those crazy cowboys

Our wonderful host family, the (Sapp)Stones, had a slam-bang finish planned for our last free day here in Denver, which was yesterday, Sunday July 29th. We cruised on up to Jack & Karen Sapp's lovely home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and were treated to a fast-paced, exciting, incredibly muddy rodeo... and not just any rodeo: the "daddy of 'em all"- Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Finals! Not an easy seat to get -- our tickets had been pre-purchased in January (no joke).

There was bucking broncos, steer wrestling, calf roping, barrel racing, and an amateur wild horse race, not to mention some pretty intense bull-riding on some of the biggest, sauciest beasts you've ever seen.

Scott & Jon decided that taking the calf roping title was the best deal of them all-- it still had a decent purse, but was much less life-threatening, then say, being tossed off an enormous bull.

Scottie also picked up some great one-liners from the announcer: "There aren't enough "O"s in smooth to describe that cowboy."

I was most surprised by the steer wrestling... there is nothing like watching a guy on a horse tearing after a young steer, then leaping from his moving horse onto the steer's back, grabbing it by the horns and flipping it to the ground. Both steer and cowboy turned a serious shade of muddy in the lake of the arena grounds. (we had gorgeous weather, but the three days previous Cheyenne had gotten a ton of rain). The slick playing field made all the rodeo events extra exciting.

Treated to handmade burgers before the festivities, and delicious BBQ afterwards, the whole day was a truly cultural experience for this cowgirl.