we survived....

Thistle with her cowboy rider waiting for parade to start

Fair and Rodeo week has been safely put to bed now for another year. What a lovely week it was! It is always the most fun but also the most exhausting week of the year, in my humble opinion.  There’s almost too much to do. I’m getting to that point in my life, at least, where I don’t have to participate in every little thing, so that really did make it quite pleasant, however.

There were two dances downtown in as many weeks. There was always, and I mean, always, something to go see down at the fairgrounds, whether it be watching the kids from 4-H show off their skills with their livestock in the rings or checking out the entries from the community in the open class exhibits.  I used to put entries in, winning gobs of ribbons every year for my jellies and canned vegetables but I quit after I finally won Best in Show a few years back. It was nice this year to see a lot of new, young names filling in the gaps.

The Parade on Saturday was a huge success! The theme was “Dancing with the Steers” and in true Buffalo fashion, was enormously funny, with really original floats that had people laughing like crazy. Since I was actually in the parade this year with Rob and Thistle, I’m not quite positive how many entries there were but I’m thinking it was way over 50.  We were number 34 in the line.  Of course, it is an election year, so there were a lot of politicians making the parade longer.  Senator John Barrasso even came and had breakfast with us at the pancake breakfast downtown before hopping into his own antique car to join the parade. And, man, you couldn’t have asked for better weather! When the parade started, it was a cool 62 degrees with a nice breeze blowing. Usually, it’s closer to 100, and everyone is baking!

We started out the parade with Thistle looking fabulous in her steer horns and saddled bucking cowboy on her back.  That didn’t last through the parade, though.  For one thing, we found out that she really likes to bark and growl at horses, of which there were many in the parade. She kept knocking her little rider off her back, twisting around in the back of the ATV to get a better barking spot for the horses as they trotted by while we were waiting for our turn to join in the parade line. Then, somehow, she knocked off one of her steer horns about halfway through the parade. I had been worried about the heavy sequined dress I was wearing being too hot, but that was taken care of by the unusually cool weather, so I was not stressing about Thistle losing a few items.  All of the little kids along the route waved like crazy to Thistle and she performed quite well once we were underway. Having the little ATV in the parade was really fun because I was able to drive in sort of a zig zag fashion to get up close to all the little kids lining the street.  The coolest thing was that we were lined up directly behind the high school marching band so we had fabulous music accompanying us the entire route.

Young contestant studying her competition

After the parade, we rushed home to change and headed back out to the fairgrounds for the rodeo. It was a great afternoon of watching calf scrambling, steer riding by the kids, pole bending, rescue racing, as well as the usual events you see at all rodeos.  It was looking like it might be one of those accident filled days, however.  First thing they do is have an “Empty Saddle” memorial for folks who have been a part of the fair and rodeo community and have passed away in the recent year.  They have a friend or relative come out on horseback, with a empty saddle horse in tow, and have a nice memorial speech about each person’s contributions to the community. As they were leaving the arena, one of the riders got bucked off her horse and the ambulance crew had to come out and escort her off the field.  Not ten minutes later, during the mutton busting, a little girl got stomped by a sheep. It was not looking good! Luckily, I think they got all the wrecks over early, though, and the rest of the rodeo went smoothly. I don’t know who was providing the stock, but there were some absolutely stunning horses out there, full of fire and brimstone, making for some exciting rides!

The "calf scramble", always hilarious!

Now, Rob and I are in evacuation mode for the rest of the week. We’re leaving at the crack of dawn on Friday to go back to northern Maryland for my Mom’s 75^th birthday and my Aunt’s 60^th. I spent all day yesterday starting to round up stuff for the trip and this will continue all week. I’m taking back Moose Drool beer for a lady at the Yuengling beer outlet, who wants to trade for a case of Yuengling, gotta bring Fat Tire and a couple of other microbrews for my Dad, who brews his own beer back in MD and loves to try other beer.  I promised Mom that I would also bring elk meat and lukanka sausage for all our southern relatives to try for dinner one night and I’ll have to get some dry ice to transport that back. I also have assorted jellies and produce I’ve made or picked that will be going along. Whew!  It’s going to be great though, to see all my relatives again.  I was just down in Alabama seeing some of them but a few will be joining us that I haven’t seen in eons. 

My uncle Kip runs the newspaper down in Washington, GA and was unable to make the last trip but will be coming this time.  I haven’t seen him since his boys were little and they are college age now.  Same with my cousin, Rick, who actually lives in MD, haven’t seen him probably in over 22 years. I know that he hasn’t met Rob yet and that’s how long we’ve been together. So, it’s going to be a great time. Mom’s got all kinds of fun things planned and we were actually able to logistically fit everyone in her house without having to make anyone get a hotel room. She has a beautiful place, tucked on 5 wooded acres, just across from a nature conservancy in rural Carroll County.  Rob, Thistle and I will be staying in her rock star size motorhome that she uses for her dog show travels, probably along with one other relative, while everyone else will be in the house.  We had to do that because of Thistle.  Mom has Tibetan Spaniels that she breeds and shows and we’re a little concerned that they may be intimidated by the big galoof, Thistle, running around the house knocking over those little 7 pound dogs (Thistle is now around 70 lbs).

The trip will be awesome for Rob, as well, as his whole family just lives about 2 miles (as the crow flies) from my mom. He’ll probably be spending most of his time with his own mother and his sisters while I’m spending time with my family. We have set aside just one evening to visit with friends, wish it could be more, but family comes first on these trips.  So, I called and arranged for all our friends to come down to the Hampstead American Legion, where we used to be officers, that Wednesday night while we’re there so we can at least say “hi”.

Golly, I’m making myself tired just talking about the plans!  May need a vacation from this trip when we get back, ya think? I can guarantee, though, that I’ll be waddling back to Wyoming, stuffed with as much blue crab and other seafood as I can push in myself while I’m there! That’s one of the few things I miss back there.  My best friend back east, Paula, has a brother who’s a commercial fisherman on the Chesapeake Bay and I just know she’s gonna have some Rockfish (striped bass) for me to take home and maybe some nice picked crab meat.

Well, it’s the beginning of another week, folks! A chance to start anew and look forward with hope and resolve to making each and every day count.  Get out there and show everyone what you’re made of. Know that you got me as your cheerleader, I may not be there with you but my invisible hand has got your back, lifting you up.