a western 4th of July

It seems to becoming tradition for us to be out of town on July 4th. Last year we celebrated Canada Day (July 1) and our Independence Day in Canada. The prior year we celebrated the independence of our nation in our nation's capital - THAT was amazing! This year, we're here, "out west," so we did July 4th "Western style."

We had a two hour motorcycle ride en route to our destination. First stop was Virginia City, a working ghost town. Ok, that doesn't really make sense. But it does. The town, in its heyday, had over 12,000 folks. Now there's less than 150 hardy souls, who probably all make their living from tourism. Pretty much the entire main drag is all historic buildings. Some have been renovated inside and are now shops. Some have stuff inside that they would have had at the time - clothing, groceries, etc. And some are still in disrepair, in need of some serious fixing-up. I could have spent many hours there, looking at all the buildings, inside and out, and reading all the informational plaques. But it was time to move on...

Second stop was the Ennis rodeo. Yeah, baby... a rodeo. I don't recall ever going to a rodeo before, although I know I've seen some of the events at a county fair in Oregon. Greg has never seen any of these events before, so this was a great first. There are numerous events, some timed and some judged. Each event has specific rules that need to be followed, otherwise the person does not receive a score for that event.

There are different types of calf roping. In one timed event, the cowboy must lasso the calf's neck, stop him (the horse does all that work!), get off his horse, flip the calf, tie the calf's legs in a specified manner, yell "hooyah," and the calf cannot get loose for a certain number of seconds.

Break away calf roping is another timed event. The cowgirl lassoes the calf's neck and releases the lasso rope.

There is also a two-person calf roping timed event. The cowboys must stay opposite each other (with the calf between). One lassoes the calf's neck. Then the other lassoes the back feet. Can you imagine trying to throw a lasso around the two back feet of a running calf?!

Barrel racing is also a timed event. The cowgirl rides her horse around three barrels set pretty far apart, in a figure 8 pattern. The techniques here are interesting - some slow their horse more to cut the corners tighter, and some keep their horse going a tad bit faster but make wider corners around the barrels.

Then of course there are the judged events - the events most folks think of when they hear the word "rodeo." One is bronco riding. Broncos are not wild horses, as sometimes thought; they are "unbreakable" horses, meaning they haven't been able to be trained for normal horseback riding. It is necessary to stay on the bronco for a specified number of seconds, holding one arm up, plus other rules. If they get through that, they are then judged on their style and the bronco's stats. Here are pictures of what to do...

and what not to do.

The other judged event is the bull riding. These bulls were amazingly tough and even devious. One sneaky guy pulls a quick right turn, then just when the cowboy gets that move, the bull quick pulls left, and the cowboy goes flying!

And bulls are very dangerous. As soon as the cowboy comes off, they roll then move away. There are other guys in the field the whole time, who try to get the bulls (and broncos in that event) away from the cowboy, then off of the field.

We saw at least four cowboys get hurt in the bull riding competition. We also saw one bronco get hurt, and it was fascinating watching the rodeo crew tying up the bronco, rolling him onto a metal gate, then lift him into a trailer. Even though the bronco was hurt, he still didn't want all those guys around, and definitely didn't want to be manhandled into the trailer, so he was still flailing around as best as he could while tied up.

Anyway, after the ghost town and the rodeo, we rode back to camp and (not so western style) watched a movie!! omg, that's amazing for us - I can't even remember the last time we did that. We saw "The Aviator," about Howard Hughes, since we recently saw Hughes controversial giant airboat the Spruce Goose.

And then, of course, we watched some local fireworks. And when I say local, I mean local. There were at least 8 different families lighting off their own, that were nearly as good as the official town fireworks.

So, all in all, a very fun, action-packed day!