The Wild West

We arrived in Cody, WY mid-afternoon - just in time to get our grocery pit stop made and hunt for a few more warmer clothes to take with us into Yellowstone. Apparently the cold snap is a bit out of the ordinary here as well...or other people had the same idea we did, because we struck out on the clothes for the most part. Oh well, hopefully it will warm up or we will be doing laundry every couple of days.

The big event in Cody is the Cody Nite Rodeo - held nightly for over 70 years. Abby and Isaac, having never been to a rodeo, were intrigued. It might have had something to do with Matt talking it up quite a bit as well. Anyway, we got tickets and headed out after dinner to check it out. The campground told us right where to sit, and it was perfect! We were front and center right over the chutes and pens where all the action was. After wandering around meeting the rodeo clowns and getting their faces painted, we were ready.

Isaac was most anticipating the bull riders, which of course don't come until the last event - the main event. Every time he heard any sort of loud noise banging on metal, he put his fingers in his ears, cowered a bit, and asked if the bulls were coming... it was priceless. But it wasn't as priceless as watching our two city-slicker children running around the arena chasing the calves during the calf scramble. They had absolutely no idea what they were doing or where they should run. I laughed until I cried, but it was so cute. Matt and I agreed as we were heading home that at least they were some of the smartest kids out there because they didn't fall for the "roll in the dirt" routine during the warm-up.

All in all it was a good flavor of small-town western rodeo - a few entrants for each event that allowed the kids to see what a rodeo is all about. I'm glad we took the time to check it out.

Tracy