{"id":3787,"date":"2015-05-25T07:33:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T14:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=3787"},"modified":"2015-05-25T08:07:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-25T15:07:00","slug":"winterset-rodeo-and-the-opening-of-the-john-wayne-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=3787","title":{"rendered":"Winterset Rodeo And The Opening Of The John Wayne Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 22-23, 2015*<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel the need to come up with a different title other than “Classified Mission To Iowa \u2013 Part 3.”<\/p>\n

Even though my amateurish prose to attempt to document this trip may not seem like I should be tired, but I am exhausted.<\/p>\n

However, I am glad I have taken on this classified assignment.<\/p>\n

So, to get back to where my last post left off…<\/p>\n

After dropping $102 on small souvenirs at the John Wayne Museum gift shop, I hung out waiting for my entourage to finish getting monetarily raped.<\/p>\n

This lady and the cashier were looking at a “John Wayne – American” medallion.<\/p>\n

The clerk said, “This is the last one, they don’t make them anymore and we can no longer get them.”<\/p>\n

The lady thought for a bit, “Let me go talk to my husband.”<\/p>\n

She walked away.<\/p>\n

I asked the clerk, “How much for the medallion?”<\/p>\n

“Forty-five dollars,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’ll take it!”<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

Ha! Ha! Ha! I either scored big, or fell for one of the oldest marketing gimmicks in the world.<\/p>\n

We ended up having lunch at the North Side Cafe, in Winterset.<\/p>\n

I had a ham and cheese sandwich, fried pickles and four Blue moon beers – they did not server Budweiser.<\/p>\n

It was still early, so we decided to drive back to the Motel room in Des Moines for some rest before heading out to the rodeo in the evening.<\/p>\n

Well, I am not used to driving such a powerful car – a 2015 Chevrolet Suburban.<\/p>\n

That thing has some power to it!<\/p>\n

I’m on the 169, minding my own business, when out of nowhere an Iowa State Trooper car appears behind me with his lights on.<\/p>\n

OK, I guess he’s going somewhere?<\/p>\n

So, I pulled over to let him pass; he stopped right behind me.<\/p>\n

Fuck!<\/p>\n

The trooper gets out, notices the New York plates and tinted back windows and puts his hand on his gun as he approached our vehicle.<\/p>\n

He approached my side, then walked around to the passenger side, where Secret Agent K was sitting. <\/p>\n

The Trooper looked in.<\/p>\n

“I pulled you over for speeding, I need to see your license,” the Trooper said.<\/p>\n

I handed him one of my valid California driver’s licenses.<\/p>\n

“Is this a rental car?” he asked.<\/p>\n

“Yes.”<\/p>\n

“Do you have the rental papers?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, at our Motel.”<\/p>\n

“Where’s your Motel?”<\/p>\n

“Des Moine.”<\/p>\n

“Well, how do I know this car isn’t stolen?”<\/p>\n

I said, “Well, you can run the plate, and it shouldn’t come back as stolen.”<\/p>\n

The Trooper then told me to come back and sit in the front seat of his patrol car.<\/p>\n

The front of his patrol car?<\/p>\n

I have never been told to sit in the front of any patrol car in my entire life.<\/p>\n

Well, I got out and walked over and sat in the front seat of his car; I left the door open, hoping he wouldn’t smell the beer on my breath.<\/p>\n

Mind you, I wasn’t drunk, and it is not illegal to smell like beer, but I have no idea whether Iowa railroads people into DUIs like California does.<\/p>\n

“Close the door,” he said.<\/p>\n

I closed the door.<\/p>\n

\"IowaFile Photo.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” The Trooper asked.<\/p>\n

“About Eighty.”<\/p>\n

“Do you know what the speed limit is?”<\/p>\n

I was trying to breathe as little as possible as I responded, “Seventy.”<\/p>\n

“Nope, it’s fifty-five on this highway.”<\/p>\n

Well, I apologized and remained silent after that – the more I said, I figured, the more fucked I would be.<\/p>\n

I escaped the situation with a $169 ticket for driving 12 miles over the speed limit.<\/p>\n

We went the Annual Winterset Rodeo that night:<\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe County Fair Ground bleachers can seat at least 200 people!<\/em><\/p>\n

The announcer told some jokes that would have been so politically incorrect in California, that they would have made headlines and law suits.<\/p>\n

“A Texan is just a Mexican making his way to Oklahoma.”<\/p>\n

\"Cow
\nCow riding.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Cow
\nCow falling.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Wild
\nWild cow milking.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bronco Riding:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bronco<\/p>\n

\"Bronco<\/p>\n

\"Bronco<\/p>\n

\"Bronco<\/p>\n

\"Bronco<\/p>\n

The next day (May 23, 2015) was the ribbon cutting for the John Wayne Museum.<\/p>\n

It was the biggest event in Iowa that day.<\/p>\n

We started the morning off with a charity pancake breakfast for the Winterset Fire Department:<\/p>\n

\"Winterset<\/p>\n

\"Winterset
\nThe Pancake Breakfast.<\/em><\/p>\n

I asked the sausage lady if the sausage was vegetarian.<\/p>\n

“No,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Great, I’ll have doubles,” I said.<\/p>\n

The opening of the John Wayne museum attracted fans for as far away as West Germany and France.<\/p>\n

There was this really hot 23 year old chick from Paris, France who I was trying to hit on – she pretended to not speak English.<\/p>\n

\"MC<\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe Winterset Veterans Band.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Iowa
\nIowa Governor Branstad showed up alone, carrying his own lawn chair.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Real
\nReal Cowboys.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Me
\nMe with Chris Mitchum.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe ribbon cutting.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the ribbon cutting, we decided to have lunch at the most dangerous looking bar we could find…<\/p>\n

\"Pheasant
\nPheasant Run Bar and Grill.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Pulled
\nPulled Pork, Potato salad and Budweiser.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Bar
\nBar fight!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Fireman
\nA Fireman moonlights tending bar.<\/em><\/p>\n

After lunch, we did the “John Wayne trail.”<\/p>\n

More to come, soon!<\/p>\n

*Post delayed due to security and other reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 22-23, 2015* I feel the need to come up with a different title other than “Classified Mission To Iowa \u2013 Part 3.” Even though my amateurish prose to attempt to document this trip may not seem like I should be tired, but I am exhausted. However, I am glad I have taken on this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3834,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions\/3834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}