Opinion

Rodeo followers visit interesting places

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

This is the second installment of a two-part series.

While attending a rodeo in Kansas, Dee and Colleen took a side trip to Bonner Springs, to a marble factory. This is a tourist place and kids love to come there. Each child gets a plastic tube and they fill it up with 10 kinds and colors of marbles from various bins. It is called The Moon Marble Factory.

In Greensburg, they saw a 130 foot hand dug well which was dug for the railroads in 1880 and has never gone dry. While at a rodeo in Riverton, Wyo., (central part) they visited Lander, Wyo., where there is a bronze sculpture foundry. There are many bronze sculptures down main street in Lander, so it is a very interesting area. The Eagle Bronze Sculpture Foundry has cast sculptures for the entrance outside of Cabela's. Each Cabela's store has a different bronze sculpture gracing the entrance outside.

For people who are not cowboys at all, they love the Western heritage. All of the cowboys agree that

Dee and Colleen are definitely the most die-hard fans they have ever seen.

They have just returned from their last rodeo of the year (Las Vegas) and here is the story of that trip.

This year on the way to Las Vegas they visited the Spam Museum at Austin, Minn. While in Vegas, they got to visit with several contestants and their families, plus saw some great western art at the trade shows. They visited with friends from Canada, Missouri, Texas and more, plus attended rodeo committees in several cities.

The most gratifying part of this trip was to get to see the Wisconsin bull riders win their share of the purse. Fred Boettcher from Tomah won two go-round buckles. B. J. Schumacher from Hillsboro, placed several times, although he didn't win a buckle.

Also, one of their longtime friends, Billy Etbauer from Edmond, Okla., who is a saddle bronc rider, won yet another world championship, his fifth.

He did it at 41 years old, quite an accomplishment in today's pro sports world.

They report it was a great trip and will watch some tapes of the performance's during the winter, and will be looking forward to attending rodeos next year.

Hey, doesn't it make you want to go see a rodeo!