Downey, Id

 It's getting close to closing here at the Bannock County Fair in the sleepy little town of Downey, Idaho. The clouds have rolled in as the rodeo got the first of the bucking bulls out to loud cheers of the crowd. I can't see the competition from where my carnival is set yet there is a dusty haze over the arena that casts beams of lights from the massive stadium lamps that surround the grandstands like sentinels. Off in the distance, the last vestiges of sunlight has disappeared behind the western mountains that march into Nevada.

       A ranch kid, decked to the nines in checkered shirt and wranglers with a black hat that rests like a mother hen atop ears that have outgrown his young face, is twirling a rope and casting it. Two young ladies in the standard cut offs and western tank-tops, that are common on the women during rodeo time, are talking animatedly with the young "cowboy" as he casts his his rope like a fly fisherman, watching the girls reactions, exulting in the chance to "show off".