Mt Isa (Friday)

Today has been a pretty good day... Got myself up and organized, and headed off to meet Luke and Brock, some friends from Tassie who I will be traveling with for the next week or so. They have traveled up to compete in the rodeo here, and Darwin next weekend. Brock rides in the bareback, which is were they strap a bareback rigging (basically like a suitcase handle) to a wild bucking horse, let it loose, and try and stay on top for 8 seconds. He's currently one of the top bareback riders is Australia, so it will be exciting to see him ride tomorrow. Luke is competing in the steer wrestling. In this event, the cowboy chases down a steer at a flat out gallop, jumps off his perfectly good horse and wrestles the steer to the ground. After the boys had put in their entries and got our weekend passes (as competitors they get a free pass for their plus one. Their girls are at home, and I'm head chef so I got one too) we had a wander through the shops that travel the circuit. Didn't find my boots, so I'll have to keep looking I guess. When we did our trip in 2006 we went to the rodeo here, but it was the last year at the old grounds. You should see the set up here! It's amazing! It looks more like what you see when you watch te American bull riding on tv. And there are so many competitors! 48 barrel racers! Not to mention the juniors...
Luke was second out in the steer wrestling and started out well, but his feet got stuck and he ended up doing a superman maneuver!! How he kept hold I don't know, but he ended up with a time of about 15 seconds. Won't win him any money- the leading time is about 5 seconds...
We watched the rest of the afternoon program and then headed into the shops to get some eggs and bacon for tomorrows breakfast, and get some tea. We ended up at KFC, but I guess that's still better than the Dagwood dogs on offer at the grounds!
As part of the weekend, they have a mardi gras parade. It goes around the rodeo grounds, and it's quite the event. They also show it on the big screen at e grounds, so we watched it there. I suspect because that's where the bar is...
The rodeo started back again at eight, with a great program, a round of each of the main events over two hours. By the time it finished, I was freezing and the boys were ready for bed, having driving almost all the way from Darwin to Mt Isa the day before. Angela had offered the boys a spot to camp, so we all grade back there. These idiots only brought sleeping bags, so one of them used my swag while I got a nice comfy and warm bed inside. They'll be in trouble when I want my bed back...
Well that'll do me for today, no doubt I'll have plenty more to tell you about tomorrow!

Luke aka Superman

Isa arena

Isa arena