My rodeo season starts this Saturday. I’ve done a few events here and there earlier this year, but now the real work is about to begin. I’ll be heading from one town to the next throughout the summer, shooting different rodeos every weekend.
I had planned to have a pretty rustic lifestyle while I’m out on the road. I have an old 1968 Aristocrat camper, and originally, the plan was to stay in that old thing while I’m at the rodeos, so I don’t have to shell out the big bucks for hotel rooms.
I have nothing against the old Aristocrat. It was built to last, and it still works just fine as a place to sleep. But it doesn’t have a bathroom in it, no shower, and the fridge only works if you cram a giant block of ice inside it and basically use it as a cooler. I think the stove works, but since the propane lines are all 50 years old, I’m a little leery of lighting up the burners inside that thing. I know the heater works, and the gas line for that is brand new. It’s marginally safer than the stove, at least.
But last week, Stalkups RV Superstore in Casper agreed to sponsor my rodeo lodging. Steve up there at Stalkups is going to hook me up with a sweet, new camper I can use for the summer. It’ll have working plumbing, a reliable heater, and I think it’ll even have air conditioning. I won’t know how to act when I’m in that thing. And it’ll probably be hard to leave it at the end of the rodeos. The camper’s likely going to be nicer than my house.
I hope to get the chance to drag it through Yellowstone, and maybe to a few remote camping spots between rodeos, too. After all, what good is a camper if you don’t actually go camping in it?
I’ll try not to get too comfortable in it, though, and I’ll send back pictures of all my adventures this summer.
