Impulsively, I reserved two rooms at a hotel in Ellensburg so the boys and I can go RODEO again this summer, they were so utterly into it when we went last year, and in a way that reminded me of their reaction to the wax museum in San Francisco, like all their reserves of too-cool-for-that fell away and they threw themselves into the experience. Both of them. And I can see the campy similarity between the two experiences, in a way, but I can't say I could pick out the *next* experience that will register the same way for them. Most activities they really get into seem to rely on the coolness factor (or the kid coolness factor), make them more self aware and in control. The rodeo? The Wax Museum? they were fans. (The Wax museum at Fisherman's Wharf double headered with the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum -- hey, they said, those were GOOD museums! -- We were actually headed for a trip to Alcatraz but it started pouring down rain and suddenly we needed to activate plan B, indoor games at a seriously outdoor tourist trap.) They were little kids. They were all about dressing up in cowboy hats (!) and being a part of the scene.
So now I'll get us tickets for the rodeo itself. Specifically, the X-treme Bullriding competition Saturday night which just defies description. 30 or so young cowboys line up to be thrown from the backs of bulls raging and kicking to release their balls from a harness. I mean, the whole thing lasts 0-8 seconds per *ride* and the spectacle repeats itself until all have run dazed from where they've been thrown, scrambling up the protective fen
cing that surrounds the ring to avoid the crushing hooves, distracting clowns running about to draw the bulls away fro
m the broken riders.
It's funny, but we really just happened to go RoRodeo deo, and it worked out so well, a surreal departure from our day to day. This year, we'll go tubing on the Wenatchee river by day, at night.
