On the Rodeo Trail

Yep, it's April, which means calving, mud, and the High River, Alberta rodeo. Every year I swear I'm not gonna enter a rodeo before Memorial Day, and every year April rolls around, the days get longer and I start getting antsy and the next thing I know we're towing the pickup and trailer out of yard with a tractor. True story. Happened last year. Then we jack-knifed the trailer on a hill on the main gravel road in the foot of fresh snow that fell while we were gone and had to be dragged back in again. Good times.

So of course we entered again this year. And I'm happy to say no towing required, only a couple of encounters requiring jumper cables but that's a long story involving our non-rodeo-loving child, a mis-wired inverter in the camper and Super Mario so you'd probably rather we not go there.

The rodeo started at noon on Friday. High River is two and half hours north of the Canadian border and our local port of entry doesn't open until nine o'clock in the winter, so at ten minutes before nine, this was us, waiting for the gate to open:

Being the first big outing of the year, High River draws a big crowd. And of course it's indoors, which means things get kind of cozy behind the chutes.

And yes, High River is part of the Canadian Senior Pro tour, which means all of the contestants are forty years or older. In some cases much older since in some events there's a sixty eight plus division. Yep, it's the Viagra Vaqueros. The Fearsome Fossils. The only rodeos where a sizeable percentage of the contestants can legally park here:

Hey, word is on the curmedgeon circuit the newer models of those titanium hips work just great for roping.