The Rodeo - a post from Tamara

The weekend at Thief River Falls

So, you all know that Catalyst headed up north to try to halt Big Tobacco's sponsorship of rodeos. One of Catalyst's awesome activists breaks-down our action-packed weekend.  Read Tamara's post below:

 

So just a little while ago I got in from being up in Thief River Falls. It was an amazing weekend that I would relive anytime of my life, we all had so much fun.

It started out that we met on Friday morning at the Catalyst office in Minneapolis, or at least the people that lived down here. We were all super excited and full of energy even if was reasonably early in the morning (for some at least).

So we hit the road at about 10:30am a little later than planned but its all good. Along the ride at first we were a bit more quiet because we didn't know each other as well but still talked a little. Then we all started singing along to the songs it was a lot of fun (SHHHH I recorded us on my phone lol) and then ate at Pizza Ranch and it was really funny because they were all "We close at 1:30" and then we bribed them with all the people we had so they served us! We then continued on the road and after a while the weather started to play up it started out raining and then WE SAW A TORNADO! It was about a mile or so away from us so we decided to try and take cover so we asked to go into a strawberry picking patches ladies house. They were very sweet and let us all in so we stood in their basement, MANY thanks to them! C: Other than that after the warning and everything went away we left and started on the road and got to the hotel about 5:30-6:00ish.

After making it to the hotel saftely, we got our rooms and headed off to the fair. We set up our booth and had things like screens for making posters, button making and of course or palm cards and petition.

Overall we did really well for the first night we got a lot of signatures on the petition and quite a few palm cards signed. We felt very proud. So we got back to the hotel and went SWIMMING!!! and had splash fights (don't do that it makes your eyes sting for days, we all know!)

Day two, we all got up bright and early for breakfast and our meeting. Then we got chill for a few hours, sleep (as Ethan, Larry, and Ben did), get ready, or go swimming. After that we got a HEALTHY lunch at Subway and went into Walmart for the miscellanous things that we needed. We then headed over to the rodeo and it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING! So we were all fending for warmth, we even resorted to thinking about things like HAWII and seeing hot guys to make us feel warm and to get our minds off of it! It didn't seem to work too well but the hudling did things for us. Then we met a magician it was really cool he did some really cool tricks, we have some on video that you guys will be able to see later I presume. Also CAMERON came it was funny because i missed him so i like jumped on him when i hugged him (although hes not the only one I did it with). Soon after it got so cold out that they let us move into the arena next to the alltel stand. We did a lot of button making in there, I think its because there were more little kids in there because it was a lot warmer and it was more tolerable for them considering the weather. Then about 6pm we all ate pizza and got these really cool cups (SHH i kept one lol)

Then at about 6:30ish some of us headed over to the rodeo. As cold as it was we all still really wanted to go. I have to say its really cool to now be able to say I've been to a real rodeo. It started out saying sponsers and we sung the US and Canadian Anthem. It was really cool to hear the Canadian Anthem because its not something we do down here all we do is the US one. But then they announced the people and had this clown that was out there the entire time, I'll always remember him as 'Texas Boy'. But there was a lot of bull riding, which was so much fun to watch. I think Lula and I were about the LOUDEST fans there. We were always up screaming and cheering for them (I have now lost my voice from that), but I have to say the standing up definately warmed us up, well that is until we went higher up then it was colder again. But they also had sheep riding for the little boys and girls that wanted to be in it, it was adorable, and they got trophies and such.

Then we went to the hotel and changed and went to DA CLUB. It was really funny because we walked in and are all like "UGH THIS SUCKS" but we all started dancing and having fun and the night went by so fast. Then Caleb, Nic, Lula, DT, and I went in the mini van and blasted the music singing and dancing and I don't think the hotel liked when we pulled into the parking lot because it was like 1am.

Finally, there was today also known as day three. We pretty much just got up got ready, ate breakfast, got our stuff together and headed out the door and were on the road by 9:20am. This road trip went by a lot faster, I think because we all knew each other better so we talked a lot more and had a lot of fun. At one point we stopped at this really cool gas station and Lula and Nic brought a hat each that we all wore throughout the trip back. A while later we had some DQ for lunch and were back on the road, and next thing I knew we were back at the Catalyst office.

And I'm very sad to say that after the block party Lula is no longer a part of Catalyst. I MISS AND LOVE YOU LULA!!! and I promise to keep in touch. Happy early birthday hun! C:

With Love,

Tamara

 

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rodeo activism big tobacco smokeless chew