When Steve and I pulled into Grangeville, Idaho, we saw more vehicles (pickups, junkers, chopped Chevys, tractors, grain wagons and a couple of sulkys) than we'd seen in the whole state in the past two weeks. Turns out there was a rodeo in town.
Which we learned in spades when we tried to find a cheap motel room for the night. Or any room, for that matter.
We'd learned Idaho women were Big Girl panties wearers, so we boldly approached the pretty young woman at the desk of the town's Best Western. "I know you told us you were full up," I said bravely. "But surely you could think of something for us."
And by cracky, she did.
"We can give you about the biggest room in the house," she said without a moment's pause. "And we can give it to you for half the regular room rate. What do you think about that?"
We thought about that for a nanosecond, and I said, "We'll take it."
"Cool," she intoned. "We're not using the conference room until noon tomorrow, so if you boys don't might bunking down there and can be out about 11, I think we can put you in there. I'll have a couple of rollaways moved in for you....oh, and by the way, there's a few bikers here for the rodeo. 
They needed a place, too. Don't mind if they share the room, do you? And another thing: there's no bathroom, so you can use the public bathroom down the hall. There's no shower or bathtub, but you can splash around in the sink all you want, as long as you're out by 7 am. I'll be off duty by then, so I'll need your word of honor. And another thing: we can't supply soap or towels, but you can use one of the pillow cases when you wake up. You can probably get some soap from Housekeeping when they get here at 6. Something else: we can't give you a wakeup call 'cause there's no phone in the conference room, so I'll leave a note for housekeeping to rattle the door early for you. That be OK?"
Like there was a choice? As you can see, there was a folding wall diving this cavernous space, and the bikers -- all of whom snored in random patterns and volumes -- were on the other side of the wall. The coed public bathroom was about 100 feet down the hall, and we got to it by going through the lobby. Modesty prevents me showing you the pictures of Steve and me creeping behind the lobby chairs, only to find the bathroom door locked by the three bikers who were inside already, and from the sounds, having a great time.
So on to the rodeo. We found this guy leaning on a rail in front of the stands. 
Could you find a better poster boy for a cowboy? Well, he was a very nice guy who had a 10-year-old daughter riding with the Color Team, and he was there to watch. In this picture, you see the guy from the waist up. I didn't have the guts to take a picture of what he was wearing on his feet. Bright pink rubber Krocs! I couldn't believe it. "Why are you wearing those things?" I asked. "Well," he said, "sprained my ankle last night in the trials, can't get inta my boots. These here things are my daughter's. Not bad, either. Whadduya think?" We couldn't find the words.
As for the Grangeville Rodeo, I thought it was spectacular. Pre-teen girls galloping all over the place as the Color Team to kick off things, then all kinds of roping, jumping, chasing, yelling, tying, moaning, tossing, clowning, bullbaiting, falling and general hubbub. At the end, something like 100 kids charged into the circle, chasing pigs. A great evening. These pictures only hint at what we saw, and the great time we had.
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