"The Pendleton Round-Up has won the prestigious PRCA Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year award five times: 2003, 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2017."
We dodged much of the traffic by going to the Woolen Mill first and catching an impromptu tour. We were among the lucky elite to get a last minute hotel (for probably double the
price of usual weekends.) But we were a quick jaunt downtown for our 3:00 Underground Tour. The entire down town Main Street was a massive street fair with food trucks, vendors, different country music bands on every block, BBQ smoke filling the air. It was VERY distracting getting to our sold -out tour on time. We had a splendid, knowledgeable tour guide regale us of local history--how Pendleton was settled, sheriff -ed, bordello-ed and cleaned up. We toured in tunnels under the town and saw the Chinese laundry and the opium den and gaol. We sashayed in the parlour where Madam Stella Darcy, the last madame of Pendleton, entertained. Her statue embellishes the sidewalk of Main Street right across from some famous cowboy. She lived and worked in an upstairs apartment on Main Street. Down the hall from the parlour and chapel, were "the working rooms." Each of the 4 working girls had their own bedroom as well and a shared kitchen and laundry room. The entire apartment was decorated in 1920+ period furniture and clothes and literature. There was even a box of Trojans in one of the working rooms, but it was a box the size of a slide rule. (about 3 x 9 inches) Guess their pockets were bigger back then.After dinner we wove our way down to the Happy Canyon Arena. We passed the tee-pee city where the authentic participants camp for the week. We were not in appropriate regalia and it felt a little like we were wedding crashers or parents at a college tailgate party. We passed the horse corrals and where all the rodeo "doggies" were penned and then past the kilometers of Indian jewelry and leatherwork for sale. We made it to our reserved seats in the stadium in time for refreshing adult beverages.
We had been warned the Indian Pageant and Wild West Show was "a little hokey" and indeed it was. We enjoyed the authentic clothes and dances and real horsemanship but the skits of ambushes and gunfights were a little hard to take. Spoiler alert: the white guys take over the Happy Canyon. Our pics don't do it justice but there's a good video on their website: http://www.happycanyon.com/
There was a real lariat spinner, and precision horse acts, but the biggest surprise was when the show was over, the adult guests were invited to exit the stadium through the faux dance hall, which opened into an actual casino. We partook of the "Pendleton Whisky" (don't they know that whisky without an e is reserved for Scotch Whisky?!?) We did observe the gambling and a guy gave us a mercy lesson on the roulette wheel with free chips. We immediately lost.
Watch a 14 second video of the disco that Judd took here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeNe6NpBcjo
It was AFTER the after-party that Judd was able to select his hat on our way back to the hotel. What do you think, boots next?
Incredibly beautiful pictures! It's really an absolute delight to watch your clicks. I also appreciate your clearly writing.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
who lives in Oregon