Hellzapoppin' Rodeo!

Last weekend, my mom drove me, Elsa, and two of my little sisters all the way out to Buckeye to participate in the Hellzapoppin’ Rodeo. We were only three minutes away when my mom realized that she had forgotten her flip-flops. But wait, it gets better. When we got to our little patch of dirt to pitch a tent, I saw that I had no blankets. Or pillows. My mom had a cot. But no sleeping bag. On the other hand, my little sisters, Julie, age 6, and Ivy, age 4, came well prepared. Their bags were stuffed full, so we thought they were all good to go, right? Well, they had about three blankies, two unicorn pillows, two socks, and two shirts between the two of them. No wonder the bags were full… unfortunately, they had no jeans. But! Mom stuck a pair each into the car, just in case.

So Elsa was very excited, and she was eager to see everything. She did very well warming up, but was pretty spooked when she was right next to the booming speakers. She is quite the dancer, as we found out. We just loped (a slower run) the hot lap, as Elsa doesn’t know how to gallop. And she never will, hopefully.

Handing out autographs and selling raffle tickets was really fun, and I met a very cute little cowgirl who was really excited to see the sparkly rodeo queens. (I hope I see you there!) She brought over some friends of hers, and I was pretty busy signing autographs for awhile, because the friends kept bringing more friends, and they brought more friends, and well, you get the picture. I was definitely occupied.

When we got back to the tent, my mom decided she wasn’t going to sleep without a sleeping bag, so we all huddled up as best we could. As expected, we were all running for the car and the heater within hours. It would have been fun to stay in the tent the whole night, though. Oh, and by the way, everyone else had RV’s. With beds. And heaters. And more insulation. So…

Saturday was really fun. Of course no one wanted to get out of the car, but at 9:30 in the morning, what else would you do? I went and rode Elsa, then we hung around the tent, without motivation to take it down. Finally, we took it down, and then I worked Elsa again. And then my mom and I played volleyball. We still had one section of the tent up, so we went and took naps in there for a while, before hosing down my hair at the horse wash rack (we couldn’t find the shower, and there weren’t any other options, ok! I didn’t really like it. Like, pretty much at all.). I read a book while I was waiting for my hair to dry (by the way, it was Artemis Fowl, and those are such amazing books!!!). I got dressed, and helped with the mutton bustin’ like the night before. Oh, right! Mutton bustin’ is where you put a little cowboy/cowgirl on a sheep, and they are awarded points for the best ride. The winner got a buckle, and the first place winner on Friday was a little cowgirl, and I am telling you, that girl was GOOD! Anyways, we helped out with that (we being the Queens, except Halle couldn’t be there on the second day. And Brittany was at another rodeo), and then took a picture. Elsa was better on Saturday, but still antsy. She wasn’t happy going into the gate before the “Happy Trails” thing at the end…so I was kind of late. Anyways, the drive home was very long, but we had a really good time.