Wild Wild Rodeo Day!

Once I was awake I went outside and grabbed the newspaper went inside and let Lilo out in the backyard while I did the morning routine. I went back outside afterwards and decided to watch Dr. DoLittle 2 on the TV in Matt's RV. Since I still had to wait for Matt to get up I laid down and eventually started to doze lightly. As soon as I heard the door to the house close I knew it was Matt cause his mom had left earlier that morning. He tried to scare me but didn't succeed in the slightest. He did inform me that it was 12 after 8 so with a bit of reluctance I sat up and helped Matt get things ready for the bike rodeo . We loaded up the RV with the things we were going to take and thought we might need. Then we lower the top of it, it was a pop-up RV from like 1984 but it was in pretty good condition, some repairs needed but definately has potential. We didn't have much trouble getting the RV hitched up, but as we were pulling out the back of the trailer dragged hard against the ground. It always happens when there is a sudden change in the slope or drop in the pavement, gravel, concrete, grass. The back of the RV scrapped against the ground again when we pulled the RV into his churchs parking lot not as hard this time, but still it shouldn't bottom out at all.

The church was where the bike rodeo would take place. I practiced backing the RV up for a little bit, before finally parking it where I had decided would be the best plalce for it. I get better backing up the RV everytime I do it so I try to practice as much as I can. It wouldn't do if we went camping and I couldn't pull the RV up to the site and had to back it in. Practice makes Perfect and If at first you don't succeed try try again! It was only like 10am or so when we were done parking the RV. Matt wanted to check out the rummage sale going on in his church, and I wasn't about to stop him. It was starting to get pretty hot outside. We stayed there for a little while and then went to get some lunch at Home Plate. We kicked ourselves later cause we could have saved 14 bucks by waiting til later in the day. Anyway the rest of the day was fun.

As people were showing up for the bike rodeo Brent and Bethany Harty with their 5 children among the first arrived just as Matthew and I were setting up the RV which would act as a First Aid/Cooling Station/Base Camp. It didn't take long to set up the RV and once that was done we unloaded our bikes from the back of Matt's Van. We thought we would actually be teaching something about working on the bikes but didn't get around to it. A very nice police officer was there to go through everything for us, still if we had more time it would have been nice to actually get the kids involved hands on. Obviously some of the were too young to do hands on but they could have at least watched and maybe even learned something. I must admit though it'd be pretty difficult to keep a child interested in something, especially the younger they are unless of course it's something they're already interested in and then they can't stop asking questions about it, am I right, tell me I'm right! LOL

Some of the things covered by the officer was which side of the street to ride on, how high your seat should be, how to wear the helmet correctly, the importance of bike maintenance, and he talked about a pre-ride check list, that should be done before each time you ride, such as checking your brakes and tire pressure, he even helped fix the kids bike, basically taking away the things Matt and I were supposed to teach. Honestly though, I think he did a much better job than either us could have done. I think we would have made things too complicated for the kids to understand. After the officer had left Brent ran the kids through a bike course where the kids had to demonstrate their ability to ride in circles, straight lines, stopping, figure 8, and slalom.

Once that was done, we took a break at camp, and Matt let one Eme in his RV, but told her she had to behave while she was in their, some other kids took this as an invitation and started going in there as well, normally Matthew and I would have had no problem with it, as long as the children behaved. As I was walking by the RV, I saw that one of the kids was hanging from the middle support for the canvas over one of the pull out beds. I told him to knock it off, just because you evolved from monkeys don't mean you need to act like one. That was made to be hung on, you'll break it. I turned my back for about 5min, and all of the sudden the canvas came crashing down and it was on the same side that one of the kids had been hanging on, well when that happened I had to put my foot down and the lost the privlage of playing in the RV. I suppose we could have hooked the TV up and put in a movie for them to watch, that might have kept them calmed down, but the thought slipped my mind. We had the TV and the DVD player to hook up to it, why we didn't is beyond me.

Well that was pretty much the day for me, I went back to Matt's for a little while then had his dad take me home. Almost as soon as I walked in the door I'm getting bitched at right and left by Brian about Derrick's bike, and where was it, what did I do with it, I couldn't help but yell at him, cause I had told my mom I was taking Derrick's bike with me and the reason I was taking it. I figured she'd be going down to my aunts out in Woodsmoke Ranch along with my nephew and he wouldn't be needing his bike. Then he was angry cause my bike wasn't here for him to use either. I told him you know what shut up, your not the one you paid money to get it fixed, your not the one you fixed it up, so you sure as heck aren't going to do something to wreck it, or use it and then it gets stolen. I've had it happen with one nice moutain bike I had already it's not going to happen to this one. Well he pretty much shut up after that and I went to my room and shut the door turned on the computer and started writing about my day while watching Batman and Robin.

Good Night, Everybody, Sweet Dreams, and Take Care