Mitchell to Prineville Oregon today- 48 miles and 240 ft of elevation gain. We started early in order to avoid high winds and temperatures for the climb to Ochoco Pass. It turned out to be a nonevent. While it was a long climb over 10 miles with 2000 ft of gain, the grade was not too bad averaging around 3% with nothing higher than 7 so I was able to do it without a break, reaching the Pass around 9 AM. From there it was mostly a coast downhill to Prineville. Than and I got there around 11 AM and we grabbed an early lunch at a BBQ joint in town before heading to our campsite at the Fairgrounds. There were a lot of people in town as there was a rodeo going on Friday through Sunday. the campsite was packed with RVs, presumably a lot of folks there for the rodeo. Chet and I prepared dinner in the evening after shopping for groceries at a local supermarket. Hamburgers and potato salad. We were able to use a covered pavilion that had a grill so we could cook the hamburgers there and eat there as well. Worked out really well! I went to the rodeo which was just a short 4 minute walk from our campsite. No one else wanted to pay the $30 to get in! It was a lot bigger than the rodeo we went to in Wyoming a ways back. I would imagine there were 5000 or so packed in the stands and they had a lot of food and beverage services scattered around, as well as a live music venue. Even a mechanical bull!!! Which I did not ride…. It’s fun looking at the people who go to these things- a lot of cowboy hats and boots (of course). A lot of tattoos, even the women, and nose piercings. They didn’t have as much bull riding as the last rodeo I saw. A lot of bronco bareback riding where it is a lot easier to stay on. I like the barrel racing, where women race around 3 barrels. It is amazing how they can make the horses turn around a very tight circle around a barrel, then accelerate real quickly to the next barrel. There was the calf roping, which seems to me rather inhuman, but isn’t the whole rodeo thing a bit inhuman?? With the calf roping however, they send the calf out into the arena at breakneck speed- not sure what they do to it to make it run so fast, then the cowboy comes speeding out on his horse, twirling his lasso then throwing it around the neck of the calf. He stops his horse immediately and the rope pulls taught around the calf’s neck and stops the calf’s forward momentum in a split second, jerking it off its feet to the ground. Do that to a human and you’d break his neck, don’t know how they live through it. But they do. After they are all tied up by the cowboy, they lay still on the ground for 5 seconds, some other cowboys come and untie the calf and he gets up, shakes himself off and trots off to the other end of the arena, chased by two cowgirls on horses leading him to the gate. Ahhhh- wonder what it would be like to be a cow! Or a horse for that matter. Wonder if horses are OK having a saddle and bridle and being ridden on all day long? Not that they have any choice in the matter. They sure seem to like to run, but I imagine they would prefer running without some human strapped to their backs. Anyhoo, the crowd sure seems to like all of this. I left before it ended and went to bed with the distant din of the announcer and the crowds lulling me to sleep. It was a good day!
Below is the RidewithGPS stats:
Biking across the USA with Mike 
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