The next day was the parade in Montpelier which they have on the 3rd instead of the 4th for reasons unknown. I suspect maybe it's because all the politicians are in the parade and they have to move on to some sort of official BBQs on the actual 4th. The anticipated high point of this parade was supposed to be the inflatable Simon the Chipmunk. One chipmunk? I could just see the folks at the balloon character company holding the lottery to see which capital cities would get the Lesser Characters for the parades; Simon, Boo-Boo, Bam-Bam, Chairy, Augie Daddy, etc. For some reason this one element of the parade struck me as completely hilarious.