Posts Tagged ‘rodeo’

I’m still recovering from my mom’s visit the weekend before last.

There’s a lot to see in this huge state and a couple hours in the car can take you somewhere completely different from where you were. Mom was here 4.5 days and we put 750+ miles on my car: Casper -> Guernsey -> Cheyenne -> Fort Collins -> Cheyenne -> Casper -> Buffalo -> Sheridan -> Casper.

In front of the Indian Village, with our new hats. [Cheyenne Frontier Days]

I drove down to Guernsey for an assignment on Friday and Mom met me there. We drove to Cheyenne to walk around Frontier Days. KISS played that night and the people watching was excellent. On the way out, we bought cowgirl hats and rodeo tickets. We then drove to Fort Collins because we didn’t think we’d find a hotel room in Cheyenne (and because I needed a shopping/Whole Foods fix).

We watched Frontier Days’ opening rodeo — Mom’s first. She enjoyed it except for steer roping, where the cowboy ropes the steer by the horns and yanks it to the ground. I could explain events to her because of all my rodeo experience.

We spent Saturday night in Casper and left Sunday morning for mountains. The Big Horn Mountains are a small spur off the Rocky Mountain chain and begin about two hours north of Casper. I drove so Mom could stare at mountains because that’s what she does when she’s behind the wheel too.

Big Horn National Forest

We hiked about 2.5 miles in the Big Horn National Forest just south of Cloud Peak. We stayed the night in Buffalo at The Occidental Hotel, built in 1880. The hotel doubles as a museum. Famous people such as Teddy Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill stayed there. We stayed in the Madam’s Suite in the back on the first floor, former home of the bordello’s madam and the cheap whores. She would have been on the second floor but weighed too much to walk up and down stairs.

Occidental Hotel lobby

We saw a movie and stopped at the renowned Century Club saloon. We only had one drink and went to bed early. Mom brought a cold/sinus infection with her and I was starting to feel a head cold coming on.

The plan was to wake up early and drive back to Casper. I woke up at 8:30 still not feeling 100%. After coffee and animal crackers from the hotel pantry, we headed further north for breakfast in Sheridan.

It was hot, like 92 degrees hot, so we went home and lounged in my cool basement apartment. And then she left.

Mom was my eighth visitor to Casper in less than one year. Eight! I thought moving to Wyoming would mean no one would ever visit but so far, more people have visited me here than any other place I’ve lived. Well, except that one time all my friends drove to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

Last week was fair week in Natrona County. The city desk split up the week’s events and I volunteered to do Monday and also the parade because I knew I would be gone later in the week. And because I love the fair.

Monday was a slow day at the fair, but I got a crash course in rabbit showing. I now know about fur types and colors, average weights for breeds and how to check ears for ear mites. I could also tell the difference between kids who raised rabbits to compete and kids who competed with rabbits they raised.

Tuesday was Parade Day. The city shuts down for a parade. People get the day off work and bars set up tents for day-long parties. I, like everyone else at the paper, had to work.

The day started with the Casper Chase 5K. The race began two blocks from my house and I figured I wouldn’t be able to get in and out of my apartment before the parade. (I was right.) After the race, I ran home, showered and walked downtown to the parade. Another reporter drove his antique car in the parade and invited me to ride along and get a different perspective.

We rode behind Miss Rodeo Wyoming.

I gathered a couple other perspectives and wrote my parade story as four short scenes. It was nothing groundbreaking, but I thought it more fun than a summary of events with a handful of soundbites thrown in. And I didn’t use the word “Casperites” once. That’s an accomplishment.

Tattoo parlor float

Tuesday was also my only chance to go to the fair, so we went after 10. Fair food was enjoyed — funnel cake, curly fries, lemonade. Sadly, the fair lacked cheese curds and the corn stand didn’t dip the cobs in melted butter. I did add a new item to my “tried it” list — a cartwheel. A hamburger patty is topped with cheese, battered and deep fried. It tasted like a cheeseburger topped with chicken finger breading. Delicious.

We didn’t ride any rides but walked up and down the midway — easily the brightest spot besides July 4 fireworks.

(cell phone Polaroid shot)

I can put a new (and my only) notch on my rodeo belt.

The College National Finals Rodeo took place in Casper last week. I wrote a feature story and helped cover three of the night performances for our live blog. On my second night, I took some video with our new handheld camera and posted them to YouTube and in the live chat. People loved the video and I did more on Saturday night. They’re all still up on my YouTube page with the nickname I chose back in high school. (YouTube, if you’re reading this, please allow people to change their user names!)
Clint, our high school sports coordinator, did most of the play-by-play and I covered when he looked up stats. I also tried to pepper the blog with as much color as an amateur rodeo announcer could. Goats were our favorite, hands down.

Steer wrestling

The rodeo blog wasn’t the most popular of the sporting events in terms of hits, but on the last night we had more than 100 comments from people listening to the live audiocast and following our blog. Two of the comments were from the mother and grandparents of one of the contestants who we posted video of. They were in Texas and couldn’t make it to Wyoming.

That, I told Clint, made all the scrambling worthwhile.