Head 'em up and move 'em out!

The Frontier Days cattle drive was early yesterday morning and this year, instead of being just a spectator, I got a chance to take part!

My assignment was to help any media there, which meant riding in a buckboard at the end of a wagon train with reporters and photographers, and 500 head of cattle behind us.

I wanted to post these yesterday after the event, but my Internet was soooooo slow! I would suggest clicking on some of the photos so you can see the real detail in them...

The day started out with an authentic chuckwagon breakfast on the prairie for participants. Everything's made in cast iron skillets and pots. The three pots in front all have biscuits baking in them. You can see the hot coals on top the lids to get them warm...

Here's the cook for the chuckwagon. They're from the Texas Panhandle and have competed in the Chuckwagon Cook-off for the past several years...

This is Miss Frontier, the CFD queen, and her Lady in Waiting...

I just liked this shot of these two little girls in the field...

Here come the cattle...!

Still coming...

Here they are...

An appropriately named road for this occasion...


This is a good one to click on. Those are the CFD Dandies riding down the Interstate so they can get positioned in front of us and keep the cattle from getting into the crowds...


The wagons in front of us...


I love the contrast of the old and new ways of life here...


Definitely click on this one...


The cattle finally in the arena...


This makes me imagine a big ol' bull on a stretcher with bandages on him...haha...

Frontier Days ramp up

It's starting.

That time of year when the entire city of Cheyenne shuts down for 10 days of rodeo rambunctiousness.

But July 17 isn't the beginning...

For me and my coworkers Rachel and Matt, the CFD (Cheyenne Frontier Days) fun has already started.

Last night we did a staff run of a Behind the Chutes tour. I saw these tours shuffle by the PR House last year, but didn't really have a concept of what they were about.

Turns out - they're pretty darn worth it. First of all they're free. Secondly, tour-goers get a good, in depth look at what goes on at CFD and how it happens.

These tours can have 300-500 people on them. (Crazy!) They go by the animal pens, through the arena, into the Western Museum, and get history tidbits along the way. They've been going on for about 13 years, and Bill, the guy that's been heading them up for the last 10, knows what he's about.

I decided I'm going to take the real tour at some point during CFD, and would highly recommend this to everyone.

Stay tuned for many for CFD posts. The fun has just begun!

"Real World" Bachelor Gulch

I mentioned a couple posts ago the kicka$$ condo I stayed in over 4th of July weekend...

Well, here are some photos to back up my claim.

Yeah...our condo is the top middle window...


A better view of that top middle window...

The living room...

Our gourmet kitchen...

Our awesome dining room. Mine and Carrie's room was to the left...

The spectacular view from the enormous, amazing porch...


Me in the lodge lobby...

From mine and Kate's hike on Saturday morning...


A random pic from Tom's Tent at 4 Eagle Ranch in Wolcott, Colo.

These next few pictures sum up the fun: Alley, Carrie and I at the country dance at 4 Eagle Ranch...


Me by the pool with a plastic bottle of wine - you couldn't bring glass and we only had glass drinkware in the condo! I'm all class, I know...