We again helped Mountain Harbor and the Joplin Volunteer Fire Department with their annual July 4 celebration.

Winnie sports her special July 4 hat at the Independence Day Ceremony hosted by Mountain Harbor Resort.

The first event was the patriotic celebration hosted by Phil “Uncle Sam” Merry.  This event is held on the softball field in the Harbor South park.  For the event, we take our “Engine 2” to the field and set it up with the ladder extended, and I (Dan) climb up with a couple of cameras to take photos of the event from the high perch.  I basically get a lot of mediocre photos of the backs of peoples’ heads, but using a telephoto, there is an occasional good shot.  A link to all of my photos from that event can be found here:  http://www.joplinvfd.org/july-4-2014-celebration-at-mountain-harbor-resort/2014/07/

Friends Julie and Norma line up for the 4-wheeler parade!

Following the celebration in the park, there is a 4-wheeler parade around the Resort featuring the terrifically-decorated buggies and their riders.  The final count of parade participants was 154 vehicles!

After the parade, we generally settle into a lazy day at home, not wanting to contend with the huge crowd at the Resort or on the Lake.  We go through the day with fingers crossed that there will be no accidents or other issues for the Joplin VFD to deal with, and this day we were rewarded with a good and safe day.

Vickie, Lisa, and Bill join Harbor for the July 4 celebration.

Once night begins to fall, our VFD cranks up our fireboats to be on hand, along with the Corps of Engineers and Arkansas Game & Fish, to be ready for any issues that may arise from the fireworks display hosted by Mountain Harbor Resort.  The lake in front of Mountain Harbor is generally full of boats, and this year was no exception.  And, the crowd on shore for the event was estimated at over 3000 people!  It was a beautiful evening, clear as a bell and relatively cool for an Arkansas summer evening.  Again, we were delighted that there were no incidents or other problems with the crowd on or off the lake, and the display went off without a hitch.

While Dan was driving Joplin VFD’s Boat 3, Anita was able to use our Nikon AW110 point-and-click camera set up in “Fireworks” scene mode to see what would happen.  The results from the bouncing boat are pretty interesting!  Click on the image below to view a bunch of these photos.

Fireworks at Mountain Harbor Resort, Lake Ouachita, Arkansas
(Click on this image to see a bunch of fireworks photos)