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| The Boys chatting about it... L-R: Beau Clark, Bray Armes, Clayton Haas, Stan Branco |
It was a beautiful day and everyone in the rig bolted out
the door as soon as the parking brake was thrown. The long drive had everyone a
little stir crazy and ready to stretch their legs. I was the last one out as
usual, tightening down the hatch in the RV before setting up camp for the day.
As the boys were unloading and watering horses, I quickly unloaded the bucket
of toys that IS the entertainment for two kids that have seen too many rodeos. Within
a matter of seconds, my kid count went from 2 to 10. Not sure where they came
from as they seemingly just appeared. Immediately everyone was friends and
staking claim over which toys the girls were taking and which ones the boys
were. One thing that never ceases to amaze me out here on the road, amongst
“rodeo people” and people of the western lifestyle, is how quickly kids become
friends and start having the time of their life within a matter of minutes,
knowing they may never see those friends again… I think adults could learn a
thing or two from these “child-like” ways.. Anyway, back to our beautiful day!
Play stations are set up and I don’t mean video games, and the boys are entered
in
the jackpot. I take my seat amongst all the old-timers talking over their
favorite steer wrestlers and telling tales of rodeos past. The Calcutta was
starting, which was my opportunity to participate in the day’s activities. Bray’s
name rolled around on the auctioneer’s list and my bidding began.. However, as
most calcuttas turn out for me, I was quickly out bid and past my limit of
spending. Oh well! After the bidding wars on Bray I was determined to buy our
hauling partner Beau, which I successfully got done. By this time I was buddies
with all the old-timers that were bidding and I think they wanted to give me a
break haha. The Calcutta quickly wrapped up and the bulldogging commenced.
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| Kids' playstations... Girls to the left, boys to the right |
After about an hour or so of bulldogging and cheering on our
guys in the first round… Casey Martin won the first round aboard his horse Tucson
and Beau made a great run aboard Ote on a hard running steer. Bray had a little
tough luck and broke the barrier. As the boys were getting started into the
second round, our beautiful day was quickly changing color and starting to act a
little angry. Being the daughter of a lighting expert and understanding the
dangers in lightning, I quickly corralled my kids plus some and took cover in
the RV. Rain started falling and before long so did little pea sized pieces of
ice.
I gave strict orders to the kiddos in the RV to stay put, said a little prayer
it would be in one piece when I returned (and not because of the storm if you
know what I mean). I sprinted outside to gather up Noah and loaded him in the
trailer for cover from the now quickly falling hail. Still no sight of Bray,
Ote, Bam, Beau, Casey or Tucson. The
storm went from bad to worse in a matter
of minutes with heavy downpours and hail now to the size of grapes and ping
pong balls. I see Bray make a run for it with Ote and Bam in tow and he quickly
loads them in the horse trailer as we remained in the open horse slot reserved
for Casey and Tucson whom never showed. At this point the hail was falling so
hard there was no chance to run back to the RV to the kids so all I could do was
yell orders as they continued to stick their red solo cups out the door trying
to catch the hail… yes.. I’m not making this up. Most kids might be frightened
from the crashing lighting and pelting hail.. but NO, MY fearless children
along with their friends were amazed and amused by mother nature and were
trying to get a closer look. {{SIGH}}
Well Mother Nature let up but not without leaving her mark
on the arena and our rig. One might think the boys might call it off, but
NOOOOO, not Steer Wrestlers. So the bulldogging jackpot quickly morphed into a
Mud-dogging. I ventured out to watch a little more and the kids ventured out to
splash around in the shin deep water puddles. The Jackpot ended up with Bray
splitting 1st/2nd in the second round and none of our
guys doing any good in the third round or average. The rain started back up
again periodically and we knew a bigger storm was headed our direction.
Now the fun part… We have quickly learned that two things do
not mix… the weight of this rig and MUD! By this point it is pushing 10pm and
I’ve got the kids bathed and in bed and quickly started cleaning the RV
awaiting the next wave of MUDDY CLOTHES. The guys were SOLID MUD and Sopping
WET! There is a certain harmony that goes on in this rig with everyone knowing
their job and when to step in and when to not. It is most definitely a team
effort. One of my roles I’ve quickly honed in on is “Stress-radar”… and my
“Stress Radar” was going off and I quickly realized we were stuck. Bray’s pulse
was slightly heighted to say the least. Casey and Bray were outside trying to
figure out how in the world we were getting this “Monstrosity Rig” out and Beau
and I were in the rig making phone calls trying to figure out stalls and cover
for the horses at North Platte (our next stop). Our original plan was to stay
in Sutherland for the night then take the short drive to North Platte early the
next morning for me to run barrels in the 8am slack. However, the horses had no
cover in Sutherland and with the already scary hail that had fallen and more
storms on the way, that wasn’t an option. As I waited for the next instruction
and quietly chatted with God, Bray dove into the driver’s seat, muttering words
of “stress” under his breath but then with a large jolt of the rig, out of nowhere his tone quickly changed. He
got a light in his eye and a fire in his voice and screamed out the window
“That’s John Deere Green for ya… YEEEEEEEEHAAAA” One of the old-timers at the
jackpot got his Old 4020 John Deere Tractor and was successfully pulling our
gigantic rig through the slop and mud. I was so tickled by God’s humor. Out of
ALL the equipment and ALL the trucks that could have come to the rescue, God
knew the EXACT piece of equipment that not only would get the job done but
would turn Bray’s “Hope” back on! With all of my husband’s deep farming roots,
his blood only bleeds john deere green. God is Good all the time, all the time
God is Good!
So after, successfully getting out of the mud, unloading the
jeep out of the back of the trailer, unloading the horses (which I was now
holding in the rain), the rig would not fit through the gate. But with the
newly uplifted spirits, this was just a step for a stepper. Bray unhooked the
RV from the trailer, one the many angels that showed up to help, helped hook
the trailer onto another truck that pulled it through the gate. Once out the
gate, we put Humpty Dumpty back together again, gave big THANK YOU’s and hand
shakes to all the HELP and headed down the road.
Lessons Learned…
*turn aquaintances into friends like kids do
*If in doubt, go green
*no task is too simple to pray about…. God is ALWAYS
listening.
Next stop North Platte, NE… with storms on our tails.
Have a Blessed Day! It's a Choice!! ~N.
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