“First’s” are always awkward. No matter how you might prepare for it there seems to always be a feeling…
Denver Omelets
A Denver omelet is not my “Breakfast of Champions” choice. Give me a good bowl of Cheerios or a cup of yogurt with granola and I’m as happy as a duck in a pond. The idea of mixing peppers, mushrooms, cheese and eggs just doesn’t suit my extremely sensitive stomach. Luckily Denver, Colorado is nothing like this well loved… but not my favorite… breakfast dish.
I have never really traveled anywhere, so flying to Denver was my first real adventure being Miss Rodeo Oregon. When I arrived, one of the many helpful National Western Stock Show and Rodeo (NWSS) volunteers picked me up and dropped me off at my humble abode. Luckily I was roomed with Miss Rodeo North Dakota, Tiffany Kuntz and Miss Rodeo South Dakota, McKenzie Haley. I had previously spent some time with them at the 2009 Miss Rodeo America pageant in Las Vegas.
For all you girls who are thinking about competing for Miss Rodeo Oregon there is one thing that you should know. When you go to another rodeo or state, you don’t always know what you are going to be doing. But that is the best part about being a rodeo queen… Life is a total surprise!
I was able to settle in a little bit while chatting with my roommates and Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Erin Heffron, before we all were off to the first event of the day; a school visit! This is one part of the out of state trips that I love the most.
After the visit we all had time to get ready for the 1pm rodeo performance. To be honest, I was very nervous! This is usually the first trip that many of us get to know each other.
The horses that we were all honored to use were donated by the Cervi’s. Since this is a well known rodeo the production has to be very professional. All of the horses we used were so well trained that I swear that we could have thrown the reins away to the horses and they would have been fine. The only problem I had with them was that they were all black! Someone would yell,
“Miss Rodeo Oregon! You’re on Fargo!”
Me, not knowing the difference between any of them would look to each horse and after realizing that I had no idea who Fargo was would ask one of the girls which horse that was. I did eventually know which horse was which.
The National Western Stock Show is an amazing event. Along with an incredible rodeo they also have an actual stock show. When I say stock show, I mean they show stock animals as some would show dogs. I had never seen a cow “fitted”. Miss Jodie Pitt explained to me that they blow-dry the cows and fluff them so that they look larger than they really are. The cows are also treated a certain way so that they have the nicest coats. The strangest part about the cows is that they are all square! Before this I had never seen cows shaped like fluffy boxes! It was so funny. One of the biggest events that I was able to attend was the auction of the champion cow, sheep, and pig. The kids that raised them spent a lot of time making sure that their animal was in the best shape that they could possibly be. When I got home I heard that the champion heifer went for $40,000! The best part about the auction is that the kids are awarded scholarship money through auctioning off their animal.
For my first trip, I have to say that this was way more than I could ask for. I thank the rodeo for allowing me to ride in each performance, to Miss Jodie Pitt for taking care of all the state queens and to the Cervi’s for supplying all of the girls with lunches and a great time! I defiantly suggest that everyone at least take one trip to the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo!
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