Friday - After a very good breakfast at the Oxbow Cafe, we headed out to the National Automobile Museum, located right on the Truckee River in downtown Reno.
Advertised as "One of America's Five Greatest Auto Museums" (and I assumed we had seen the other four, but I guess we've only seen one or two of them, unbelievably), this one is nicely organized and the vehicles are all in excellent condition. It is set up in 4 different galleries, based on time periods. Gallery 1 is 1890s to 1910s; Gallery 2 is Teens to 1930s, Gallery 3 is 1930s to 1950s, and Gallery 4 is 1950s and Beyond. There are more than 200 cars on display, some owned by celebrities.
Frank Sinatra's car. There was one of Sammy Davis Jr.'s here too.
There were period costumes (dresses and hats) also on display near some of the older autos.
We were cautioned not to touch the automobiles, but Joe caught Mazie spinning one of the tires. So we pointed out the error of her ways.
We watched a film, then continued on to the next galleries.
We've seen the Reno sign a couple of times but never got a picture of it. So we got that taken care of on our way back to the campground.
We thought we should rest up before our late night rodeo excursion again, so back to the campground we went. We got to the rodeo about 6:30 and were in our seats early, which was good because they had some special stuff, including a parachute jump by 5 paratroopers from the Air Force.
The first 4 landed right on target, in the middle of the rodeo arena. But the fifth one, carrying the U.S. flag, landed (safely) somewhere in the parking lot. He must have caught a wind sheer or something.
The events started with bareback bucking broncos. Not a good way to make a living!
Then it was steer wrestling.
Next we had a visit from a guy with 2 dogs and a horse. Oh, and a jalopy. And they
ALL rode off in it.
Then was more bucking broncos, this time with saddles.
Then another break in the action, with some mules pulling wagons, horses pulling wagons, and then the beautiful Clydesdales again.
And a steam-pumper fire wagon.
And the magnificent Clydesdales!
Not sure what this next event was called, but it was a bunch of people trying to catch the cows, sometimes by the tail. One guy got hurt, didn't see what happened, but they had to help him up and off the field.
Then came the mutton bustin'.
The final event of the night was truly insane. Some guy has perfected the art of "jumping over" the bull. He engages the bull to get the bull to charge him, then he leaps in the air and acrobatically flips over him, longways, head-first. How do people come up with these ideas!!!
Fortunately, he didn't miss. I'm pretty sure there is no room for error in this sport.
This was an excellent rodeo, lots of action, lots of events. And fireworks. And lots of horses. The drill team, carrying flags, circled the area several times, sometimes carrying sponsors flags, and sometimes carrying U.S. and Nevada flags. But the bleachers got hard so we were happy to see the end. We worked our way out of there (the carnival is going on too) and got back to the campground about 10:30, a late night for some of us. But the rodeo was fun, the weather was great, and a good time was had by all.
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