Yahoo!

Cheyenne Frontier Days Reception and School Visits/FFA

The end of April and May have been great! I was so pleased to help out the UW Rodeo Team with their rodeo, the last rodeo for the Central Rocky Mountain Region.  I have missed college rodeoing, however I was able to help coordinate the grand entry and really enjoyed watching all the members of the team step up to do something I have been having fun doing all year; promoting sponsors and showing tribute to our State and American Flags.  The members of the team that helped are such great rodeo athletes but proved to be great flag carriers as well!! 

I am so excited to have such great support from Cheyenne Frontier Days!  They held a reception for me at the Buckle Club and I was so delighted to have such wonderful support and encouragement to keep me going this year!  I am a member of the Contestants Committee for Cheyenne and hope to give back to them for the rest of my life to hopefully show thanks for all Cheyenne Frontier Days has done for me!  CFD is such a great rodeo, Number One PRCA Outdoor Rodeo of the Year!! But, in my book they are also the #1 family anyone could ask for! Love all the Volunteers of such a wonderful western celebration!

            While in Cheyenne, I stopped in to Fairview Elementary to visit Mrs. Peg Bath’s class.  Her husband Tim Bath made and donated the beautiful chaps I wear everywhere I travel!  The kids were a lot of fun and asked great questions, such as, “If you could have your hair any other color, what color would it be?”  Being naturally blonde and having that excuse when I have “those” moments made this a pretty hard question to answer.  Mrs. Bath is such a great teacher and it is great for the kids in town to always get a little perspective on rural life as well.  I have been running into Mrs. Bath and her daughter Lexi at a few barrel races while I have had sometime at home to be back on my own horses.  I load up with my friend Carla Beckett, her horse Hillbilly, my horse Archie, and of course our two best friends Teddy and Lilli (the two cutest mutts you will ever see!). 

            While in Laramie I helped out with Special Olympics Wyoming in the aquatic portion and boy were those two days filled with laughs, hugs, and fun!!!  All of the athletes did an exceptional job and showed great sportsmanship!  I have had a lot of fun volunteering while I have been home for a little bit and one of the greatest things I have seen is how well the High Plains FFA chapter of Cheyenne Central High School has done.  I was formerly a member of this chapter and have been moved up to the honorary member status after helping out with a few of their events.  I cannot wait to help them more as they had great success this year at State Convention! They are now Wyoming’s #1 chapter along with a list of successes I couldn’t be more proud of!!  Wahoo Wyoming!!! So proud of all the many accomplishments of the great people of our wonderful state!!!

Arizona

Payson, AZ was beautiful, and strangely enough, reminded me of Wyoming!! There was a lot of forest, and trees, and the elk even bugled at night!  I stayed in a wonderful host home with Miss Rodeo Oregon and we enjoyed taking in the Miss Rode Arizona Pageant.  While I will miss beautiful Audrey Hall, Miss Rodeo Arizona 2011, I am very excited for Jamie Smith, Miss Rodeo Arizona 2012 to join our group!  We enjoyed dancing right along with the girls and entertaining the crowd in between the girls competing.  One morning we even were able to enjoy a beautiful flight over Payson!!  It was breathtaking and the little plane I flew in reminded me of the backseat of my grandmothers Lincoln, pretty cozy and really not too scary either!! I loved flying high over all the forest area around Payson and taking a look at the fire that they were working hard to fight.  After returning back to Phoenix I enjoyed a little time with my Godmother that was much needed! She is such an influential woman that I am so blessed to have in my family! 

National Circuit Finals Steer Roping

I have been having a blast traveling the rodeo trail as Miss Rodeo Wyoming!  I have learned a lot of new things, ridden a lot of nice horses, and met some great people who have impacted my life for the better.  Each trip brings a new adventure and I am so glad to have the opportunity to represent such a great sport that has so many of the values America really needs to turn to. 

The National Circuit Finals Steer Roping was outstanding and a HUGE congratulations to Rocky Patterson for winning the title!!!  He was certainly deserving and his horse worked great!  The National Circuit Finals Steer Roping has been going on for three years now and is having huge success in Torrington due to the hospitality the committee provides.  There was a wonderful reception the first night where the ropers were introduced complete with fresh oysters on the half shell and a cheese assortment fit for a king!  All meals were provided and the cowboys arrived in complete comfort with nice stalls complete with shavings and hay as well as the flexibility to feel at home wherever they chose to park and tie.  Steer Ropers are such a classy and handy set of cowboys.  They were all so kind to work with and their horses were out of this world!  We had 6 circuits represented this year and 24 ropers.  They all roped 8 head and from there 8 ropers made the semi-finals on down to 4 in the finals for a sudden death round.  The cattle were fresh and the horses did great handling them as well as the ropers. 

            My dad (Pete), Fred McClanahan, and I, were able to take a really fun and quick road trip out to Ft. Laramie.  Thank goodness I was with two history buffs, because it made the trip that much more exciting.  Ft. Laramie is very special to Wyoming’s history and definitely a place I need to stop at more often!  After heading back to Torrington, it was time to get ready for the first round of the Steer Roping Finals.  I rode a horse by the name of Dooley, and boy was he a doll! As a matter of fact, I almost had tears in my eyes when I gave him back.  He was big, black, kind, and so responsive, ready to work all day.  I am so appreciative for the way everyone treated me.  The steer ropers, committee, Larry Schaneman (who provided Dooley for me to ride) and everyone attending were just the greatest group of people to spend the weekend with. 

Three special men were honored during the finals; Doctor (Jim) Baker, Tom Gipson, and the late Bob Grant.  All of these men are truly remarkable and have done a lot to shape the sport of Steer Roping.  Doc Backer and Tom even had a match roping during the finals that was great!  Bob Grant was such a dear friend to my family and myself.  He always supported me and I always loved seeing him at various rodeos and events.  We have wonderful memories of dancing in Pendleton, Oregon, and dancing at my Miss Frontier Coronation Ball.  He was such a dandy and a Gold Card Member of the PRCA.  Bob Grant will be missed forever but never forgotten, he touched so many lives and I am so glad he was able to touch mine too!! 

Oklahoma Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains!

 

Oklahoma City was an outstanding rodeo! Especially to when Bobby Welsh finished it off with a win in the Bull Riding!  Oklahoma had great hospitality and took us on many adventures to get to know the town.  The first night we went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and saw where the Federal Building once stood.  It is a very peaceful place now, but it still angers me that someone could be that selfish to hurt so many people and their families, especially babies in the nursery.   We saw the tree of hope and the empty chairs that were lit up in honor of everyone that was lost that day wishing many blessings over their families for such a traumatic loss. 

            The next day we visited the Oklahoma Capital and we sat in on their legislative session.  I met a really nice guy by the name of David Sykes; his son is in the Senate and works a lot for the Agriculture Committees.  I was able to get to know him and his friend that stop in about once a week.  I gave them tickets to come watch the RNCFR and noticed that there was something very special about David.  He was a very friendly, informed, older man, with hearing aids, always chatting and getting to know everyone.  His friend sitting next to me informed me that he was a survivor of the Oklahoma City Bomb.  He therefore had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and wore hearing aids due to the bomb that day.  David explained to me that he was a mailman and that is what he was doing in the building that day.  He said he could have been in five other locations when the bomb went off but luckily he had finished early and was just leaving when it happened.  He told me he felt like he was in a nightmare and that after leaving the hospital he had to take a long hot shower to get all of the debris off of his skin.  I am so grateful I was able to meet David because he made the trip so special and memorable.

            We also visited the Veterans Hospital and made many visits throughout.  One of the patients had lost his leg recently and was mourning a little bit about his loss.  We ended up talking and I explained to him that my dad also had one leg, and he began to decide it wasn’t so bad, just something to get used to.  He then sang me a song, one of my favorites, Ave Maria!  I told him that music is the best medicine and he said that is because it comes from the Spirit and the Spirit comes from God, so he will never feel alone.  Many of these Veterans are so lonely and hurt; this made me aware of the sacrifices they have given up to ensure MY freedom.  I am so glad the sport of rodeo takes patriotism so seriously.  Rodeo is such an American Sport and throughout history and today our military has secured that.  God Bless America!!!!

            After many public appearances and getting the word out about the rodeo, it was time to get to work.  We carried sponsor flags, worked the front door, and attended production meetings to be ready for the rodeo.  Bronc Rumford supplied our horses and brought me big strawberry roan by the name of Big Ben.  Big Ben was a little green, but never let it show.  He was a perfect gentleman and we worked together to promote the sponsors of the PRCA and the RNCFR.  Bronc Rumford really is an exceptional man.  He worked with each one of the girls to help improve their horsemanship skills and make them aware of what was the best way to get along with the horse they had been assigned.  I really appreciate his time and talent and cannot wait to run into him later along the road.  

Miss Rodeo Wyoming Clinic

Wow, did we have a great turn out at the Miss Rodeo Wyoming clinic!!! Stacy Jo Berger did a wonderful job in preparing for the clinic and all the girls came eager to learn and work on their personal skills to better represent their titles or work on running for a new title. I was so excited about the enthusiasm the girls brought to the clinic. They really showed great growth and improvement over the weekend and went home with a list of materials to study including the PRCA Rulebook, the PSN, the PRCA Media Guide, and so many more materials to get their knowledge up to better do their job in promoting and informing about the sport of rodeo. It takes a good cowgirl who is a lady to have a rodeo queen position and do it correctly, the etiquette one must have in and outside the arena is what makes it special. I am eager to keep teaching myself to be the best I can be, and share with everyone I meet, to make them the best they can be too! It’s a good thing! J

Boot Camp Miss Congeniality

Had a great time in Ogden, Utah working on myself to be the best I can be this year as Miss Rodeo Wyoming. I was honored to be a part of the Boot Camp Fashion Show and had a blast going down the catwalk with Miss Rodeo Utah, Jamie Udell. Not only did we wear our queen attire but they also dressed us in very fun casual wear to model while there. I did have my dancing boots on while I was up there and everyone had a great time!

I was so honored to receive the Boot Camp Miss Congeniality Award for the Second Consecutive Year. It meant a lot to me after spending time with so many wonderful ladies from Washington, Idaho, Texas and Utah. I cherish the friends I have made in Utah and will always keep them close.

The last night Miss Rodeo Utah, Jamie, took us for dinner and indoor surfing!!! Let's just say I was really good at the WIPE OUT!!! :-) :-) Surf's Up Wyoming!

Cheyenne Frontier Days Volunteer Crisis Fund

I was honored to speak at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Volunteer Crisis Fund as the Guest Speaker. It was fun to spend time with my CFD Family and raise money for the CFD Volunteers in need due to tragedy.

I am pictured by the fireplace with the CFD General Chairman Rod Hottle and at the table with my autograph sheet sponsor Pioneer Printing. Pioneer Printing also sponsored my saddle when I was Miss Frontier in 2009. Jerry and Rod have never stopped supporting me and I appreciate their generosity and time.

Legislative Session at the State Capital & NEW SPONSOR!

I had a wonderful time going back to the State Capital for the Legislative Session. I had worked during the 59th Legislative Session as a Student Page, so it was fun to go back and see all the familiar faces. Representative Hans Hunt was a student with me at the University and he introduced during the session on the House side. I was also invited down onto the floor of the Senate side, where Senator Tony Ross introduced me. While at the capital, I met with Governor Mead and Secretary of State Max Maxfield. What an exciting day, full of Wyoming pride.

The little boy pictured is Little Will Kallal, he is my buddy who also came to my coronation ball.

I am so thrilled to announce my new wonderful Sponsor!! Miller Insulation Co, Inc., is sponsoring my Fuel Card to send me down the road. Fritz and Karen Messer are the two greatest people I am so blessed to know and have with me on this exciting journey! I really appreciate their support and look forward to the miles ahead thanks to them!!