Trish & Phill's Tandem TransAmerican

Tour 2003 

Jul 4 Dubois - Layover

Today is a rest day - but we did not rest much. The town of Dubois is celebrating July 4th the same as the rest of the USA.  Craig had a car to drive us around in and wow was it nice. The hills we would have struggled up were noticed and commented on initially when we got in the car but in no time at all we had the typical motorists attitude of "what hill?"

We started off by exploring the town - a really nice town for cowboys, we meet Shirley & Lee, even though we are not with the group we are bumping into each other all the time which is great.

We walked around town and looked in all the local shops full of cowboy goodies etc, the town was buzzing with excited people ready to have a go at anything and of course we were no different .  They had a Dessert Extravaganza going at 11am and it was table loaded with all the assorted types of pies you could imagine, well of course we had to taste and see if they were any good we had our cherry/strawberry pie with ice cream which they call ( A-la-mode).  It was delicious.

We then strolled over to watch the town parade it was very different from our parades but everyone had lots of fun anyone could be in it and most people were in it doing their own thing.  The local fire brigade made sure everyone got into the action by spraying water by the ton load onto all the onlookers.

We meet up with Lara and Fran for a while then went into the Rustic Bar with Lara for a drink, this bar had more animals on the walls than in the forest I think, by the time we had finished our drink the bar was packed.

We went back to Dave & Jo-Anne's as they were cooking dinner for us which was great, another cyclist  Jeremy going west to east had turned up there he was a nice guy who had done quite a bit of traveling.

 After dinner we all went back into town for the Rodeo.

Now this Rodeo was different! The announcer said they would be staging the event over two nights -  tonight and tomorrow night. I somehow disbelieve the tomorrow night thing because they would have run out of cowboys. Willy Nelson sings a song "don't let your sons grow up to be cowboys" he should have added "and become rodeo riders".

 The riding of horses and bulls that want to get you off their back is nothing new but what we saw was mayhem with horses and bulls 5 cowboys 0.

There was one ambulance in attendance and we estimated that the driver must have stacked the injured into bunk beds. One guy had a compound leg break, another a foot break, but the worst was a guy who got gouged time and again by a really pissed off bull - he never moved a muscle for the ten minutes he lay on the ground till they stretched him off neck and back in a brace.

Just about every one of the riders walked with a limp. Craig and I watched all this and although very serious injuries occurred could not help but laugh at the stupidity of it all. The first cowboy out on a horse was crushed all the way along the steel fence as the horse ran fun pace along it scrapping his leg along the entire length of the fence.

Another guy came out of the starting cage on a horse that went charging full speed into a fence, it hit the fence and fell over getting it's rider trapped under it and entangled it's legs into the steel fence. Some well wisher watched and decided to help the horse - he jumped over the crowd barrier and took hold of the horses leg to try and stop it kicking and injuring it's self luckily the horse was calmed by the ring clown diving on the horses head and shielding it's eyes. Had the horse kicked with this fool holding it's leg he would have also been in the ambulance.

 Even the man who opens the gate in a hurry to allow the horse or bull out into the arena was an accident waiting to happen. He holds on to a rope and when given the nod he yanks the gate open to ensure the animal has a clear path out. He pulls the gate that hard it near crushes him against the back fence but he did not appear to change his tactics next time he lets the bull out and the gate smashes into him again and again. Cant say I will be back for any more of this sport?

We left the Rodeo as the sun set  (around 9:30)  and drove through town. Seemed everyone was setting off Fireworks. There was an official Fireworks show on and we stayed and watched that but there was as many going off all around us as the official show set off.

 I noticed a couple of dogs running around terrified by the noise of it all, the show was very good but we had seen enough after half an hour and went off to the hostel to sleep.

Page owned & maintained by Trish Collins email to  trishphill@aapt.net.au.  Last Updated 28/07/2003