Yee-Haa There Folks.

What a blast, in Montana, which means cowboys and cowgirls - everyone dressed in cowboy hats checked shirts and boots and at the rodeo.

Quite an evening, stands packed, the lowing of calfs and bulls and the whinnying of horses. It must be Cody Rodeo night. Held every night throughout the summer at the stadium and just like the wild west. Even as you enter the stadium all the cow folks are lined up, and a huge bull is penned in for you to have your photo taken sitting astride him - we gave this a miss.

Anyhow, at 8pm sharp the show starts with the usual flying of the stars and stripes and the singing of the anthem, then the show is on. First up is the calf tying, let a calf out of the pen and chase it across the arena on horseback, lasso it, leap of the horse, throw the calf to the ground and tie it up, fastest man wins!!!!! And the winner did all that in an amazing 10.2 secs. Plenty of the calfs failed to get caught and they seem to know where they are going because the run straight out of the otherside of the arena.

Next up, bareback riding on a bucking un-broken horse. You should see some of these guys get thrown, some not even making it out of the gate. Next, 2 riders on horse back v one little calf. The gate opens, the calf comes out, horsemen chase, one lasso's the head then the other has to lasso the calfs two rear legs, eh? Only one pair of riders managed that, a couple managed to get one rear leg and some just plain missed.

All the kids under 10yrs of age from the crowd were then invited into the arena, and some of these under 10's were closer to 3yrs old. They are all lined up and they let 3 calves into the arena with red tags on their tails, result, about 60 kids chase the calves to get the red tags, and the prize, a free ice cream, very funny though.

The cowgirls then had a go, barrel racing. 3 barrels placed around the arena and they have to race one at a time and circle each barrel and make the finish line. Christ you ought to see the speed these horses shift at, and how do they corner like that? The young girld then had a go, and one of them was only 6yrs old, but she sure had style.

Next. the finale, Bull riding! See these blokes (and 1 girl) lower themselves onto the back of a caged bull and then see them open the gate. That bull does not want that person on its back and bucks like crazy and twists all over the place. It eventually throws the person (winner stayed 10 secs) and then tries to kick out at whatever is moving. The skills shown by the horse riders to get the bull back to where it belongs beggars belief. You would not get me near one of them bulls, give me the bison any day.

Anyway, a great nights entertainment and I'm glad that I did it.

Today rode from Cody across arid (almost) desert to Casper. Nothing for 206 miles except sage grass and a couple of very very small towns (one had its elevation as 5645ft and Population - 10, can you believe that.