Let's all go to the rodeo.

The evening after the Days of '47 Parade we went to the Days of '47 Rodeo, also a first for me.  I'd seen rodeo stuff on TV, but never been to one life.  It's kind of like watching NASCAR, waiting for an accident to happen and then being horrified when something does happen.   I don't think I'll ever go to a rodeo again, but I'm glad I went at least once.  It was an interesting experience. 

Some of the things you'll see at the Days of '47 Rodeo:

Look down in the bottom right-hand corner, it says "Let me hear it" with lasers.

Bucking broncos

Cattle rasselin'

Rodeo clowns.  Here he is trying to shoot a hotdog, bun and all, up into the stands.  As you can see (methinks) the air gun pretty much shredded the hotdog.  For those of you not familiar with rodeos, the clown is not just there for entertainment.  As you'll see in a later photo, they are trained to distract the bull from a fallen rider.  I was amazed at how close they got to the bull, and somehow kept from getting gored by one of his horns.

Calf roping.  A few times the announcer talked about the "animal athletes".  It kind of reminded me of the one time I went to a WWF (pro-wrestling) match and commented on how it was all faked.  The people next to us argued 'till they were blue in the face that it was all real.  At the rodeo the announcer went on about how the cowboys weren't the only athletes, and about how much the animals really enjoyed their part in the rodeo.  Now, I don't want to get into a discussion about whether or not you can call this animal cruelty.  Part of me agrees with that, part of me sees the rodeo as a part of Western American culture and the animals do walk away seemingly unharmed, and they do look well taken care of.   But, I can't see how you can say either animal in the picture below is actually enjoying the experience.  Yet the audience hooted and hollered in complete agreement with the announcers claims that the animals were having a good time.

Wagon races.

A monkey riding a dog corralling sheep.

Awesome rope tricks.

And, of course, bull riding.  Here you can see the rodeo clowns heading to intercept the bull.

For the rest of the Rodeo pictures go here: Days of '47 Rodeo

Days of '47 Parade

It took having a friend who has never been to Utah coming into town to get me to finally, after living here 35 years, go see the Days of '47 parade and rodeo.  That's what I did this 24th of July.  For those of you outside of Utah, it's the celebration of when the pioneers came into and settled the valley.  It's also a state holiday, with a lot of state offices closed.  I found out from my friend that not all states have their own holidays, that some states, like New York, only celebrate the national ones. 

Looking down into the valley from Little Cottonwood Canyon.  No, it has nothing to do with the parade, but I did like the picture.

The LDS First Presidency.  Not surprising that the parade had a LDS theme to it, since the pioneers were members of the church.  I liked the "Men in Khaki", which I'm assuming are the Church's version of Obama's secret service men.

What aliens have to do with the pioneers, I have no idea.  But it did occur to me to ask "is he or she an illegal alien?"

Randy "I'll pave my grandmother for a hundred bucks" Horiuchi, our Salt Lake County coucil member that seems to believe in shopping malls on every corner.

One of the more colorful characters, and she wasn't even in the parade.  When our Senator Bennett drove by she yelled "Health Care for All" at him and she also had comments for pretty much every politician that drove by.  Very vocal lady.  And impeccably dressed, too!

This guy had enough clout (money) to get the Utah State Legislature to force Salt Lake County to pony up several million dollars so he could build his new soccer stadium.  Even though the county voted it down, the mayor and the majority of the populace was against it, and they had a perfectly good place to play up at the University of Utah.  Yeah, it's nice to know our legislators can't be bought.

And this was just a cool picture of a purple-haired clown with one of her soap bubbles behind her head.

You can see all of my photos from the parade here : Days of '47 Parade