Fair week

The Western Montana Fair got underway here in the Garden City on Tuesday. We went to the fair on Wednesday to catch the Professional Bull Riding Tour and it turned out to be quite the eventful outing.

We arrived at about 3:30 and started out by looking at some of the commercial sellers that were set up. There was the usual assortment of commercial goods that you typically see at a fair. When we got to the end we saw that they brought in a manufactured home for people to look through. To our amazement they had a nice ramp running up to an outside small deck, and we decided to go inside. It was very spacious and much better than I was expecting. They can put in some accessible features like wider doors and a roll in shower. We would definitely consider moving into one to solve our need for extra space. This company has more display models setup at their place and they have ramps on some of them as well. I look forward to checking more of them out.

The fun really started after we decided to go down the midway at the fair. As I was starting out, my chair suddenly came to an abrupt stop. Theresa came over and checked things out. It turned out that my main joystick cable was severed. We called the wheelchair place and they agreed to come out to the fair and fix my chair if they had the right part. While we were waiting, we decided it was a good time to check out some of the available culinary delights. I had an excellent huckleberry milkshake, some cheese curds, fry bread, and the legendary Viking. A Viking is similar to a corn dog but it has like a sausage and meatball stuffing instead. It was absolutely delicious with a dab of mustard!

The wheelchair guy showed up at about 6:00 with the needed part. He installed it but when my chair was put into drive, it acted very strange and wouldn't move properly. He then went to work and tried to figure out how to basically hot wire things together. After much work at it, we decided to give another try. My chair fired up and started working beautifully. I was so happy and I offered my sincerest thanks to Gary for getting things working.

We then hurried over to our seats at the grandstand for the bull riding event. The bull riders that were assembled are the best in the world and they are truly amazing at what they do. Some of the rides were totally spectacular and the bulls were very tough indeed. There was even a couple riders from western North Dakota, and it was really fun watching them.

The top 10 riders of the evening advanced on to the finals. Things were rough in the finals and only two riders even managed to get a score. Kody Lostroh from Wyoming was the last rider out of the chute and he turned in a score of 90 for the win. It was thrilling to say the least.

The evening turned out to be an excellent one after our earlier break down. Our nurse also attended with us and it was very nice to have her there. She was the designated photographer and the pictures turned out great. Hope you enjoy!

There really isn't much news besides our adventure at the fair. I had my last meeting with my disability adviser before school starts. We nailed down my plan for accommodations and they only needed to scan one of my books because they had the rest. The anticipation is starting to build and I can't wait to get started. It will be underway before I know it.

Have a great weekend and I'll be back next week.

Peace,

Mark