Cowboy festival fun

Sorry for the blog lull. Our out-of-town guests left this week, I spent a couple of days catching up, AND the kids had extra activities in their last few days of school (final day is Tuesday after Memorial Day, I'll skip the irritatable retelling of the back-story about school board not scheduling snow days even though we have several snow closures or ice-storm closures each winter, arrgh).

Anyway.

Yesterday we headed to The City to the 15th Annual Chuck Wagon Gathering and Children's Cowboy Festival, at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. VERY FUN! After the entrance fee, the only additional fees were for a tasting bowl (for the chuckwagons' cooking, yum!) and if you wanted to buy a soda or a hot dog.

Everything was in a fairly small area, about the size of one or one-half city block, under mature trees. If we'd had last weekend's weather, it would've been a rather sizzling 99F with a slight breeze. But we had... 80F, partly sunny, and a good breeze. Bad for the cooks watching their fires and coals, great for us walking past the cooking fires.

There was plenty for the kids to do, from sit-down-and-color (a bandanna, or a cowboy-boot-shaped coloring shape) to crank-as-fast-as-you-can (to make your own twirling rope). Not to mention the wagon ride and the stagecoach ride. Or the blacksmiths who turned iron nails into rings for the kids' bandannas (or dinner napkins...).


The stagecoach with Son1 and Son2 arrives.


Cranking away at making his rope, Son2 makes that thing spin!

I loved the chuckwagons, their cooking setups, the food, and the cooking demonstrations. The music seemed pretty good, too. Great walking fiddler dressed in western top hat and tails.

There were so many people in western wear! Lots of cowboy hats, cowboy boots, fancy belts and buckles. I've since done some research and learned that the chuckwagons were all invited, including the grand prize winner of a chuckwagon contest in Fort Worth, Texas, and many of the chuckwagons were at least 100 years old. Wow. I want us to go again every year!

We went out again in the early evening, to a new Eucharist-and-grill-your-dinner outdoor service at our parish. The kids roasted marshmallows at the grill and it was a great end to a great day. The scent of mesquite smoke from the festival lingered on my skin all evening...