Happy 4th of July!

[davidB]

Get some great riding in! And stay safe! it's hard to use your brakes if you're losing a finger or two.

[Sharky]

HAPPY 4th everyone !!!
Be safe have fun and don't forget your pet's safety with the fireworks. Many panic and will do anything to get out and run away so put inside or whatever needed to keep them safe .

[DirtymikeTDB]

Wuup Wuup!!!! Happy Independance day America!!!






P.S. Sharky, you riding with us on Sunday???

[Kid A]

man our neighborhood had their fireworks last night. first time our son (2 yrs old) got to see them. just watching his face , smile & excitement was the sh!t. nothing like seeing everything for the fitst time again through a kids eyes. today our street has their 'annual' (started last year) kids bike parade. heasing to garage to pimp out his trike with flags and stuff to rock in the parade. hope everyone has a fun and safe day (dont forget the beer & burgers!!!)

[DBD]

Wont be as good as the previous two years with regards to the fireworks but the day is starting out great. Got in my morning ride, the Mrs had breakfast ready soon after I got back and the weather is looking good although the air sucks.

We went out last night a picked up some small "flowers", smoke bombs and sparklers as the kids love 'em. Should be good tonight.

[cH4os]

Happy Fourth! Sending Texas Love back to Cali!

[surlygal]

Originally Posted by cH4os

Happy Fourth! Sending Texas Love back to Cali!

Steven...We miss you and the family Soooo Much!!!

Happy 4th!!!

[OMR]

Ranger Nancy came home from a 17 day Mexican vacation last night... I'm very relaxed and smiling this morning.... funny, haven't even thought about bikes! It's going to be a great day today.

Let's not forget that people have died that we may enjoy our country's special day.

[northshore]

Happy 4th!

[DISCO]

lets celebrate our countries independence by blowing up a small part of it (while drinking of course).

[Letyrides]

[ladera Dave]

Happy 4th, I just got back fron San Juan, the good thing is the trail is not burning. Like up North. Be safe out there.

[dirtmistress]

I can't wait for a new country to begin after the election!!
Oh wait! I hope a new country will begin after the election. It's still a great country but half the world doesn't think so.

[Liquid55]

Originally Posted by dirtmistress

It's still a great country but half the world doesn't think so.

Since when have we cared what others think?

[drclark]

My fiancee and I took a trip to San Diego for the fourth. Staying right on the water. we had a great view of the fireworks. We spent most of the day on the USS Midway museum. Wandering its various compartments and spaces, I couldn't help but think of all the Americans who served on her, on all ships past and present and in all the other branches of military service. It was an incredibly humbling experience. We were also lucky in that an original copy of the Declaration of Independence was on display today as well. I found myself overcome with emotion to be able to see and read portions of one of the orignal 200 copies from 232 years ago.

We owe an incredible debt to those who had the courage to stand up to King George III's empire; from the aristocrats that penned that great document to the yeoman farmers who picked up musket, powder horn and a bag of shot, and to all those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who have sacraficed life and limb in the years since to ensure that the great experiment has continued to succeed. For all its faults (which we seem to incessantly focus on), no other country in the world can come close to offering the level of personal freedoms, polictical freedoms and opportunities for its natural born citizens AND immigrants that the good o'le US of A can. Maybe that is why other countries despise us, yet their citizens yearn to come here.

As long as the spirit expressed that document's second paragraph, the document which is the corner stone of today's fireworks, barbeques, mountainbike rides, still burns within the souls of all AMERICANS, I believe this country will continue to succeed and we will all be OK.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

I hope everyone takes just a moment to reflect on what the Declaration of Independence and our founders' fight for freedom means to them and how we can all do just a tiny bit to to ensure that we honor their sacrafices, and all those that followed, for they have given us what we have today.

Despite our recent troubles and and political differences; I firmly believe that the United States of America is the best place in the world to live. The following poem, that is recited at the beginning of every Purdue home football game sums it up best.



I hope EVERYONE had a happy Forth of July. A huge thanks goes out to ALL of the veterans and active duty military personnel who are on this board.

Doug
An American

[slo65]

this year was the first year i didn't see fireworks, got off work kinda late and missed out, didn't help that i'm a lil under the weather, next year i suppose

[jeffj]

These were taken at the Castaic Lake afterbay.

1- The first four were taken with a Canon 20D and EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS on a tripod using a shutter release cable, Manual Mode on 'bulb' setting.


2-


3-


4-


5- The next four were taken with a Canon SX100 using the Scene Mode on the fireworks setting.


6-


7-


8-


Thanks for looking.

[DBD]

Originally Posted by jeffj

All great shots there Jeff but I think this one is just awesome, nice work.

We ran out to Filmore on Thursday and stocked up with a bunch of fountains and sparklers for the kids and about 9 houses around us had the "good" stuff, plus we can see the parks show from our place so it was a pretty decent time last night.

Then we woke up early and just got back from or ride.