Southern Hills RV Park, Hermosa, South Dakota
When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. ~ Genesis 26:34 First of all, Esau took on two wives. Not all that unusual, even for his ancestors, after all, his grandfather Abraham had a wife and concubines. However, Abraham made sure that Isaac’s wife came from his family, something I’m certain Isaac wanted for his children. Marrying outside the faith only brings problems, and I suspect that Esau knew that. Not only did he spurn his birthright, but he thumbed his nose at God Himself. A really scary attitude to take. He certainly will not live within the realm of God’s blessing. We need to be careful, lest we do the same – in any area of our lives, not only marriage.
There was a severe thunderstorm last night right at bedtime, and by the time it was over at 12:30am, I guess I was on my second wind, because I couldn’t get to sleep until sometime after 2:30am, and then was awakened at 6. That’s not nearly enough sleep! Blaine fared a bit better.
I had to go back to bed about 10:30 this morning while Blaine headed out to WalMart for some groceries and also to get a much needed haircut. As always he’d done his homework, so he chose the South Dakota Barber College, where Halley did a fine job on his head! She was fairly new, so she wasn’t fast, but she got the job done, and it looks great!
I was so tired, I actually slept three hours and never heard Blaine return and even put some of the groceries away! Thank You, Father! I needed that.
In other news, the forest fires from the west, are wreaking havoc with our eyes. We can’t really see the smoke too much, but our eyes are irritated, dry and red. We thought it would be better after the storms rolled through, but it doesn’t seem to be. It also makes the incredible views around here look like the Smokey Mountains – all day, every day. The smoke actually turns up on our Weather Channel app. Right under the temperature, it says “smoke”. Crazy!
We were planning on leaving on an evening adventure about 5pm today, but a thunderstorm rolled through at 4pm. We’d been watching its approach since about 2pm, and Blaine checked radar which told him it’d be here between 4-5 and last until nearly 6. The weathermen here aren’t much better than the ones back home. The storm was here and gone before 5pm.
Once we saw the storm was passed, we drove just a few minutes away to the Hart Ranch, where we experienced our very first rodeo!
We had decided to pick up dinner there, and because our choices were either bbq, or burgers, we had bbq. Our sandwiches were good, so were the sides. And we ate at a table with another couple who were visiting. I don’t remember where they’re from, but they’re kinda world travelers. They talked about visiting a son in Dubai, and one in Germany. And they’ve been to other “overseas” places. Interesting conversation.
After dinner, it was time to park in our pre-placed chairs by the rail, and wait for the rodeo to begin. Since it’s rained so much here, the arena was deep with clotting dirt, which made it difficult for people to walk in, as well as for the horses to run in. The barrel-racing times told the tale.
It was a wonderful show from start to finish! The announcer made it very clear that this was a Christian production, and they put God, family and country first – in that order. It also became apparent that the majority were Trump supporters – or at the very least, not Democratic supporters.
We watched bronc-riding, bareback-riding, bull-riding and barrel racing. It was all pretty exciting, except that the guys didn’t stay on the bulls more than a couple of seconds. But what we were most impressed with were the “pick-up men”. There were two on horseback who’s job it was to pick the cowboys off their horses when their eight seconds were up (or if they’re falling off), and then coral the bucking horses and bulls out of the arena. Masterful work! There was also a rodeo clown who filled in the down times with jokes and antics, as he carried on conversations with the announcer.
Unfortunately, since the sun was on its way down, my pictures aren’t very good, but you’ll get the idea at least.
They also did the American flag.
Note the condition of the arena.
The horse bucking him right in front of us!
The pickup men are right there to help him out.
This one dropped his rider, and proceeded to parade around the fence line eyeballing everyone.
Scary looking creature!
It turned out to be a wonderful weather evening, and a lot of fun!
So what’s the difference between RO-dee-oh, and Ro-DAY-oh? I mean other than the obvious? From what I could gather, it seems RO-dee-oh is the American pronunciation, and Ro-DAY-oh is Spanish. So there ya go. Me? I much prefer a RO-dee-oh. 😊