National Cowboy Poetry Gathering

Here's an old post that never got posted. I'm working on some thing from Black Sheep Gathering. It's funny to be sitting here in June, nice and warm, and reading about a time when it was really cold, snowy cold.

In January I went with my folks to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV and had a blast.

My folks have been going to this event since 1992 and my sister joined them in 2000. I had been able to go for the last few years.

If you've never been, its interesting, in a good way. We saw a lot of very good performances. Even some new people my folks had never seen before. Which you would think would be hard. I mean how many cowboy poets can there be. Quite a lot as I learned. And not just from our own western states but as far away and Canada and New Zealand. There are many different traditions with their own flavors. This years focus was on Florida and Louisiana and the Cajun influences.

My favorite musical group was a group from the Bay Area called Red Meat. Their style of toe tapping Honky Tonk had the place jumping.

I really like the funny stories the best. Some times you laugh until you cry. Then there are the sad ones where all you do is cry.

Of course this trip would not be the same without the food. We eat at a couple of the local Basque restaurants every night. Basque food is always served family style and the plan is to order and entree that keeps well because there is always so much of the stuff before that be the time the entree is served you are stuffed. There is always soup and salad, baked bean, pasta, french fries, green beans. Of course after dinner there is the small dish of ice cream. Start the whole meal off with a couple of Picon Punches and it is just perfect. I had my left over entree for breakfast the next morning. Most mornings that meant lamb. Baked lamb, lamb chops plus some of the other stuff, Heaven.

I always take some projects to work on while I am there. I had either a scarf or a pair of socks to work on where ever I went. It was grand to be just hanging out with a beer, pull out the knitting and meet lots of new friends.