Cody, Wyoming

    Have been here the past four days.  Highlights have been the Buffalo Bill Museums which are excellent.  Also, the nightly rodeo (throughout the summer), which we highly recommend.  They are exciting and professionally produced and a great two hours.  We left a little awed by the skill and bravery of the cowboys and cowgirls.

 We saw this little girl (9 years old) and her two 13-year-old sisters do trick riding.  Guts and a lot of personality, too!

 The woman on the right is doing barrel racing, something like a slalom race on skis but on horseback instead.  Both the riders and the horses were awesome.  Look how the horse is leaning into the barrel.  They can't knock the barrel down or they lose points.

The bull riding is the most dangerous of all the events and came last.  Only men ride the bulls.  Riders had to stay on at least 8 seconds.  About half of them were able to do it. 

In addition, we saw: calf roping; boys (10-year olds) riding bucking steers (not one of them stayed on longer than one second); bronco busting; a lot of pageantry such as a choreographed group of women carrying American flags and doing all kinds of routines on horseback; and one woman who rode around the arena standing upright on the back of her horse and carrying the American flag above her.  Real Americana.