It seems it has been an eternity here in southeast Iowa since it has not rained. Friday was a decent day and they groomed the track in front of the Grandstand for the 1:00 PM parade. RFD TV was there filming and the weather cooperated. Saturday was another story.
About 4:00 AM it started to rain here in Ottumwa.  From the looks of the grounds when we arrived it must have rained quite a bit in Mount Pleasant overnight as well.  We were hoping the rain would cool down the day some but it actually made it more hot and humid.  This made spending a lot of time outside extremely difficult.  The Old Thresher's facility is a great place to have such a great show and wow was it wonderful to walk into those gates and see Oliver Green everywhere instead of dotted between the other colors.  It would have been perfect if the facility included an air conditioned area for the banquet.  After walking around and viewing the parade my wife and I could not stand the heat any longer.  We made the choice to call the fifty dollar banquet tickets a donation and went home.