The Daddy of 'em All

Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming, and it's in the southeastern corner of the state, just about seven miles from the Colorado border.

We got to Cheyenne on Sunday afternoon and wedged into our campsite. I say wedged because the enterprising woman who owns this campground figured out a way to double her income during the peak Frontier Days celebration - she put two campers on the site of one. So instead of having a grassy area with a picnic table next to our site, we have a travel trailer and a white pick-up truck. We can't really complain, since we didn't make a reservation until the day before we arrived and everywhere else is booked solid.



After we got hooked up and cleaned up, we took the shuttle to the Frontier Days grounds. Both Ruth and Henry got decked out in their western wear - Ruth in her pink boots, pink bandana and pink cowgirl hat, and Henry in his white t-shirt, jeans and cowboy hat. (He reminded us that he doesn't have cowboy boots.)

Every year, during the last full week of July, Cheyenne is host of the Frontier Days celebration and rodeo, called the "Daddy of 'em All." This rodeo is consistently voted the best large outdoor rodeo in the United States. Along with the rodeo, there are carnival rides and games, booths with jewelry, western wear and other stuff, an Indian village, parades, pancake breakfasts and a chuckwagon cook-off. They also have country music concerts at night (Sawyer Brown, George Straight, Taylor Swift, etc.) and a Blue Angels show later this week.

Since we arrived late, we just walked around the grounds a bit and the kids rode some carnival rides. In a testament to the importance and fickleness of technology, the ATMs onsite would not give Jeff or I money - said it was against federal law. Go figure. So we were stuck on a tight budget and called it an early night. We did pick up tickets for the rodeo for the

following day - Henry definitely wanted to see another rodeo.

We slept till almost 8:00 this morning, and then hit the road to find an ATM. Mission accomplished, we parked the RV and took the shuttle back to the fairgrounds.

We toured the Indian Village and old-time village with shops and people in period costume before heading to the rodeo.

The rodeo here is during the day from 12:45 to about 4:00 p.m., and includes bull riding, bronc riding, steer roping, steer wrestling and barrel racing. Just like in Cody, there is a main announcer who keeps things moving, and a mic'd rodeo clown who provides jokes throughout the rodeo.

Unlike in Cody, where bull riding was the last event, here in Cheyenne it was first up. They go back and forth with events, repeating some. The cowboys compete throughout the week, and the winners move up to the final event on July 24. The winners gets money and the all around winner gets a prized Frontier Days Rodeo belt buckle. Of course, it also says "Biggest Daddy of Them All."

Bull riding is a pretty exciting sport. When you're used to seeing cows and an occasional bull on a farm, it's pretty amazing to see a fired up bull in a rodeo ring. They're huge and they buck like crazy! The rider has to stay on the bull for eight seconds to be judged, and as you're watching, eight seconds seems like a minute or more. How these guys do it is beyond me.

The bucking horses threw lots of guys and was another exciting event. The men who do steer wrestling and roping are amazingly talented. The steers they're chasing weigh at least 300 pounds and have horns. There's a group roping competition where one man lassoes the steer's head and the other ropes the steer's back leg - while the steer is moving. Again, I'm baffled at how they do it.

The ladies do the barrel racing. They had some amazing riders, including a woman was is in her 50's! She placed second. While we were excited for her to do so well, it was sad to hear the announcer say that she lost her daughter a week ago in a horse accident. Just a reminder that this is a dangerous sport.

As an additional bonus, while we were watching the rodeo, the Blue Angels were practicing nearby and we got to see some of them fly over us and practice maneuvers.

We snacked throughout the day on traditional fair food: snow cones, corn dogs, sausage sandwiches, lemonade and pulled pork barbecue sandwiches from a local BBQ joint. I had an ice cold beer at the rodeo, and it was mighty fine. After the rodeo, the kids rode some more rides, and I took Henry to meet some of the rodeo cowboys to get autographs. It was great to see the guys close-up. Many were still dirty from the rodeo, and many were drinking beer. I would be too if I just rode a bull. They were all really nice to Henry and signed his cowboy hat. We also met Miss Rodeo Virginia, and Henry told her we were from Virginia too. She signed a picture for Henry and Ruth.

 Then we headed downtown to check out the city area of Cheyenne. We stopped at the Gunslinger show (Wild West re-enactors), but as soon as Ruth heard a man fire a rifle, she wanted out of there. So I took her for walk to the Frontier Days section of downtown and left Henry and Jeff behind, talking to folks Jeff met from West Virginia.

Ruth and I found ourselves in a store called "The Wrangler," which has been a fixture in downtown Cheyenne for a long time. I picked up some jeans and looked at more belts - they have such great belts here, but I wonder how ridiculous I'd look wearing them back east. The cashier showed us three men looking at boots and said two of them were members of the Blue Angels who were doing some shopping. Cool!

After our little trip downtown, it was time to call it a day. Both Henry and I had headaches, which I think were brought on by not drinking enough water. Back at the RV, we drank water, watched some tv and the kids made keychains and bracelets with some of the beads I've picked up along the way.

It's been a tiring two days, but we enjoyed pretty much every minute of it.