Chapter 47: Cowboy Competition (Part 1)

  It was another evening, Ju An put away the fishing rod and went home to pick up Wu Ming. On the way back home, he heard Wu Ming mention that tomorrow would be the last day of the tour group's activities. Old Taylor and Anderson had arranged for everyone to go to Niagara Falls City to watch a cowboy competition performance.

  After hearing this news, Ju An thought that he had never seen a real cowboy performance before, so he decided to go home and mobilize everyone to watch the cowboy show together.

  "When eating, Ju An said: "The tour group will leave the day after tomorrow, so tomorrow they decided to go to Niagara Falls City to watch a cowboy performance. I thought about it and my parents, sister, brother-in-law, Ranran and Tongtong haven't seen a cowboy performance yet, so I discussed with everyone whether we should follow the tour group together tomorrow or drive there ourselves."

  Dad and sister-in-law didn't have any issues, those two little troublemakers were even more so, almost lifting their little feet up. It also got Wu Song to stand up on the small bench, shouting "Hai, hai" twice to show his agreement, of course he was also ignored by Ju An Hua Liang.

  "Mom hesitantly asked: 'Just how far is that Niagara Falls City anyway?'"

  "Probably about two hours by car."

  "Go ahead, it's two hours away and you'll be driving alone for two hours, that's too tiring," said Mom with a wave of her hand.

  Dad also hesitated after hearing this.

  "Two hours isn't a long time, we'll take breaks on the road, it's not too tiring. Let's go together, it'll be more lively and fun."

  Then Wu Ming also joined in to persuade: "Auntie, let's go together, it's more lively with more people, you see, Ranran is eager to go". As he said that, he pointed at the four eyes looking at their mother with hope.

  The old mother looked at the two little rascals and finally nodded in agreement. The two little guys immediately cheered loudly.

  Finished dinner happily and was about to call Tyler when the phone at home rang unexpectedly.

  "Picked up the phone and just said: 'Hello, I'm Ju An'."

  Just then, Old Taylor's voice came: "An! Tomorrow we'll take the tour group to Niagara Falls City to watch a cowboy performance. I'd like to ask if you guys want to go? If you do, we can all go together. If not, then we'll take Ranran and Tongtong with us. Jerry, these two little guys are listening on the side."

  "Ha ha, I was just about to call you and tell you we're driving behind you guys."

  Then Tyler told the two little ones that RongRong and TongTong would also go, and then heard the cheers of the two little ones. Now these four little ones are like conjoined babies, except for sleeping at night, they basically hang out together all the time. With Jerry and Emily's Chinese and RongRong and TongTong's English getting better, it seems that kids are more adept at learning languages than adults. Simple Chinese and English phrases are no problem for the little ones now. What worries Ju An is that RongRong and TongTong's English has a strong Montana accent, so people who normally learn English in China might not understand what they're saying at first. Of course, Jerry and Emily's Chinese also have the accent of Ju An's hometown, but fortunately, the accent of her hometown is still close to Mandarin, or else Ju An would be worried again.

  "Alright then, it's settled. Let's meet at the intersection tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock," Tyler said through the loudspeaker.

  "Alright then, see you at 7 tomorrow."

  The next day, at six o'clock in the morning, Wu Song got up and took care of Xiaodoucao and Xuehua. He then drove them into the horse herd, as there was no time to take them out for a walk today.

  When I got back to the house, I saw that everyone, big and small, had already dressed up. Ruan Ruan and Tong Tong were wearing leather jackets, little cowboy boots, and cowboy hats, looking like little cowboys and cowgirls. My dad, mom, sister, brother-in-law, and even Wu Ming were all wearing cowboy hats, plaid long-sleeved shirts, cowboy pants, and leather boots, with each person also sporting a pair of sunglasses with large buckles, dressed in standard Western cowboy attire.

  The only regret is Wu Song, the little cowboy hat was worn, but a small basketball uniform was put on his body, the clothes and pants were matched, but not to watch basketball, completely incompatible with watching cowboy performances.

  Everyone was ready, and Jiu'an went to the warehouse to pick up a GMC with eight seats. The two large bags that his mother and sister had brought were put in the trunk by Jiu'an. With five adults and two children, plus Jiu'an sitting comfortably, after everyone got on the car, Jiu'an proudly looked at himself in the rearview mirror: "Still my brother's foresight", immediately changed to a bigger car, now everyone can sit comfortably.

  When they arrived at the intersection, Tyler happened to see Taylor driving a large pickup truck with a trailer coming over. Old Taylor honked the horn when he saw Ju An's car, and after everyone stopped their cars, Jerry and Emily were taken down by Taylor. The little ones ran towards Ju An's car as soon as they landed, opened the door, squeezed into the back seat, and sat together with Rongrongtongtong.

  Then Gideon started the car and followed Old Taylor's truck towards Niagara Falls, with very few cars on the road, it took about ten minutes to see one.

  Every time they meet on the road, whether they know each other or not, everyone will wave and greet each other.

  Wu Ming said: "These foreigners are really enthusiastic".

  "Let you drive on this road and you will be enthusiastic too. It takes ten minutes to see a car, just to adjust your mood."

  Following a large trailer for two and a half hours, they finally arrived at the cowboy performance venue in Niagara Falls.

  Arrived at the parking lot, it was not easy to find two spots, and they were parked separately. Old Taylor's car was parked in a large vehicle parking lot with many pickup trucks towing trailers, some of which were even larger than the trailer used to transport cows at the ranch.

  After parking the car, a group of people went to the entrance of the performance venue in a mighty and majestic manner.

  Ju An was very interested in those big trailers and asked Tyler: "These trailers are really good, much bigger than the one on my ranch."

  Taylor replied, "The largest ones are for transporting racing horses and cattle." He pointed to some other slightly shorter vehicles and said, "Those are for the contestants participating in the race, they can accommodate people and horses inside."

  "Wu Ming asked: 'Do they live in their cars at night? Don't they go home?'".

  Taylor chuckled and replied, "Every year this kind of competition attracts many cowboys to participate. The competition has points, and there is a bonus for the annual champion, so some cowboys may have to drive for several days from home to various competition venues in the West to accumulate points. Therefore, they all bring their own horses and live in their cars, rushing to various competition venues."

  "Wu Ming sighed and said: 'Sleeping in a car is too tiring'."

  Taylor said: "It's okay, actually this car is very comfortable, there are big beds to sleep in, a dining room, and a bathroom, just like a resort hotel".

  Wu Mingcai sighed and said: "It turns out that I have been living in vain, this is much more comfortable. Anzi, you should also get one, next time when my brother comes over, we will try it out."

  "Living comfortably, you glance at this idiot: 'You have a house but sleep in the car, and you even ask me to buy it? Can't you be shameless to this extent?'"

  Looking ahead with a large group of people, Wu Ming said: "Anderson and his team are really hardworking this time. The two girls we hired can't even get started yet, now they have to explain everything."

  Taylor said, "This is our job and we just try to do it well. The two Chinese girls have already helped a lot, their English is very good, communication depends on them. This time when we go back, we will pass on some equestrian knowledge and ranch information to them, so that combined with the activities of these few days, they can understand more or less. If in the future there are equestrian teams that are not bad, we will arrange another two-day outdoor horse riding camping trip, it will be even more interesting."

  As they arrived at the entrance, they saw a row of blue stalls next to it, selling various drinks and small souvenirs. Tyler went to a blue ticket booth to buy tickets, while Sandton and Anderson led the group to browse around the stalls, giving everyone a chance to see what they liked and could buy.

  Juw An followed for a while, and the souvenirs were of interest to these young IT elites. They bought a lot of things like badges, cowboy embroidered wallets, ladies' small bags, cowboy dolls, etc. Juw An wasn't interested in these things, but he noticed that the vendors were mostly very young girls and boys. He mentioned this to Wu Ming, who was choosing a cowboy bag at the time.

  Wu Ming rolled his eyes: "Isn't that a waste of words? When buying things, if you look for some big and rough old man, can the business be good?"

  Of course, the two people were speaking in Chinese, and the little girl selling bags couldn't understand.

  The young girl who was sitting comfortably asked curiously: "Are you all working part-time during the summer vacation? I see that most of the sales clerks here are about your age."

  The little girl replied: "No, we are volunteers. I'm still in high school and every year at this time I come to do volunteer work, it's already been three years."

  "Wu Ming continued to ask: 'Are you all volunteers? Is no one getting paid?'"

  The little girl replied: "Everyone is the same, no salary."

  Wu Ming took a fancy to a carved leather backpack with an eagle on it in the little girl's stall, and after paying the bill, he followed the main force.

  About twenty team members, gathered in small piles, selecting things. The men were all around the stalls selling beautiful buckle cowboy belts, while the women were exceptionally welcoming to some denim accessories.

  Dad and mom were with my sister, brother-in-law and four little ones, all crowded together at a stall selling handbags. As I walked closer, I saw that my sister was looking at a brown handbag with an Indian head carved on it, complete with feathers stuck in its hair.