St. Paul Rodeo (1) - with 10,000 spectators in a 400-person village

Tuesday, 3.7.

We sleep peacefully until shortly before nine and continue into the surrounding forest with a coffee from the village shop in hand. We now follow the Forest Road 46 along the Breitenbush River, which even offers hot springs. The road is both empty of people and cars and leads through beautiful mixed forests that line the road like an avenue on both sides.

After about 20 miles, we reach Highway 214, which we continue north towards Estacada. The wild Clackamas River now runs alongside us, and although our route takes us through the Hood River National Forest, we don't see the Hood River. The clouds are hanging low again and it occasionally drizzles.

We follow a group of rafters along the road who are having fun on the moving river. The grass we are standing on is soaking wet, so we need the heating in the car to dry our pants and shoes. We automatically reach the highway that leads to Woodburn and initially pass the large outlet there and have to spend some money for 1.5 hours. At half past three we arrive at our Best Western in Woodburn, where we will stay for two nights. We are in the middle of nowhere because we are now heading to another highlight of the trip: Two rodeos in St. Paul are waiting for us.

At half past four we get in the car and drive the 10 miles to St.Paul. The sun is shining warm now. In St. Paul, the festival meadow is next to the main road and in the surrounding side streets, it seems that the residents have either marked their front yards with "no parking" signs or rent them out for $5-10 per space per day. Others seem to have fled from the hustle and bustle, while some have multiple tents in their garden.

The St. Paul Rodeo is one of the twenty largest rodeos in the USA. St. Paul itself has only about 400 inhabitants, but more than 10,000 people come to the city for the rodeo, which has been held here annually since 1935 on Independence Day. However, it quickly becomes apparent to us that we are the only non-American tourists here. The prize money here runs up to $500,000 for individual competitions, making it one of the so-called Wrangler Million Dollar Tour Rodeos, which belong to only 8 rodeos worldwide and attract the best rodeo riders. The rodeo lasts several days here, with up to 1000 participants. The atmosphere is accordingly!

Next to the arena is a festival meadow with many food stalls and carousels. It looks like the 1960s.

The so-called Art Show offers selected ugly crafts in a tent, but also beautifully crafted saddles. The saddles are made of wood on the inside, and there are two saddles on display that cost $4,800 and $5,500, respectively.

It gets busier around 5:30 pm. We have already walked along the stables and seen the horses and the parking lots of the trailers. The participants live in their motorhomes, where the horses are tied up.

The bulls are housed elsewhere and look rather uncomfortable. The usual attire here is a cowboy hat, boots, and jeans.

We get an elephant ear (sugary-cinnamon fatty pastry) and ice cream and take our seats in the stands. I booked the tickets online months ago. As always, the tickets are cheap and you get several hours of spectacle for around $20. Usually - as is the case here - you sit uncomfortably on small bench seats and pinch your knees on the seat in front of you. But anyway - the St. Paul Rodeo is a legend and we are here today. And again tomorrow!

When choosing our seats, I made sure that we have a maximally good view and that the evening sun doesn't constantly shine in our eyes, so the direction of the sky is also correct. This is slowly becoming a science in itself.

The rodeo starts off a bit slow and in the first 10 minutes, people are falling off the bull very quickly. One person is kicked in the upper body by the bucking animal and can only leave the arena with the help of others.

The rodeo lasts almost three hours, then there's fireworks and we drive back to the hotel in Woodburn. Shortly before 11 pm, we enter our room, whose carpet is completely wet. Apparently, the carpet was shampooed but not dried in our absence. Disgusting! Nothing can be placed on the floor.

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Driving distance: 130 miles