April 6th - 10th / Dodge National Circuit Finals (DNCFR)

From my doorstep in Yakima to my hotel room in beautiful Pocatello was exactly 600 miles. My trip took nine hours, and thanks to my Tomtom(GPS) I never got lost! I left at 3:30AM and traveled through miles of tranquil regions of sunshine; when I was 8 miles out of Pocatello it went from sunshine to literally a blizzard! The ground was blanketed in white, and the wind wrapped snow around every corner.

Welcome to ‘Pokey!’

Thankfully this was the only day with snow! The DNCFR is held on the Idaho State University campus in the Holt Arena—‘The Dome’ as the locals called it. 17 state queens stayed at the Cotton Tree Inn, and I was fortunate to room with Miss Rodeo Florida, Heather Hall. Each morning we turned on CMT and listened to music and watched music videos, and by evening we would sit and reminisce the day. and much to my amusement, Heather had an application on her iPhone which sent 10 jokes a day to her phone; each day we would sit and laugh together through them.

While there, Heather had never seen much more than a couple inches of snow, leading to a car load of girls heading up a local mountain to experience the snow. They later laughed as they mused over her asking how you were supposed to walk in it! I never imagined life without snow! We rode everywhere in vans, and in my van was Miss Rodeo South Dakota Mckenzie Haley, Miss Rodeo Nebraska Michelle Boershart, and Miss Rodeo Montana Jourdon Han.

Each performance began with ‘thunder in the dome’ as a makeshift thunderstorm was broadcasted over the speakers. Each of the twelve Circuits (with ours being the Columbia River Circuit) was recognized, along with the sponsors and the show began.