lois on the road: LET ER BUCK

LET ER BUCK! That is the rally cry for the Pendleton Round up.

The landscape around Pendleton is quite stark this time of year, yellow grasses on hills with no trees. Coming from Bend we drove on Rt 97 reaching the Columbia just east of the Dalles. There were windmills on the hills and wind surfers on the river, a beautiful site.

We were the guests of the Oregon unit of WBCCI for the Pendleton Round Up, a week of Cowboys, Indians and just good fun! We stayed at a beautiful city park with water available and walking paths. The rally fee included Wed and Thursdays tickets to the Round up and Tickets to Happy Canyon Thursday evening. Happy Canyon is a cowboy and Indian show fashioned after Buffalo Bills Wild West Show.

The Round up continues Weds., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with cowboys winning the chance to compete on Saturday for the big money. Some of our group went to PBR, Professional Bull Riders, several nights but we didn’t purchase the $40.00 tickets although I believe it was thrilling! On Thursday morning we all had breakfast at Rooster’s restaurant with the Rodeo and Happy Canyon Royalty. We sat next to an Indian princess and a Rodeo princess, both young girls, one in her first year at college and one a senior in High school. The Indian girl said she will run for the Rodeo princess next year. The Rodeo princess’ ride their horses at a full gallop across the rodeo field and jump the barrier stopping right in front of the crowd each afternoon at the beginning of rodeo. Later that day we attended a little Indian princess pageant. It had 72 little girls, from 4 to 13, all wishing to be chosen for little Indian Princess. The park was surrounded by tents, an Indian craft fair with all Indian made items. The girls were all dressed up in mostly old Indian Regalia.

Another special thing we were able to do because of the rally was have an inside tour of the rodeo grounds.

We were shown around by three rodeo officials who went out of their way to help us understand the workings of an event this size. We were shown how and where they keep the stock before and when they are ready to be left out of the shoots, shown the hospital bus, the crew that tries to keep the cowboys healthy, and believe me they are kept busy! We were shown the buggy barn where they have a volunteer who rebuilds and repairs buggies. The buggies are used mostly for the big parade on Friday which has no motorized vehicles or rubber tires. There is also a large Indian village where the Indians stay in tepees, they come dancing from the village at the beginning of each rodeo.

We paid another visit to Pendleton Woolen mills, where I bought some socks and gave in to the blanket trend, everyone was buying them so it seemed like the thing to do.

Pendleton has a rich history of being a rowdy cow town. The tour of the Pendleton underground was interesting. The Chinese laborers were forced to live there after dark. At the time the town folks thought they were cheating at gambling and to keep them out of the gambling saloons they passed a law forbidding them to be on the streets after dark. Above on the sidewalks there were glass prisms that let light into the underground tunnels. There were business there also, an ice cream shop, meat market and ice shop, laundry, and bar.

Friday was parade day and an impressive parade it was. It started with lines and lines of cowboys on horseback holding American Flags! Princess’ from other Rodeos around the West rode by all decked out with flowers on their saddles, bands, even one on horseback, wagons and the best band of all was old folks, having a ball strutting their stuff complete with majorettes and flag twirlers.

Another store in Pendleton worth visiting was Hamley and Co. For 100 years they’ve been making saddles and horse tack. We saw a saddle being made there that is sold and the price was $30,000.00. Most we saw there ran around 3-7 thousand. There was a street fair on 5 blocks of the main street going on all week with very good entertainment each night. Our favorites were a country group called Bullet Creek, a piano and vocalist Brady Goss, and Tillers Folly. We just sat and enjoyed the people watching along with good music!

On our last night in Pendleton, Sam and Marcene Jones, members of the Oregon Unit had the group to their home for happy hour and dinner. They were excellent hosts and have a beautifully landscaped yard where we all enjoyed the evening, listening to a friend Sam had invited who sang cowboy songs and told stories.