Hermiston's Farm City Pro Rodeo
This is Jon. This time of the year is pretty busy for me. Rodeo is in full force, CWU football PA announcing is right around the corner and mid-August is the time when you hurry to finish all the "summer projects" we haven't completed yet (I still haven't started 'em though). Instead of starting a home or yard project, I've taken another on that will put me on the road every weekend for about five straight weekends. I've decided to go on a Northwest Run, as we call it in the rodeo biz, hitting many rodeos in Washington, Oregon and Idaho I can. I'm doing it as somewhat of a preview of things to come before the Ellensburg Rodeo this Labor Day and a post-review of rodeos after Ellensburg. Anyway, my forever rodeo queen, Brittany, rode along with me to Hermiston, Ore. (just across the Oregon border about 35 or so minutes south of the Tri Cities), home of the Farm City Pro Rodeo.
Every year Ellensburg comes out with a new Royal Court of a Queen and two Princesses. It's never a contest on what queen chooses me every day. I'm the lucky one on the right. Britty Bear is the one on the left.
Farm City Pro Rodeo bucking chutes. To the extreme left are four chutes (you can see two of them) that are used for mutton bustin'. Simply put, parents put their 3-7 year old on a sheep, watch the kid cry, tell 'em to buck up and open the gate and watch the sheep run wild, the kid fall off and the crowd cheer the wreck.
Twilight at Hermiston.
We get something similar to this every night during a summer in KTOWN. Sometimes the sunsets are just OK, other times the night sky is a mix of orange, red and purple. The photo doesn't do it justice, but the Saturday night sky in Hermiston was gorgeous.
Flood lights fill the sky during the bull riding. I couldn't get the camera to zoom close enough to the roughstock or timed-event chutes, but I'm going to be in Moses Lake this weekend, so maybe I'll get a closer look for a better photo.Here's the link to my story:
Here's another link to my weekly rodeo column about family friend Raley Mae Radomske. This girl is simply a great person who received the greatest shock of her life less than a month ago when an MRI revealed she had a brain tumor. She's gone from being on top of the world to two extremely dangerous surgeries, to loss of speech and paralysis. Just last night her speech has improved and she's able to move her arms and legs. Plus, the brain tumor is benign, so as fast as her world completely changed, it looks like it's re-changing for the better, but she still has a lot of recuperation to go, but constant good news is great to hear. This 18 year old lady is a five-time state champion, three-time national champion and one-time world champion in multiple rodeo disciplines and to top it all off, she's a great student who will hopefully still be able to get to school and compete in rodeo at New Mexico State University soon.
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