This is the time of the year that cowboys, cowgirls, and
rodeo enthusiasts crave – Cowboy Christmas! The Fourth of July week is all about the hustle and bustle
of pulling all-night drives and flying around to get to as many rodeos as
possible. Cowboy Christmas
is a chance for contestants to bring home as much prize money as they can.
Our Cowboy Christmas started in Greeley, Colorado on Monday
night. We stayed in Amarillo, TX
the night before and Monday was an all-day drive to Greeley. About 30 minutes before the performance
started, our rig pulled into the Greeley Stampede Fairgrounds. It was “Tough Enough To Wear Pink
Night” and there was a beautiful presentation of flags that brought tears of
sadness and joy to my eyes.
As Ace entered the
box, the announcer introduced him as, “Ace Slone, the handsome man from Cuero,
TX….” I couldn’t help but smile
and blush as I had the iPad held up and ready to film him. I must be one lucky girl to have snagged him!
Last year at
Greeley, Mexico popped up in the box and cost Ace from doing really well in the
short round. On Monday, we were
hoping for Mexico to redeem himself.
Mexico scored good and tracked a fast-running calf. They ran her a ways down the arena, got
her roped, and Mexico worked better in the field than he has been lately. The calf strained a bit and Ace got her
tied in 12.3 seconds, which was a little too long to place in the round.
The fairgrounds were
a little crowded, so we decided to stay at the arena in Brighton, CO. We had dinner at a local Chili’s with
calf-roper and friend, Marvin T., and headed to Brighton. Ace drove while Cody played DJ and we
all sang karaoke to entertain ourselves along the drive. After a couple days of the horses being
cooped in the trailer during our long travels, I know they were excited to have
huge pens to themselves.
On Tuesday, we
decided to have a “natural wake-up” as Marvin called it – no alarm clocks set
in our rig! The guys went to
Brighton Feed & Saddlery to get some hay for the horses. When they got back, I made us all a
late breakfast. Ace’s mom, Lonna,
had sent us on our way Sunday evening with a pan full of stuffed bell peppers
and veggies. I cut up the peppers and
threw them in a skillet with some eggs and made a southwest scramble. I love re-incarnating leftovers into
new meals!
We finished watching
“Gone Girl” and Cody packed his bag for his travels to St. Paul. We dropped Cody off at the Denver Airport for his flight to
Portland, OR. He flew up to Oregon
for the rodeo in St. Paul on 7/1 and mounted on another horse while Spook
stayed with us. Ace had also
entered the rodeo in St. Paul, but had decided a few days before not to fly up
there. He had second
thoughts about this decision, so he later looked at flights but there wasn’t
one available that would get him back on time to make it to the slack in Cody, WY. After we dropped off Cody, Ace and I
loaded the horses and headed to Casper, WY. We drove through a little bit of rain and watched a
lightening storm while driving through the mountains. The sights from above were so heavenly and beautiful!
And the always changing scenery makes for constant admiration for our Creator!
Wednesday morning,
we woke up fairly early because Ace wanted to make it to Cody, WY to watch the
slack. We stopped at G-Ma’s Diner
in Casper for a quick breakfast and got back on the road. We pulled into the arena in Cody and
noticed a few calf-roper rigs headed out. Ace and Mexico rode up to the arena as the slack was ending,
so he didn’t get to watch any of the calf-roping. We decided to head to Red Lodge, MT and build a pen for the
horses, since we knew there would be grass for them to graze. There was a flowing stream right where
we parked, so we took the horses to the water. We built Mexico and Spook a pen next to the rig with the
electric fence set-up and put Sleepy in a nearby stall.
We stopped at a gas
station to get a few things for the trailer. The gas station had a huge local beer selection and
much to our surprise, they even had seasonal Shiner beers! We haven’t seen this so far from home
before! Of course we had to buy my
hometown beer and figured we should try some Montana brews!
On our drive to
Billings, we were on the search for a feed store that sold pure Alfalfa hay
bales. We couldn’t find any bales,
so we settled for a couple bags of Alfalfa cubes. We picked up Cody from the airport and had dinner
before heading back to Red Lodge.
Thursday morning, we
had breakfast at the Red Lodge Café before heading to Cody, WY.
We made it to Cody
with a little time to spare before the calf-roping started. The guys roped the calf dummy a bit to get mentally prepared for their runs.
Ace drew calf 57, a calf that had
been previously tied in 20 seconds, with a broken barrier. He got her roped and she strained when
he went to tie her. His run
would’ve been a 12.4 second run, but the calf came untied which resulted in a
no time.
Cody got a re-run
and ran his calf at the end of slack.
He got her roped quick and made a solid, clean 8.3 second run. Even though it didn’t go well for Ace,
it is comforting to see how happy and excited he was for Cody!
After the slack, I
went to the hospitality and made a few to-go plates and BBQ sandwiches for our
8-hour drive to Oakley City, UT.
It’s crazy to think that our day started in Montana, brought us to
Wyoming, and would end in Utah.
Who knew you could be in so many different places in one day!? Our drive would prove to be rushed and
we wouldn’t have time to stop for dinner. That’s when you pull over and throw someone in the
trailer to make a pizza….. that someone ended up being me! I’ve learned to sacrifice a little
motion sickness so that we can get to our destination in a timely manner.
For quite some distance, we followed this image and I just loved how beautiful it was!
We made it to Oakley
City, UT as the perf was starting and strategically parked our rig in an easy
“get-away” spot. Coincidentally,
Ace drew calf 57 – the same number calf he drew in Cody earlier in the
day. I made my way to very crowded
stands and sat on the very edge of the front row. I couldn’t get in a good position to video but thankfully
there was a video screen right above the stands for me to video the Ace and Cody's runs.
Ace knew that the
calf had one fast run but also had a few longer runs in her track record. He got her roped fast, but she started
kicking when he went to tie her. He
had a 12.0 second run, which was too long to be in the money.
I hustled from the
stands after Ace and Cody had finished their runs and put Sleepy in the trailer
and started the truck. The guys
hurried to load Spook and Mexico and Cody got in the driver’s seat. We knew we had to really haul it to
make it from Oakley City to West Jordan, Utah in time for the guys to rope in the
slack after the performance.
Shortly after
leaving the arena, a small car whipped out in front of us. Cody had to slam on the breaks, because
we couldn’t move around her. I’ve
always driven a small car and can’t say I’m completely innocent and have never
pulled out in front of a faster moving vehicle. When you’re in a vehicle that is hauling animals – very
expensive animals at that – you have a newfound respect for driving. In conclusion, hauling animals or not –
please stay safe on the roadways!
We booked it to West
Jordan and arrived just as the slack was starting. A cop had the roadway blocked off as he was directing
traffic out of the fairgrounds. As
we pulled up, he was very helpful to stop traffic and moved his car from the entrance lane to
let our rig in.
When we parked, we
immediately got all the horses out of the rig and walked them around to make
sure they were all okay. When we
slammed on the breaks, the rubber floor mats had bunched up under the front
three stalls, leaving Mexico’s stall in the back very slippery. All the horses were fine and we hurried
up to the arena. Ace and Mexico
backed into the box and Ace nodded his head – he was ready for his third calf
of the day. Mexico popped up a
little bit in the box, but quickly redeemed himself. Ace threw a fast loop and the calf’s legs were a little
distance under Ace’s tying position after he flanked her, which added a little
time to his 8.5 second run. When we left West Jordan, Ace's run was leading the round but there were two performances to go. The round got pretty quick and Ace's run was bumped down to sixth place.
After the slack, we
headed to Pleasant Grove, UT and stayed there for the night. On Friday, July 3rd, we
started our 9-hour journey to Prescott, AZ. Cody found a local diner for breakfast online and we drove
in its direction to find it closed.
We ended up getting breakfast at Taco Bell. Ace’s brother-in-law, Martin Leske, has been raving about
their AM Crunch Wraps and we had a giftcard from our going away party – Double Whammy! Thanks for breakfast, Bell Family!!
We decided to take
the scenic route to Prescott and started listening to our second book on
Audible, “Water for Elephants.” As
we were passing through Flagstaff, AZ, a huge storm cell plundered us with
rain. The lightening storm was electric - in more than one way! I was convinced I had to capture a picture with our new camera, the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS! As I held down the shutter to take constant pictures, I was taunted by my traveling partners. After going through many pictures, I finally found that I actually caught a streak of lightening!
We were hoping that this
cell would bypass Prescott and would allow to guys to rope in a dry arena. When we arrived in Prescott, the clouds
were darkening and the wind was roaring but thankfully the rain stalled until
after calf-roping!
I was anxious in the stands, hoping those clouds would stay away during the performance.
Ace and Mexico made
a 10.7 second run on his first calf and didn’t have any luck on the calf he ran
in the slack after the rodeo. The iPad froze just as I went to video his second run, so I don't have film of this one.
Originally, our 4th
was open as we didn’t enter the rodeo in Window Rock, AZ before the books
closed. In Prescott, the guys
caught word of a night rodeo going on in Taylor, AZ and we had made that our
plan for the 4th. We
left for Taylor on Saturday around noon and drove through more rain.
We arrived to a
really muddy arena, but the crowd was unbelievably large and excited to
rodeo! Ace and Cody were up in the
slack after the performance, so we walked up to the arena to watch the
rodeo.
Luckily, the arena held a
bunch of water and the rodeo committee had pretty heavy-duty equipment to have
the grounds in top-notch condition for all the contestants. Since it wasn’t the most ideal
situation, both Ace and Cody would ride on Sleepy for their runs. Ace made a 9.72 second run and placed
third overall. Cody’s calf ran
hard and Sleepy couldn’t quite catch up to her.
After the slack, the
guys decided we would head towards Grants, NM. Cody got behind the wheel and we arrived around 3 or 4am (I
may have fallen asleep the second we got in the truck, so I don’t really
remember the time….) to a very crowded arena. All the stalls that were open were super muddy and not the
condition we wanted to leave the horses in. We made an executive decision to drive toward Estes Park, CO
– the guys rope here on Monday night.
Ace hopped in the back to sleep and I hopped up front to stay awake with
Cody while he drove us a few more hours.
At 7am, we stopped at a McDonald’s in Las Vegas, NM to feed the horses
and ourselves. I drove the next
few hours to Pueblo, CO and I must say that I feel super accomplished. Not in the sense that I’m becoming more
comfortable driving the rig, but in the sense that both cowboys must trust me
enough to finally fall asleep (snoring and all….) with me behind the wheel! Ace took the last leg of the trip and
got us to Estes Park, CO around 3pm.
We got the horses situated in stalls and found a hook-up for our rig. We arrived to Estes Park in the rain and we figured it was perfect napping conditions after our long-haul. Ace and I went into town and got some steaks for us to grill for dinner. The only vegetable Cody told us he really enjoys is green beans, so we decided on steak and bacon wrapped green beans. We figured we should eat like kings after our all-nighter!
The guys rope tonight, so we have the day to explore Estes Park. It's currently 59 degrees and rainy, so it will be a challenge but surely we will come up with something cool!
