A Rodeo! A Rodeo!

We’ve seen the posters since Kansas. Yet county fairs, rodeos, and town celebrations have all eluded us by a day here, a week there, even several hours in some cases.

But not in Cambridge, Idaho. We arrived in Cambridge last Thursday, after a hot 50 miles from New Meadows. The kettle corn, corndogs, and lemonade booths were already set up at the arena and fairgrounds on our way into town. A poster at the diner where we slurped pre-dinner milkshakes confirmed that Thursday was indeed opening night for the county rodeo and fair.

We checked into about the last motel room in town–and there were more than you might expect in a town of 336 people–then gorged ourselves on hand-dipped corn dogs, homemade kettle corn, sun-brewed iced tea, cheeseburgers, and ice cream at the fair.

And what a fair it was. The exhibition hall brimmed with prize-winning cabbages the size of pumpkins, summer squash that could rival a small child, canned meats, fruits, and pickled vegetables, 4-H club binders showing off the agricultural accomplishments of local youth, and a booth recruiting new members for the Washington County Republicans.

A quick browse through the pig pavilion left us baffled as to what makes a prize-winning pig. Is it final girth, average weight gained per day, smoothness of skin, price fetched at market, or another mysterious factor beyond our suburb-slicker-bred minds?

But it was the main attraction, the rodeo itself, that captivated us. Mutton-busting, of course, is my favorite spectacle. We also got a fair dose of bull riding, calf roping, bucking broncos, and the rodeo girls. Red necks, quite literally, also made an appearance on several of the locals who forgot to apply their sunblock.

The amateur county rodeo provided enjoyment on a more intimate scale than my previous experience at a professional rodeo in Montana. The mutton busters ran up into the stands with their families after the event, and most of the crowd had favorite bull riders. The rodeo clown even dressed up his son as a MiniMe for the mutton busting opening act, making it a real good family time.

I don’t think I’ll be roping any calves anytime soon, or eating any pickled asparagus, but I do hope to get back to a rodeo and a fair, real west style, sometime soon.