We got up around 6:30 am on Saturday, and it was already devilishly hot out. The smoke from the brush fires all up and down the valley hung heavy and dark just above the horizon, and the campfire smell was real.The rest of the conventioneers would be coming down from SLC in a convoy of busses and probably wouldn’t be arriving for a couple or three hours, so we had time to wander around the farm and check things out. There were some colorful flowers here and there, and a nice little lake. They had some old-timey farm implements and tractors around, and a large stuffed Brahma bull.
There even put on an Old West-style jousting tournament, it conjured up those familiar images of cowboys riding horses at each other with sharpened sticks…the head of the company even portrayed a heroic cowboy, vanquishing the evil foes from the FTC . . .
The various vendors and stands and such were starting to come alive as well, from the village black smith to the Old West saloon. As the buses started to arrive, people crowded into the place, and we wandered around with them all. It got hotter and hotter as the day went on, but we were lucky in that we could retreat back to the RV and turn on the AC to cool off for a bit. We lunched in the big tent with everyone else.
The hosts had promised everything from blacksmith shops to a staged Wild West gunfight, Native American dancers, a jousting tournament, and a petting zoo. The latter ended up just being a stable out back with a couple of mangy camels, some deer and elk, the random llama, and a few head of buffalo. And I do mean “head”. Melissa fed one of the behemoths that came up to the fence, and the thing was huge.
There had been some concern that the brush fires would send a lot of smoke around, but the wind was in our favor and it never got too bad. We watched the jousting which was rather bizarre, as they staged a wild west shootout at the same time, and of course the Prez of the company was the good guy in the white hat, riding in with his lance and vanquishing all the bad guys (dressed up as FDA inspectors, I suppose…) The entertainment was decent, if you like country music.
By the end of the day, we were all pretty bushed from the heat and the walking around, so by the time the sun set, we were ready to quit. Back to the RV, on with the AC and to bed. Tomorrow, we’d head south towards Moab, crossing some spectacular scenery.
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