I spent the weekend exploring, what I like to call, the Wild West of Eastern Oregon with @amber_mckenna. Stationed in Pendleton for the duration of her Snowden internship, Amber invited me to a little thing called the Farm City Pro Rodeo. Actually it wasn’t little, it was quite large complete with an accompanying fair.

We trolled the fair grounds on Saturday and immediately I was overcome with the urge to buy a funnel cake. As I kept an eye out for a vendor of my favorite fried concoction, I couldn’t help but notice the ridiculous amount of other fried things. Besides the regular funnelcakes, twinkies and elephant ears, there were fried cinnamon rolls, pizza and coke! I was not brave enough to hazard a taste but Amber had tried the coke earlier in the week and did not speak highly of it.

After wondering around for a bit, we found ourselves in the middle of pig auction. Now this is definitely something I can say I had never seen before, nor want to. The smell alone was enough to send me running, but my piqued interest kept me seated. It seemed absurd that these pigs were being sold for over $300, but then again, considering how much we paid for our labradoodle who will not provide us with bacon for a year, maybe it wasn’t that crazy.

We ate dinner at a delicious Mexican restaurant and then headed over to the stadium to grab seats for the main event. The entire stadium was filled with cowboy hats, boots, denim and beer.

The first event was the bareback riding, which to me seemed unnecessarily and extremely painful. Yet all the cowboys walked it off and found their way back to the gates on their own after being thrown off.

The crowd favorite was definitely the bull riding. As the crowd chanted and clapped at the announcement of the event, you could feel the heightened anticipation.

Once we saw the first cowboy ride out of the gates and hit the ground, we understood why it was so revered. This first rider didn’t move for about five minutes while the medics tended to him.

Amber and I look fondly at the memories of this weekend and our first rodeo (minus the rodeo clown). But it wasn’t all fun and games, some lessons were learned.

1. Don’t drink too much (bathroom line > beer line)
2. Matching corsets and jeans are perfectly acceptable for friends to wear.
3. Oversized crosses on necklaces and hats are super trendy (especially when accessorized with turquoise).
4. Late night funnel cake + coors lite = bad dreams
5. Always leave a 50 ft. radius between you and any animal barn.