July In Cheyenne

We hit the road to Cheyenne, WY on Tuesday afternoon.  I drove quite a bit and my rig hauling must be getting better because Ace was actually able to sleep this trip! We drove until about 2am and decided to stop in Laramie, WY and hike the rest of the way early Wednesday morning.

We woke up at about 6am on Wednesday and hit the road. There was nothing but rain up ahead and it had already rained a bit in Cheyenne, so we knew we were in for a muddy ride at the "Daddy of 'em All".  All I could think about was Aaron Watson's tribute song about Lane Frost, "In the rain in the mud in July in Cheyenne..." and knew we were in for a messy time.

We parked the rig and had to hurry a little to get ready for the slack.  Ace was taking a quick shower when we both heard a loud thump on the trailer.  I rushed to the door to find the lead rope wrapped around the saddle horn and Mexico stooped down.  Ace yelled at me from the shower to grab a knife and cut him loose.  I was pretty nervous and was really worried about the situation.  By the time I had him freed, Ace had hopped out of the shower and was ready to help catch him in case he went wild.   I've never been around horses too much, so it really had my adrenaline pumping.

Ace knew he was going to have a challenge when he saw his first calf in the pen.  He did a good job getting her flanked but she was a little too large to make her cross her legs if she didn't feel like it....and she didn't feel like it.

Click HERE to watch Ace's first run in Cheyenne

After the slack we got Mexico situated in the barn and headed to the RV park across the road to check availability.  We went back to the fairgrounds to hook up the trailer and came back to the RV park and had access to electricity and running water, which felt like a resort to us!   Since we didn't get much sleep the night before we both took a nap. The rain picked up again, so we decided on ordering a pizza and catching up on the three redbox movie rentals we had gotten a few days before. 

On Thursday morning, Ace loaded his saddle, rope, and Mexico's feed onto the back of the truck and we headed to the fairgrounds.  Ace was relieved to see that his second calf didn't break the 300 pound barrier and knew he had a decent chance at taking her one-on-one.  He made a good run, which is currently placing in the second round.  However, the disadvantage of roping in the mud as opposed to having dry conditions may keep him from winning as much as we had hoped.

Click HERE to watch Ace's second run in Cheyenne

After Ace's run, we went to see the Justin Sports Medicine Team.  They examined his baby toe and it appears that the infection is healing well!  We headed back to the trailer and decided that operation 'clean up the trailer' was in full effect.  We took Ace's muddy rodeo attire and some of our dirty laundry and rugs to a nearby laundromat.  We caught up on a few episodes of House while our clothes were washing and drying.  After our laundry excursion, we ran to Walmart to grab some steaks to cook for dinner.

(Here's a little background story...)
After Ace had left for the summer, I had arranged to fly out a few days later to meet him.  He insisted that his mom arrange for me to bring his small, portable grill (as he had forgotten to pack it in the trailer) in one of my checked bags.  I met up with some friends of the Slone Family the night before I flew out, to get Ace's new Ipad (after finding his old one after months of thinking I left in the stands in Bulverde, he left it on the tailgate and it was ran over by an 18-wheeler).  They brought the grill with them, however, they had already decided there was NO way they'd let me fly with it.  Instead, they gave me $21 for Ace to buy a new one.  While we were in Casper, WY we bought a new grill when we were at a Dollar General.

While at this Dollar General, I found a full length mirror that I thought would be perfect for the trailer.  There is one installed in the bathroom, but it is at an angle and pretty hard to access when Ace hangs his worn clothes in front of it.  He thought I was silly and was questioning where I'd store this mirror.  To his surprise, I found a little nook in between the shower and his closet that houses our new mirror perfectly!

(End of background story...)

When we got back from running our errands, we swept out the trailer and cleaned out all the dirt (...and blonde hairs).  I put up the food and all of our laundry while Ace was outside assembling our new grill. We made friends with our neighbors, who were also in Cheyenne for the rodeo.  While we were cooking, we visited with them for a little while and had a great time swapping stories.  

We grilled steaks and made corn and it turned out pretty delicious!  We brought the steaks inside and Ace was contemplating on putting together the table for us to dine on.  It is stored in my closet and a little hard to get to without taking all my clothes out.  He then had a brilliant idea:  use the full length mirror as a table and set it on both of our laps!  Turns out my mirror is multipurpose (and now he thinks buying it wasn't so silly) and we used both of our Dollar General purchases in one evening.

While we were at Walmart we bought some fishing gear.  After dinner, I cleaned up while Ace got our rods rigged and ready for our sunrise fishing tourney on Friday morning.  However, when Friday morning arrived, we slept later than anticipated.  We got up, had breakfast and went to feed Mexico.  We relaxed around the trailer a bit (and watched a few more episodes of House) before going to play 18 holes of golf.  After golf, we decided it was time to try out our fishing equipment.  

(NOTE:  the RV park is in between a small body of water and a golf course... Ace was like a kid in a candy store!)

When we got to the water we both cast our lines.  To our surprise I got a bite in less than two minutes and I reeled in to find a small trout.

On my next cast I caught a small perch.  Both fish were too small to keep for dinner.  Ace moved to another spot to try his luck, while I went back to the trailer and got the grill fired up and ready for dinner. He swears he caught a handful of fish in my absence, but I think he just doesn't want to believe I out fished him.  

We heated up some leftover steak and made some fajita meat and beans.  We didn't have any tortillas, so we decided to make some fire pit nachos to use up the rest of a bag of chips we had lying around. 

As we were grilling the meat our neighbors arrived back at their horse trailer.  We struck a conversation and they told us they bought Ace a surprise.  They bought him an E-Z Flip, which is the perfect contraption for grilling and flipping meat.  We utilized the tool to take the meat off the grill and I foresee us using it for quite sometime!  We are very thankful to meet such kind people and will never forget our visit with Stickley Family. 

We have a few days off before Ace is up in Ogden, UT on 7/23/14, so we are slowly headed in that direction.