Usalola’s Weblog

The Wild West – images of wide open plains, blue skies, grazing horses, and of course – cowboys. We drove into Cody and immediately felt that “cowboy vibe”. Maybe it was the cowboy statue and the original settlement we passed

As they say, when in Rome…  so we slapped on our wrangler jeans and cowboy hats and headed out to the rodeo. Now I have seen (briefly) a rodeo on tv, but there is NOTHING  that compares to seeing the real thing. The girls are all dolled up with their shiny tops and lipstick, and the cowboys, well, lets say those chaps and low-hanging cowboy hats look pretty darn good in person. There is a feeling of true “americana” at the rodeo – the american flag is flown high and proud by a young rider as she circles the arena and all the cowboys stop and take off their hats as the crowd listens to Johnny cash sing ” that ‘ole flag”.

rodeo cowboys

It was quite a sight to see the ‘boys try and wrangle with a bull – they were tossed around like ragdolls. Amazing they don’t break their neck.

Heading out of Wyoming, we saw more cowboys and their gorgeous, muscular horses and Glenn enjoyed

riding his bike down some of the winding roads. 

Our destination was Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monument. Both are amazing and not what most people think are just tourist traps. The creators of both dealt with the most primitive of tools at the beginning, but had such vision and commitment that they made these historic monuments their lifes work. Truly beautiful works.

We continued the long roads through South Dakota, stopping at a dive bar or two for a brewski and to catch up with the local bikers coming back from the 400,000 bikers-strong event at Sturgis, to the heartland of America – Iowa and Wisconsin. Big, red farmhouses and thousands and thousands of cornfields surrounded us. We have definitely eaten our share of corn on this trip so far!

We stopped by Frank LLoyd Wright’s Taliesin property in Spring Green, Wi on our journey to our next stop…

Chicago.

PS: a parting pic for those who have been wondering how the cats are faring…. 

sweet dreams Simon...