Cheyenne Frontier Days

It has been several years at least since Bryan and I have taken a full 2 weeks for vacation. We like to do small, short, little ones throughout the year. But this year we decided to go to Montana and that needs a longer time frame. Jenny and Ken invited us to stay at their cabin with them. It was the summer of Dad and Mom's 60th anniversary and most of the kids would be there. Eric and Lisa couldn't and Rachel was in Texas. But first our trip there...

July 19: 

We set out on our journey early Sunday morning but first we had to deliver a cake and cookies that I had made for a friend of Bobbi's, Jaime. Jamie had me make them for her son's 1st birthday. 

Delivery done and on the road. We made an all important stop at Cabela's in Sydney to get our Yeti Rambler cups. We had a friends and family discount so got a great deal on them. Then it was back on the road to Cheyenne, WY.

We got to Cheyenne late afternoon, found our hotel and went walking around the area to see what there was around there. A mall, a Barnes and Noble, a diner. We wandered through stores and ate supper at a Mongolian Grill then crashed at our hotel. 

July 20: 

We had tickets to Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo and Bull Riding. 

But before we went to that we decided to head downtown and find a few antique stores to look around in. We got down there and the street we wanted was closed off so we went a few blocks back to this place. While we were sitting there a bunch of police cars and emergency vehicles went by us. We made the usual "wonder what happened" comments.

We got to the Frontier Park and Ride, school buses took us to the entrance from our parking lot. It was nice to have front entry drop off and pick up.

When we got on the bus the man on the bus drivers radio said "You won't be able to take folks downtown just yet they still have that area blocked off. Somenone robbed the rare coins antique store and killed two people." That was right where Bryan and I had been! It either was happening when we were trying to get there or right before because the emergency vehicles were a few minutes after we left the area. A little too close for comfort. It made me sad for the 2 people who may have been having a vacation just like us. Or opening their store in anticipation of lots of tourists coming in. 

We had been in the park 5 minutes when Bryan ran into someone he knew. That might be a record...

Then as I walked by a sheriff in the park I heard his radio describe who they were looking for and the vehicle. Security was pretty tight at the park all day. To my knowledge they did not catch him while we were in town. 

 We wandered around, got some lunch, looked at stuff then headed into the stands to our seats. We had to walk past all the livestock to get to our seats. 

It was Military Day and elite team of sky divers did some stunts and landed right in front of us.

This guy came down flying that huge flag.

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Then they brought out a huge American Flag carried by veterans, I believe, and played the National Anthem. That is always a moving experience to me.

I took this right after because it seemed weird and disrespectful to take it during.

Probably my favorite part of any rodeo is watching the catch guys do their job after a bronc or bull has been ridden. 

This was actually pretty amazing. The bucking bronco went down and didn't get right up so about 10 guys and the vet were on it immediately restraining it, tied up it's legs, put it on a large stretcher tarp and they brought out the horse ambulance and took it to check it an make sure nothing was broken on it. I have never seen anything like it. But the announcer said it was a $100,000.00 bucking horse and no one wants to mess with that. So they take precautions. The horse was fine.

The rodeo started at 12:15 and we finally left at 4. Long rodeo.

After the rodeo we went back to the hotel to rest before the bull riding that evening. It was a fun day.

July 21:

We ate at the diner by the motel and headed down the road.

I saw this and just had to snap a picture.

I told Bryan it was almost as good as a Sasquatch sighting...almost...

I am assuming that this sign was created by someone trying to teach a lady about which fork to use when eating the main course at a fancy dinner...no?

And so we went on north to Bozeman.