Page 25 of River Ride

Bobby took the Coke out of the cupholder and handed it to Ray. “Drink your soda and stop going on about it, Ray.”

While he drank his Coke, Ray stayed quiet.

Bobby found a station he liked and drove along happily until Ray finished his Coke and started up again.

Bobby gritted his teeth trying to hold it together. “I’m only gonna say this one time, Ray. You shut up with all this negative talk or you get the fuck out of the truck.”

Ray reached over and turned up the radio and never said another word.

Columbia Falls. Montana.

“I’ve got to go talk to the convenor in the rodeo office for a minute,” said Rowdy. “I’ll be back soon with tickets for y’all.”

“I hope we have good seats,” said Virge. “I don’t want to miss anything.”

“We’ll have good seats.” Annie winked at me. “Right down front near the rail.”

Rowdy returned a few minutes later with a big smile on his face and a handful of front row tickets. “Here y’all go. I’ve got to take the kids to the chutes and get ready for their events. Y’all have a time.”

Annie smiled at Rowdy. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

Dad was being more polite, but I could tell he didn’t like Annie being with Rowdy.

We went into the arena and found our seats right at the front rail. Travis sat Tammy next to him and kept eyes on her the whole time. Since Tammy arrived in Montana she’d been almost dead silent. The expression on her face never changed. No smile. A blank look like crazy people have on TV.

The announcer came on hollering a message over the loudspeaker and made us jump.

“Welcome to the Columbia Falls Fourth of July Rodeo Extravaganza.”

Everybody hooted and hollered as the announcer continued with his speech, “As a huge surprise for all you rodeo fans out there, we have World Champion Rowdy Butler here with us to kick off the rodeo.”

Rowdy ran out into the middle of the arena and waved his hat in the air.

“Rowdy will be available for pictures and autograph signing at the end of the day. Watch for him outside the east gate of the arena.”

The crowd jumped to their feet hooting and hollering for Rowdy.

After Rowdy left the arena, the rodeo started with the first event. During the afternoon competition, Jackson did the best. He won his class in calf roping and posted a stellar time on the clock.

Davey competed in a younger group, and he came second. A little disappointed, but Rowdy told him he did great, and he’dwin the class at the next rodeo we were going to.

When the events concluded for the day, the rodeo people had a table set up for Rowdy in the shade of the building. He signed autographs for hundreds of kids and got his picture taken about a thousand times.

While that went on, Dad herded us over to the food trucks for supper. “We’ll eat before we load the horses and head back home.”

I was starving and Virge was always hungry. He couldn’t make up his mind which truck to line up at. There were so many to choose from, and all of them were his favorites.

I went for a burger with fried onions and Dad voted for that too. We had our food and were sitting at a picnic table before Virge got to the front of the line at the pizza truck.

Tammy sat on the other side of the table and wouldn’t eat the burger Dad bought her. Thin and pasty looking, she wasn’t the same person anymore. My sister Tammy had turned into somebody I didn’t know.

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

An hours’ drive back home from Columbia Falls and we were all bone tired from a day sitting outside in the hot sun. A fantastic fun day, but we were tired all the same.

Horses were first when we got to the ranch. We unloaded them, put them into the corral and fed them. They were as tired and as hot as we were and glad to get out of the trailer.

Rowdy pushed the kids to look after their horses properly and make sure they drank a lot of water so they wouldn’t get dehydrated.

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