Fair and Rodeo week has arrived!!!

Two teams battle it out!

Fair and Rodeo is definitely underway around here! You can always tell because there’s a crazier than usual mix of cowboys, cowgirls and bikers! Yes, I said bikers! That’s because Sturgis coincides with Johnson County’s festivities every year. Sometimes, Sturgis is on the tail end, but they intermingle at some point, always and we’re on one of the main routes to get there and we are a very biker friendly town.

Friday morning, the streets downtown were literally teeming with early morning bargain hunters, shopping for great deals. The Sports Lure had it’s usual massive sale, which I took full advantage of. They carry all the good brands…Columbia, Royal Robbin, North Face,Woolrich and a plethora of really nice western wear as well as everything you need to outfit yourself for a great hike up on the mountain.  All of the other stores, Sagewood, Reride, Artful Hands, Margo’s Pottery, Upscale Resale, the Prescription Shop, you name it….had fabulous sales going on as well! It’s also one big social get together where you usually see a lot of people who live out on the ranches that you haven’t seen since before all the lambing, calving and branding began back in the spring.

I pretty much spent all day running around shopping and visiting with friends I haven’t seen in a while.  Usually, it’s so hot, but this year, we were mercifully spared  the ridiculous heat and it was just perfect for hanging out on the main drag. I got a call about halfway through the morning that the wooden sides for my little ATV were ready and zipped up to Ultimate Outdoors and they put them on for me.  Boy, do they look great! Rob has now fastened our Wild Wyoming Images signs onto them so that we can advertise our photography as I zip around town.

Friday night, they closed the main street down to traffic and had a great band playing called Ruckus.  Rob and I were a little too tired to go down for that, as we had to be up Saturday at the crack of dawn for the Art in the Park, where we had a booth.  That was just fine, though, as our house is right on the hill above downtown and we could hear the music just fine from our living room. I heard there were tons of people dancing and everyone had a really good time.

I'm back here getting "misted"...ahhhhh

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early and set up our booth in Prosinski Park, along with a bunch of other vendors.  Saturday’s weather was much warmer, and I’m being very gracious in my assessment here….it was freaking hot! They also set up a bouncy house for the kids to play on and something I’d never seen before.  They had a big Velcro wall for the kids to play on, complete with Velcro suits for the kids to put on so they’d stick to it. Man, that was hilarious!  The star attraction of the day, however, was the firehose water barrel competition.  It’s really simple, two teams have firehoses and there’s a big barrel on a wire above their heads…the object of the game is to push the barrel to the opponent’s end with the water before the timer sounds. Since it was so hot, I kept standing in places where I could get a little of the mist while I was taking photos. They also had stick horse barrel races, which were a hoot.

The velcro wall!

We topped off Saturday by going down to the Moose afterward for Rob to get a nice ribeye French dip sandwich, along with a bunch of our friends and some nice cooling cocktails.  We had only been there a few minutes when the motorcycles started coming into the parking lot. I think there must have been 50-60 bikers coming in.  They were from several organizations and had just returned from a 230 mile “Bug Run”.  It was fun to watch Jason try to keep up with making all those French dips for everyone! He did a great job, though and I don’t think any bikers left hungry.

So, yesterday, I had time to finish up writing the wedding ceremony for the couple I’ll be marrying on Friday.  I really enjoy doing that.  So, far, everyone I’ve done this for have been friends of mine, so it’s made it extra easy to personalize.  I try my best to make each ceremony unique, especially since everyone around here knows everyone else. I don’t want to start sounding repetitive, right?  Anyway, Bobby and Carla have been so busy, they’ve been unable to be in on the planning of the vows, so it will be a nice surprise for even them.  I am even now making a copy of the vows for each couple so they’ll have that to keep with them.

We also worked a bunch on our “float” for the parade. I can’t tell you too much about it, as it’s got to be a surprise for next weekend but it’s going to be pretty funny.  The theme is “Dancing with the Steers” a take off on Dancing with the Stars and we’ve got Thistle as our main attraction as well as the ATV. The folks at Ace Hardware were giving us puzzled looks when we arrived at the counter with our implements of mass distraction that we needed to complete the float. Don’t worry, we’ve got folks that are going to take pictures for us next weekend of our entry.

Oh and almost forget…the absolute highlight of my day yesterday!  Rob and I were returning from Ace yesterday afternoon and our neighbors, the Crows, were all standing out in front of their house as we came up the hill in the ATV.  They are the folks who bought my Freestyle and they have four kids.  The youngest, Ashley, is only 3 and she’s just cuter than a bug, a little blonde, blue-eyed princess.  Anyway, she’s standing there with her big bike helmet on and I had promised her that I would, at some point, take her for a ride in my ATV. So I told her that since she had on a helmet, to go ask Mommy if it was okay to go for a spin.  She goes running at top speed into the house, screaming for Rebekka at the top of her lungs to go riding with Miss Lisa.

Sure enough, it’s okay, so we strap her tiny little body into the passenger seat and away we go for a spin around the neighborhood. I wish I could have filmed the looks on her face when we were driving around! She was in pure heaven!  Her face was beaming and she kept lifting her arms in the air like she was on a roller coaster or something! Mind you, I never went over 20 mph and we just went around the block.  The block right there, though, has a magnificent view of the town below us and I suppose, to a three year old, in an open vehicle, looks pretty awesome.  We got back to their house and I don’t think Ashley wiped the grin off her face for quite a while. Ah, to be that age again, when everything is a fabulous adventure!

Well, folks….let’s all be a little more like Ashley today.  Look at the world with fresh eyes and see the wonder in the little things.  Sit down at some point today and pretend you are 3 again and everything is new and exciting.  Drink that beverage like it’s the first time you’ve ever tasted it. We should all do that more often.  Roll Life around on your tongue and taste the sweetness!!!