Independence Day 4th July 2012

The Cowgirls limber up for the rodeo

If you want to see patriotism at its best, you need to be in the USA on the 4th July. It really is very moving, very genuine, and amazing to witness. We were fortunate to be invited to join Kathy and Milt at the 133rd Mandan Rodeo, followed by the largest fireworks display in North Dakota. We got there early enough to get a great position on the bleachers, and it was a glorious afternoon and evening. I took these photos from up in the grandstand, so to get a good view, you may need to click on each photo to get a full appreciation.  

The front horse paraded the ring with the Stars and Stripes while the Anthem was played

A bit of the action for you...

The rodeo had the usual events such as bull riding, bucking bronco riding, barrel races (although this was a bit different in that each barrel had a balloon above it and the rider had to shoot the ballon with a pistol or rifle), steer roping and crowning of the Rodeo Queen. They had the usual rodeo clown working the crowd and upstaging the commentator. For additional entertainment they had the clown dress up as a Japanese Sumo Wrestler judge, and two pretend Sumo Wrestlers had a contest in the arena. One of the contestants was called 'One Long Thong'. You will understand if you check out the video below. Their antics sure made the crowd laugh. 

We had been to a few rodeos in the USA before, including one in Cody, Wyoming, but we had never seen Chuck Wagon races! What a hoot. Three teams, each with a wagon pulled by four horses, raced into the arena, then around a race track before entering the arena again and passing the finish line to a thunderous finale. 

This is one you will need to click on to see the Chuck Wagons racing

Another novelty event that we hadn't seen were teams competing to milk long-horned cows. Each team had to rope the cow, and get it to stand still long enough to get some milk in a baby's bottle, and then run the bottle to the judge. Some teams threw the cow to the ground then milked it, and others milked the cow while it was held still by other members of the team.  What made it all the more exciting for us was to notice that one of the teams was our very own friends from the Ranch. Clint and his eldest daughter Taylor led the F-Bar Ranch team - you may recall that Ranch is where we visit each year, and it was where we helped out with branding of calves this year. Another event had teams roping a long-horned steer and loading it into a cattle trailer. The F-Bar's steer stopped dead in its tracks and needed all hands on deck to push it into the trailer. Fireworks were constantly going off all around the grounds which not only made for beautiful scenery, but added extra bewilderment to the cows, bulls and steers in the arena. 

Fireworks surrounded the arena all during the rodeo

During the evening we kept seeing 'Memory Lanterns' passing above us in the sky. They are small paper hot-air balloons with a small candle inside that were introduced by a fireworks dealer (Memory Fireworks) here in Bismarck, North Dakota in 2005 and are launched to honour and remember loved ones, particularly those serving in the military. Since 2009 the dealer has donated $1 for every lantern sold to the North Dakota National Guard. He raised just under $5,000 in the first year! The lanterns float across the night sky until the candle goes out. By the end of the night there were too many to count. 

The smaller lights in the sky are the Memory Lanterns - dwarfed by the fireworks

Once the rodeo itself finished around 10.30, the firework display started in earnest. It was spectacular, especially the finale. I wonder what state the world will be in when July 4th comes around again?