The Russian River Rodeo

In the glorious Northern Shmalifornia epicenter of wine and cheese, where the agenda America is so fearful of is in full flower, Plot and Duck went to a rodeo yesterday. The Rodeo Queen rode around the ring on a horse carrying a flag as the announcer recited homily after homily about the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and every one made sense, kind of.



The Russian River Valley Rodeo is an absolute hoot. In the first place, they take patriotic homilies very seriously here, and in the second place those bulls are BIG! and the people trying to ride them are INSANE. The horses fly FAST around the dirt corral and the roper really can throw a lassoo around the neck of a speeding calf, then fly from his horse, pick up the roped calf, toss it on its back and tie its rear paws together, then run back and jump onto his horse to wait and see if the calf gets loose. It doesn't. All this takes 11.7 seconds.



The announcer encourages the clown to do really corny things and you don't want to laugh but you can't help it. Sample line: "My wife wanted something fast! Something that would go from zero to two hundred in one second! So I got her a scale!"

What a gas. Plot and Duck did not buy a cowboy hat or a piece of amber or a bowl of chili, but they had a ball, then went home to rest before Sarah and Jon's wedding.