The first one was the Independence Day Celebration at the Rez. This event is fun, free, and held really close to my house! The night features live music, inflatables for the kids, tons of great food trucks, and vendors with tents/merchandise. Hubs and I suited up in our patriotic gear (and you know I had fun temporary tattoos!) and met up with my friend Shawn and her husband at the park. 

I got a GIANT, delicious fresh lemonade, and we admired a quartet of pilots flying over head in their antique planes. (Eric, one of the pilots, flew me around in his gorgeous AT-6 Texan a few years ago!) We enjoyed the music and the people-watching, and then, we got ready for fireworks! 

As they were shooting the fireworks from a barge, Shawn and I went down to the water's edge for the best view. It's beautiful to watch a firework explode over the water, because you see it both in the air and in the water's reflection. Love!

The next weekend, I'd planned to go out to Shawn's camp on the Bogue Chitto for another night of setting fire to things (like I did last year for Independence Day). However, a family emergency disrupted these plans, so I found myself free on Saturday night. BUT I'd already purchased some $300 worth of fireworks. What to do? 

Welcome to TuscolaFest!

For years now, my sister and brother in law have gone to a mutual friend's house near Lena, Mississippi for Independence Day shenanigans. They call the blowout TuscolaFest, and I decided to crash that party. (Heh.) A couple of Facebook direct messages later, I'd invited myself, hubs, and our boatload of explosives. We gussied up, headed out, and arrived to find TONS of delicious food, a live band (and these guys played all night), and old friends! (They even had commemorative plastic glasses. They featured an eagle wearing sunglasses and read "You free tonight?" Hilarious.)

Was I ready? 
I was BORN READY! 

I broke out the temporary tattoos and began tattooing everyone, and then I liberally distributed glow-in-the-dark necklaces and other patriotic accessories. I finished up by rendezvousing with the chairman of the fireworks committee and handing him all of my pyrotechnics. 

We ate, we laughed, we listened to music, and we played corn hole. (Hubs is actually pretty good at it!) As night began to fall, I distributed really long sparklers and lit them for the kids and teenagers. Just beautiful. Then, the real show started. And when I tell you that this was just as impressive (and maybe moreso, because you were RIGHT UNDER IT) as any professional fireworks show I've ever been to, I tell no lies. 

It went on and on and on, and it was gorgeous! I was one happy lady! Before I left, I tried to wrangle a spot on next year's fireworks committee. (I mean, at the very least, I can just write him a check. A girl needs her explosions, people!)

Afterwards, we packed up and headed home - happy, full, and smelling a bit like gunpowder. Until next year! 

Until next year!