Rodeo

August 15th

I feel like a proper cowgirl now. This morning one of the neighbours called and asked if we wanted to help move their cows tomorrow. We decided to go for a trial run this morning so we saddled our horses and went out to find our cows. I was riding Tina today, she loved working with the cows and knew exactly what to do. It was an amazing experience to wrangle the stray cows back to the group. After getting the cows in the corrals I had to wrangle the horses out, without letting the cows escape. It was so much fun and my day got even better when Laura taught us how to rope. We were using a barrel to rope but when it was my turn, Bob the mule came up, so Laura joked that I should try and catch him. He was still quite far away but I gave it a shot anyways. I never expected to actually catch him but somehow I did. Even he looked surprised! It was probably beginners luck but it was still really cool, especially for a first try.

Yesterday afternoon we returned from our trip to Yellowstone. We saw beautiful things in the park but it certainly was an adventure. We left Friday morning to do some shopping in Cody and pick up the rental cars, after which we drove along the scenic highway into the park. It was only a two hour drive but because we had only rented the cars at five, all the campsites in the park were full by the time we got there. We tried to find a campsite outside of the park but after driving for hours we decided to just sleep in the car. I don’t think I actually slept as it was so cramped. We put down the seats so Rosie, Cheyenne and I could sleep in the trunk but we still had to move in unison in order to turn around. The next morning we headed back into the park to find a campsite. Thankfully we did, so we wouldn’t have to spend another night in the car. By this point we had lost the second car (we went with a group of 10) and you can hardly get signal anywhere in the park so we decided to just explore Yellowstone on our own.

I think Yellowstone is my favourite national park. It had everything: beaches, canyons, forests, plains and of course the hot springs and geysers! The only downside was that everything smelled like sulphur. We were lucky: a couple of the geysers erupted just when we were there. Of course we also went to Old Faithful, the most famous geyser, but that one was not very impressive. Yellowstone also has a big bear population but unfortunately we didn’t get to see one (or maybe that’s for the best because it also has a lot of animal attacks) but we did see lots of bison (really close to our car!), bold eagles and a coyote! Even our campsite was beautiful, the best I’ve seen so far. It was next to a stream and surrounded by trees. I never thought I’d say this but I think I’m starting to appreciate camping.

After exploring more of the park on Sunday we went back to Cody for the rodeo in the evening. It was a championship so the best riders from all over the USA were in Cody. Only ever having seen a rodeo on tv I was really impressed. I must admit I felt like I was starring in ‘The Longest Ride’. The night started out with a short show, followed by the national anthem and honouring of the veterans. After that we saw bronc riding, roping, barrel racing and bull riding. The riders were amazing, I can’t imagine having to stay on a bull for 8 seconds (those 8 seconds last a lot longer than you’d think). There was even an actual rodeo clown. It was such a cool thing to experience in real live. The atmosphere was amazing, everyone was excited and was cheering for the riders. I am really glad I got to go as it was one of the things I really wanted to do.