As I mentioned in an earlier post, Austin qualified for National High School Rodeo Finals, in Gillette, Wyoming. As the supportive grandparents that we are, we traveled there to support him. We also took Ryan and Jackson. Since Stephanie is here for the summer, to watch Hayden, she wanted to go with us too. Jennie had already made arrangements with Dora to take Hayden so Stephanie could go to Girl's Camp with her. It was a hard decision for Steph to make, but she was just homesick enough that she chose to go with us instead.
When we went to Washington in June, we discovered a leak in the toilet, and also the black tank was leaking. We got a new toilet and tightened the hose attachment to the sewer. The plate in the floor did not match the new toilet, but Paul was able to fix the leak in the old one, so he put it back in and it worked fine. The sewer still leaked, but we were to be attached to the sewer line at the complex, so we left it the way it was, hoping it would work out okay.
We had made arrangements with a friend to borrow a trailer to tow behind the motor home, so we could take the car with us, and leave the motor home parked. When Paul picked up the trailer, it had a broken lens on one of the tail lights, so he got a whole new set to fix it up. The trailer was long enough to carry the pickup truck, and it has more room in the back seat, so we decided to take it instead of the car. We got it all packed up, to lighten the load in the motor home, and attached the trailer to the motor home. Well, the lights did not work. Paul fiddled with them some more, then tried again. This time when I pushed on the brakes, the back-up lights on the motor home came on, but the trailer still did not have lights. It was after 4 pm and we had hoped to make it to Rawlins, WY (abt 300 miles) that night. We ended up driving both vehicles, so it was good that Stephanie was with us. The kids all rode with Paul and with the DVD player, did pretty good. We did make it to Rock Springs that first night, but it was late.
The next day we went on to Gillette. When we got there, the campground they assigned us to had water and power, but no sewer, so we leaked smelly water onto the ground. It was dry enough that it was absorbed pretty fast. Every day a tank truck would come suck out the sewer from all the motor homes and trailers in our campground, and by the 3rd or 4th day, we were no longer leaking. I guess it was dried up and the use of the system and the suction from the sewer truck fixed that problem.
The little boys with their hats and western gear. Stephanie's sunglasses were Ryan's favorite entertainment. They were not very quiet during the Rodeo, so we did not take them to all the events. We wanted to go to watch Austin and his friends, but also some of the kids we know from Utah. We mostly stayed for the event we were cheering for and then took them back to the campground, where they could run around and not disturb the fans.
Paul ordered a new camera a couple of years ago, but put the accessory package on a shelf and so the camera did not have a battery, charger, or any way to connect to the computer. Before we left, we made a big search and found the package. Unfortunately, the lens does not zoom in enough to get the shots I wanted, so here is Austin's first ride, from the bleachers. He drew a bull that did not perform very well and he only got a score of 44. He had an option for a re-ride, but chose to keep his score, in hope that his 2nd ride would be better. He was in 8th place at the end of the show. We counted about 150 bull riders from the 50 states, Canada, and Australia. At the end of this show about 1/2 of the boys had covered.
None of the kids we or Austin knew were performing on Wednesday, so we took a trip to the Black Hills, in South Dakota. We went to Sturgis, SD and here are the boys at the Motorcycle Museum. We were 2 weeks ahead of the big Sturgis Rally that they hold every year, so we were able to get memorabilia for 2010.
We had lunch in Deadwood, which is an old mining town that has been restored, much like Park City, here in Utah. They had a "gunfight in the street", similar to the one at Lagoon.
Next we went to Mt Rushmore. On the way, we saw a lot of antique cars. They were having a rally at some places between Deadwood and Rapid City, and we probably saw close to 100 cars. Cody was with us, and he got the boys all excited about the "old cars". Everywhere we went for the next 2 days, R
What a fun fun trip!!
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