Medicine Creek Days

Cambridge, Nebraska, residents and their neighbors celebrate the community's annual "Medicine Creek Days" with a parade Saturday morning. The theme of the three-day celebration, "Tropical Paradise," inspired Shirley K's coffee shoppe to gather the islanders to appease angry gods who made a volcano erupt along the parade route. Fred and Heidi Pinkal of McCook created their own steamy island/sauna atmosphere with their firefighters' bunker gear as they rode the sun-drenched parade route on a fire-engine red motorcycle tugging a little fire engine/trailer behind it. After the parade, 4-year-old Kaylynn Macke of Cambridge checked out her haul of candy. The community's celebration began with a health fair Friday morning and ended with a worship service Sunday evening. In between, organizers squeezed in all sorts of summer celebrations, including big wheel and wheel chair races, a 42-mile bike ride, free swimming, a duck dive, a ranch rodeo, road rally and baseball games.