…a surprising victory and crushing defeat!
Today is the National Day of the Cowboy. We are often in Dubois for the 4th of July, but have never been for the Day of the Cowboy (except for Trista). This was the year!
This morning we got up and had a leisurely morning. I did some organizing in the RV, John dumped our tanks, Levi played Minecraft, Trista and Maw Maw did some wash!
Parade was at 1, so around noon we fixed some lunch and played a couple of hands of gin with my formidable opponent and her automatic shuffling machine!
As we were getting ready to go, it started to rain, which is absolutely normal for parades in this town. I don’t know that I have ever been to an event here that didn’t get a little sprinkle.
We headed over to the parade route and found some rocks to sit on. As soon as we were seated, it started raining again… big, cold drops! We ran back into the car, which was parked between other folks who were also seeking shelter in their vehicles. A family member was trying to call, and the connection wasn’t working so we called with the Bluetooth. A family member that we love very much is having some health issues and a stool sample was being hand-delivered to a medical facility. When the conversation got a little too much for me and the rain had eased up, I jumped out of the car and closed the door behind me, only to discover that the entire conversation could be CLEARLY heard outside of the vehicle. Apparently, the lady in the car next to us had been giggling and John was wondering why. Well, everybody poops…OOPS!
We got back to our spots and the parade began. As soon as Levi saw the colors coming, he jumped up to his feet and put his hat over his heart! He is very good about respecting our flag and that makes me a proud mama!
The parade began and I was not prepared for the first entry. This parade is all equine (vs the 4th parade which allows motorized entries). Trista was here with my in-laws two years ago for Day of the Cowboy and was excited to ride in Mylon’s cart with Paw Paw and Mylon. Sadly, Mylon passed away last year and the first entry was a carriage with a sign dedicated to his memory, pulling a saddled-up horse with an empty saddle. I said something to John and he said, “I was fine until I heard the catch in your voice!” Grief is something that is still so close to the surface for us and it really was a beautiful tribute.
After that it was a pretty short parade, but it was fun to see the horses and riders and a sweet little donkey who was saddled up for her first parade!
The other event happening in town today were the hide races at the arena… I had no idea what hide races were, none of us did, except Paw Paw and the way he described it sounded horrible, so we decided last night that we weren’t going to go. I woke up this morning with a change of heart. This is such an unusual year for us, and we aim to live it to the fullest. I have told the kids over and over that we are going to have some experiences that are so cool we can hardly stand it and we are going to have some experiences that are so boring we can hardly stand it and many in between and we aren’t always going to know which is which ahead of time, but we are going to experience as many things as we can because experiences – both good and bad – are what shape us and make us interesting.
After the parade we came home for a lazy afternoon before heading back out for the hide races. Paw Paw skipped the parade to go on a trail ride and made it back in time and opted to come to the hide races. We were a little early and found some seats in the bleachers and observed several saddled-up horses and two huge cow hides attached to ropes in the arena.
One gal jumped on a cow hide and held on to the rope, while the rider rode the horse out into the arena, around a barrel and back. There was so much dirt and gravel kicked up into her face and my only thought was, ‘NO friggin’ way!’
There were some things for the kids to play with behind the bleachers and Levi immediately found some girls to play with. He also became quite fond of the ropin’ rope and made sure that each of us were captured by Sheriff Levi!
As we are sitting there, Trista comes over with a lady with a clip board and says, “Mom, can I do it?” I have no idea what is going on and this event looks scary and I was fairly sure they already picked riders, but apparently you can just sign on up. Trista really wanted to do it and John and I were kind of looking at each other like, “OK. I guess.” The lady said that it was fine for Trista to back out, but we ought to go ahead and sign the release anyway. I made John do it because I didn’t want blood on my hands!
The event started with a great rendition of the national anthem (sung by the same girl that sang it at the rodeo last night that I was able to hear from the arena in my RV!). Basically, two fools, er, I mean, contestants get on this giant cow hide and hang on for dear life while the horse goes out, around a barrel and back. They are timed and ranked according to their times. Men, women, adults, and kids all compete in the same ranking. It is hilarious to watch as some folks drop the rope, some fall off the hide, one rider fell off the horse, barrels get knocked over and one poor girl got drug into the fence… HARD (this part wasn’t funny). After the girl hit the fence, I figured Trista would back out, but she did not. I kept waiting to hear her name and they finally called it. I nervously jumped off the bleachers and stood at the ready with my camera. Trista held on tight, completed the circuit and put down the fastest time… by a LOT! They told her to stay close for the finals. She ran over to us, shaking with excitement, with nerves, with fear, with just pure Trista energy and gravel in her teeth! She was nervous to go again but went back over there. She had one of the two fastest times, so she got to compete for the final.
When the final round was setting up, Paw Paw said, “Well, if she’s in the final round, Grandpa better stand up for that!” Off they went again (worth noting that the final round was two sets of girls), it was a photo finish (well, it would have been in a bigger venue, but it did take a while to get the results), the final times were 11.20 and 11.21 seconds. Trista and Molly and Cowboy lost the grand prize by .01, which was a devastating loss, but better than that, they took 2nd place which was a completely shocking victory! The whole time I was just hoping that she wouldn’t get hurt. Not only did she not get (seriously) hurt, she took 2nd and won $100!!! We had no idea there was prize money at stake!
On a funny note, after they were announced the winners, Trista was to get up on the horse with Molly for their victory lap… They got Trista up there and she said to Molly, “I’m scared! I’ve never ridden a horse like this before!” (She is a mule rider). Molly looked right back at her and said, “You just let me drag you around this arena on a cow hide at 40 mph and you are afraid of this?!”
VICTORY LAP! 
Negotiating glove rental fees!
What started out as something that we all agreed not to do, turned into one of the most fun and exciting experiences we have ever had! We had to wait a bit to collect our prize money (since the man with the prize money had run into town to get ice packs and a sling for the girl who was drug into the fence, we hope she is ok!)
We headed home for dinner and then went back out to the Jackalope for celebration ice cream! We all kept saying how surprised we were and Paw Paw kept saying “Paw Paw wasn’t surprised, because I knew you could do it!”
On the way home we were talking to Rose, and Paw Paw said, “I’m sure glad she won… because this ice cream is delicious!”