With school starting, the days getting longer, and the rodeo season nearing an end, it was difficult to get back in the routine after almost a month since our rodeo. Brooke and I rallied early on third of September to hit the road for Walla Walla Frontier Days.
After finding our parents who were busily grooming our mounts – Andy and Buddy – we relaxed and waited for the parade to start. Walla Walla was packed with horses, floats, and people. Once the line progressed onto Main Street, I entered “parade mode:” waving and greeting nearly every spectator and answering the occasional question regarding how to pronounce my name. In hindsight, maybe they should have put another nameplate on my serape with “Silje” spelled phonetically. I’m going to venture to say this year will be the first and last year Chief Joseph Days will have someone named “Silje” on their court. It will make life easier for the announcer, that’s for sure.
After the court luncheon that follows the parade, we decided to hit the town. The rodeo didn’t start till 7:00, so we had around five hours to kill after the court luncheon. My Grandparents from Norway came with us to Walla Walla, so I was able to spend some time with them before the rodeo started.
When it was time to mount our horses and warm up, finality hit me. This was to be our last run-in of the year. As I loped along the track that encircles the rodeo arena, it was strange to think the next two rodeos would just be parades. But Walla Walla was the perfect place to do our last run-in: the track provided a straight-shot sprint past the roaring crowd. And what a surreal feeling it was. When Buddy lowered himself to the ground and flattened his ears into a dead run, it was all I could do to stop him from circling the entire track. What a great way to wrap up the year.
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