the daddy of 'em all!

Oh yes, I went... I went to the daddy of 'em all. Yes, the rodeo at Cheyenne Frontier Days! It was my first time to Wyoming, my first time to Cheyenne, AND most importantly, my first ever rodeo. Brian, Matt, and I headed up to Cheyenne Saturday morning; it's just an hour and a half drive from Denver, maybe a little more depending on traffic. We arrived in Cheyenne around noon and headed over to the Frontier Days at Frontier Park. Being that this is the state capital of Wyoming and seemingly is the biggest event that happens in the state all year, I expected chaos- trouble finding parking, long lines, etc. However, we were able to park just a couple blocks from the entrance to the park and after a quick walk in the blazingly hot sun and heat, we were in.

We passed by an Indian Village (which we later visited and were disappointed to find it just a bunch of shacks full of crap for sale- the teepee's in the village that I was excited about were off-limits!), walked through a chuck-wagon cook-off, and then found the insanely long line for tickets to the rodeo.

My first Rodeo! After a long wait in the sun to get our rodeo tickets, we entered the arena and I was shocked and appalled by the cattle roping or whatever you call it. I mean, it's not that it's inhumane or anything, but it was just nothing I had ever seen before...

1. Cowboys on horseback lasso cattle.
2. Calf/Cow/Whatever it is, upon having a rope around it's neck, falls to ground.
3. Cowboy jumps off horse and ropes the cow's hind legs together.

There's nothing inhumane about that, right?? Anyways, once the shock wore off, I found this portion of the rodeo to be fairly entertaining.

The Rodeo had many events... The highlights were the bull-riding, the trick-riding (awesome boy and girl riders on horseback doing flips and whatnot in fantastically bright and shiny and sparkly outfits- the horses even had little sparkly leg warmers on too. You just can not go wrong watching horses donning leg warmers), and the wild horse race. Now, THIS was something to see. They have all these wild horses they bring out, and teams of 5 or so guys each take a horse. The team has to attain control of the horse, saddle the horse, and then some poor fellow hops aboard and TRIES to get the horse to go down the track in the correct direction. The horses are wild and crazy and the horses that escape from the teams go running in all directions on the track. This causes the other horses to follow after. Basically, one guy gets his horse to go in the right direction, some other horses follow. Meanwhile, other horses are headed in the opposite direction around the track. When they meet, chaos ensues. They all turn around and now they're ALL going in the wrong direction, except for a couple horses without riders who are headed in the right direction. Then another random horse heads towards them, and they all turn around AGAIN. Repeat. Repeat again. It was awesome. In the end, only ONE rider/horse combo actually crossed the finish line. Also, another guy got around to turn 3 and the horse stops and won't move, he never crossed the finish line before the time limit. Absolutely hilarious and the total highlight of my day at the Rodeo. I know I wrote a long time ago about the motorcycle demolition derby which was inexplicable. This was very reminiscent of that event, especially in that I just can not do it justice writing about it.

After the rodeo, we roamed around the carnival area. Oh, and I forgot to mention the awesome carnival food we ate during the rodeo. Now, I did not eat all of the following personally, but this is a sample of what the three of us consumed (note: everything was deep-fried. Well, except the drinks): spiral spud potato chips, corn dog, french fries, funnel cake, fresh-squeezed lemonade, beer. Also, I must add for breakfast on the drive up to Cheyenne, we had donuts (also deep fried). Matt kept with the theme and when we went to dinner that night, he got chicken-fried steak. I can only imagine the pain he was in the next day.

After dinner at a local brewery in Cheyenne, where we met up with our friends Rich and Des, we headed back home, bellies full of grease and beer. You just can't beat a day like that.