Diary for Harry and Judy's RV Trip


Day 28-June 16, 2017-And They Call The Thing Rodeo

2017-06-16

Day 28-June 16, 2017-“And They Call The Thing Rodeo”

Beautiful day again, sunny, high of 88.

The morning consisted of groceries, haircut for me, car wash and fill up the tank. Back to the campground to read a bit.  TOne of the best reasons for not having an itinerary is being able to change plans.  The campground I wanted to stay at three nights from now was full so we had to stay in Lexington another night.  Problem is, the site we had reserved here was taken for the next night so I had to try to find a site for three consecutive nights and switch reservations.  But I found the campground only had one site left for Friday night.  This didn't sound right, I know this campground has a lot of sites and is rarely full.  So I figured something was going on and googled it.  Sure enough, there's a rodeo in town Friday and Saturday night.  We reserved the last open site at the campground.  So off to the rodeo we go. It’s right next door at the indoor Alltech Arena in the Horse Park. When I bought the tickets I spoke to a very informative man who made sure we got front row, center seats, told me to drive in the back gate of the campground, get there early to listen to the band, Scott Said and The Backroads Band, watch how they set up and get the lay of the land.  So that’s what we did.  Lots of vendors selling cowboy stuff and food.  We met the man, Don, and we thanked him for all his info. WOW, what a rodeo.  This was our second rodeo, the first being last year in Cody, WY.  This one was so much better.  Put on by the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, they were competing for a chance to go to Las Vegas for a million dollar a night rodeo.  The competition classes were bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronco riding, tie down roping, ladies barrel racing and bull riding.   For fun there was blind musical chairs, where the clown kept moving the chairs on the poor, unsuspecting players, the calf scramble, kids chasing 3 calves to get a ribbon off their tails for a prize, mustin bustin’, kids 50 pounds or less riding sheep.  They wore protective helmets and vests and looked so little. Only one kid got more than 2 feet out of the gate, most fell off as soon as the sheep moved. And of course the clown and barrel man, Hippie Enselkes.  One of the bulls knocked him a few feet into the air (in his barrel) and he came out unfazed.  The patriotic opening was dedicated to first responders and Wells Fargo paraded an 1852 Concord Stagecoach around the arena.  The halftime show was amazing…Tommie Turvey and his horse, Pokerjoe.  What a bond between the two of them.  He could do anything to that horse.  Tommie is a stunt man and horse trainer (he trains Blade from “Walking Dead”) and you could tell they have a deep respect for each other.  I never saw a horse do what this one did, he was more like a trained dog.  Absolutely fascinating.  Wonderful night, we definitely would return to this rodeo.