If our Founding Fathers wanted us to care about the rest of the world, they wouldn’t have declared their independence from it—Stephen Colbert

To me nothing says “America” like small town celebrations. And Waldron, Indiana puts on a beaut. They call theirs “Freedom Fest”.

As soon as you drive into this small town in southeast Indiana you see what seems like all of the townspeople assembled out on their front yards and the rest of southeast Indiana looking for a parking spot. People dressed in the red, white, and blue are everywhere. Cars are everywhere. There are food trucks and vendors. There is a live band and a dunking booth. There is even a hot-air balloon giving rides to the extent of the length of the tether. But everyone is there for one thing…FIREWORKS!!!

So our mission was to somehow find a place to park, eat some food and leave before the fireworks. We knew how difficult it would be to try to leave this congestion after the fireworks with two small grandchildren and a granddad who is always an intestinal twitch away from a public spectacle.

So we parked about two miles out of town on the road by a cornfield. This is something we couldn’t do for previous fireworks shows in eastern Kentucky, big hills and all. Flat land is great for fireworks and avoiding traffic.

When there are two food trucks serving BBQ, it was hard to decide. So…of course I started eating one serving of rib tips from one truck while waiting in line to get a brisket sandwich from another. This was an excellent plan.

The rib tips from Mel’s Catering were very tasty and tender. When you can eat them with a plastic fork, you know they are very tender.

Mel’s Catering had a great menu for festival eating.

My second BBQ meal was from Dave’s Double Barrel BBQ. This was my second time eating Dave’s food and it was just as good this time. The brisket sandwich was really good and the cole slaw may have been some of the best I have eaten as a BBQ side dish. I loved the sweetness of the dressing.

The brisket sandwich from Dave’s Double Barrel BBQ is so good, especially with Dave’s sauce.

I was very impressed by this cole slaw from Dave’s. Even my grandson loved it.

Check out this line for the pineapple whip.

Most of the festival was set up at the Waldron High School athletic complex.

A large crowd awaited the fireworks.

I hope they stopped the balloon rides when the fireworks started.

Some of the fireworks pictures that were taken outside of town.

The “pinwheel”.

I know some folks were unhappy with America this 4th of July but I didn’t find any in Waldron, Indiana.
And Big Surf had the freedom to eat as much BBQ as he could handle.

Let freedom ring!!