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Published: August 9th 2009
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Frontier Days, Cheyenne Wyoming, U.S.A. Been Awhile… You know, it’s been a while since we’ve showed up here on TravelBlog.org and for that, Kel and I both, feel pretty guilty. 2009 has been an incredibly busy year for us. I was accepted to grad school and we subsequently moved half way across the United States to our present location in Boulder, Colorado. With this move came new housing, a new job for Kel and the start of a new educational program for me, the first time I’ve been asked to study in almost ten years. Needless to say, with all the upheaval we haven’t been able to travel much. We both continue to hope that, as time progresses and life begins to feel normal again, that travel will resume. Until then, you’ll get what you’ll get and you’ll like it!
Enter Cowboy Country Colorado and its surrounding states make up the area of the United States that people think of when they think of wagon trains, cowboys and Native Americans. Our new home in Boulder, CO nestles right up against the “foothills” of the Rocky Mountains, America’s equivalent of the Alps. The view out my bedroom window is mountains, not
Navy Paratrooper
Frontier Days, Cheyenne Wyoming, U.S.A. the little mountains we had back east but real, tall mountains.
Despite our location right at the edge of the great plains of the United States and the biggest mountain range in North America, Boulder is a town of liberal minded and highly educated people. Boulder boasts more people with graduate degrees than almost any other city in North America. Everyone we’ve met has a master’s degree, a PhD. or is working towards one of those two prestigious degrees. Basically what I’m saying is, the great west may be full of cowboys but we live in an area that could have been carved out of California or New York.
So where are all the cowboys you ask? Where does this mythical vision of the western United States still exist? Well, the answer is, not that far away. We went out in search of cowboys and we found them in what felt like our backyard.
Cheyenne, Wyoming sounds like cowboy country. A mere hour and a half drive from Boulder and Denver is the capital of Wyoming. Unlike most state capitals, Cheyenne is a tiny little town, total population of the largest “city” in Wyoming: 9, 900 people.
Ouch
Frontier Days, Cheyenne Wyoming, U.S.A. It’s small…very small!
The drive from Boulder to Cheyenne is across some of the most beautiful rolling pains our great country has to offer. Straight out of the song America the Beautiful, you get the feeling of amber waves of grain, spacious skies, and purple mountain majesties. The drive consists of an hour and fifteen minutes of broad highway that flanks the beginning of the Rockies and drives through fields of grazing cattle and buffalo. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Dances with Wolves” featuring Kevin Costner, the land you see there is reminiscent of the drive between Colorado and Wyoming.
Rodeo-tastic-ness Nothing is hard to find in Cheyenne. It’s so small I swear you could stand on a tall hill and see the whole place. Within minutes of entering town we had found the rodeo. Frontier Days is the biggest tourist event in Cheyenne all year long because, unfortunately, Cheyenne has very little to offer in the way of fun. People come to Wyoming for nature…not city life and it shows in this small town.
But, despite Cheyenne’s quaint nature, there is something people in this city know how to do and it’s how
A Few Cowboy Hats
Frontier Days, Cheyenne Wyoming, U.S.A. to have a rodeo!! As you’ve seen from other posts, we’ve done the rodeo thing before but nothing like this. Many of the smaller rodeos in the country involve a lot of “filler” activities such as singers and clowns trying to fill up time. Not in this rodeo, boys and girls, this rodeo is jam packed with every type of rodeo sport you could imagine.
We happened to be at Cheyenne’s Frontier Days Rodeo on the last Saturday of the competition. This two week long rodeo is comprised of Bareback Riding, Steer Wresting, Team Roping, Saddle Bronc Riding, Tie-Down Roping and Bull Riding. We caught the semi finals of these events and watched as cowboys attempted to do their best against some of the angriest steers, horses, and bulls around.
The riding events consist of the same activitis: Crazy Cowboy gets on animal while still in the unopened pen, pen doors are opened, angry animal does everything in his power to buck the rider while rider tries to stay on for the full riding duration (less than fifteen seconds). Riders get judged on form, amount of time on animal and synchronicity with the animal. (It actually gets way
We'll Catch Him!
Frontier Days, Cheyenne Wyoming, U.S.A. more complicated than that, but for the sake of brevity I’ll leave it there.) The other events involve one or more cowboy attempting to stop a running animal with either brute force or a rope.
I can already hear the animal lovers out there groaning with pain. Kel and I, who have visited zoos and done safaris around the world, love animals and would never want harm to come to an animal. Thus we were expecting to be a bit nonplussed by these rodeo activities. The big surprise of the day…cowboys love their animals too. Many of the events involve as much safety equipment for the animals as it does for the cowboys. For instance, the steers, which are wrestled and roped, have little steer head gear that protect both the steer’s neck and horns so they don’t get hurt. In one event a steer was accidental dragged by a horse it was attached to…you would have thought someone had shot a dog on the field. The whole crowd was immediately silent and everyone was genuinely concerned for the steer’s well being. When the steer got up unharmed the crowd yelled like they would for a fallen footballer who’d
Yee-HAW!!!
Frontier Days, Cheyenne Wyoming, U.S.A. recovered from his injuries!
But, as you can expect this is dangerous work and people quite frequently get hurt when dealing with these majestic, yet wild, animals. Just imagine the possible injuries you can sustain while holding on to a bucking bull for dear life or diving from a moving horse onto a running steer. It seems completely plausible that these cowboys are asking for trouble and sadly, we saw just how dangerous this sport could be. Usually the horses, while madly bucking to remove their riders, are aware enough to avoid the fences that enclose the arena. More than once a horse came close to a fence only to veer at the last moment. Sadly, one rider was seriously injured when his horse ran full speed into a fence. The rider was bucked over the horse and fence and landed directly on his head. For ten minutes medical crews worked feverishly on the fallen rider but he eventually had to be sent to the local hospital. We never did find out if he was okay but, I can say, the fall looked bad…real bad!
Easy Come…Easy Go! The Rodeo, which was what brought us to
Cowboy Much?
Frontier Days, Cheyenne Wyoming, U.S.A. Cheyenne, turned out to be four hours of good fun. The crowd was truly a representation of a side of the United States Kel and I rarely see. These good, “salt of the earth” folk, represent the conservative, Republican people that make up the heart of the United States. While Kel and I may not agree with all of their views, we respect them as we would people from any country, people, or religion. This group loves country music, George Bush, the United States military and everything the US constitution stands for. It was really great to experience such a different but equally important side of our own country!
After the rodeo we stuck around in town for the local fair and then ate some dinner before getting back on the road to head back home. While we were a mere 90 miles (198 km) from our own home, we felt like we had traveled into a completely different world. Will we go to Cheyenne for more adventure? Probably not, but we will continue to explore the “Wild West” in search of more cultural escapades and natural beauty. Hopefully it won’t take 8 months for us to blog again!!
Catching the Little Guy
Frontier Days, Cheyenne Wyoming, U.S.A. Make sure to check out the extra pages of pictures at the end of this blog!! Check out more of our photography at: Team Turner Photography
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Preston Smith
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I want your life
What else can I say?!? I want your life. Hope you are well. Glad you are studying hard! ;) Regards to Kel. Hope she is back on her feet and enjoying her job. Regards Preston (et al)