Hopkinton Summer Festival Parade - Part 1

It was time for the town of Hopkinton's annual Summer Festival Parade, so I drove down to the village green and parked. I noticed that the sign was still up, celebrating the town's bicentennial in 2002:

A country band was setting up inside the gazebo, where they'd provide live music when the parade was over. The air smelled of hot dogs, hamburgers and sausages being grilled for the shindig:

I walked around the village green, where there were only four buildings. I noticed that the church had new, golden trim and for the first time I noticed its bell tower. I've never heard the bell sounding on Sunday mornings, but I probably live too far away:

The museum building was well kept and I began thinking it was time for me to pay it another visit:

There were games for young and old set up behind the town office building:

And porta-potties set up in front of the town office building:

The town court building was the fourth and final building on the square. I walked past it and headed out to the highway to watch the parade:

I found myself a shady place from which to watch the parade and noticed others lining up along both sides of the road, including this Amish man and his horse:

Firetrucks from a number of nearby towns led the parade:

And the first float was for breast cancer awareness and included a pink lawn tractor:

This man was all alone and seemed enormously pleased that I took his picture:

Deer Valley Trails, a restaurant/watering hole set far, far back in the Adirondack forest, once again marched as super-heroes, though I couldn't name a single one of them. I did notice that they were different costumes than last year. But the parade was just getting started. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: