Saturday, May 29, 2010

Lovettsville, Virginia


After sending the girls back to their home states, I headed back to Lovettsville, Virginia where I was going to stay with the Spencer family.  The Spencer family and I go a ways back.  I was the National Little Britches Rodeo Queen, the same year that Dave and Kathy's daughter, Tara, was Miss Rodeo Colorado.  We spend a lot of time together traveling down the road and I practically lived with them that year.  They are my family away from family as well.  I love getting to stay with Ryan, Ashlee and Chris as well, we really have a great time together! 

While I stayed with them, I was working on my preparation for the Miss Rodeo America Pageant as well as how to expand our own Miss Rodeo Virginia Pageant.  Kathy and Dave are the original founders of the Miss Rodeo Virginia Program and they have a lot of great ideas on how to make the program grow and I always learn a lot from them.  

While I was visiting them we went roping over the weekend and I got to ride lots of horses and had a really great time! Raleigh, the gentleman that hosted us that weekend was and amazing host and had a great even pen of cattle.  Not to mention the great view of the Blue Ridge Mountains we had from his arena.  So despite the horrible humidity and high heat, we still had a fantastic time! 

Thanks for letting me share with you! My travels will take me to Nebraskaland Days and Buffalo Bill Rodeo, so stay posted! 

Anita Moorhead
Miss Rodeo Virginia 2010 


John 3:16
 



Monday, May 24, 2010

The Girls Come to D.C!

One of the things that I love the most about being Miss Rodeo Virginia is the fact that I get to explore my state and everything is still so new and exciting to me, no matter what it is! I love how green and beautiful everything is this time of year.

The other day, Jeannie and I went for a horse back ride through the forest and I couldn't get over the intoxicating smell of wisteria that had lit the forest up with it's beautiful pink and purple colors.  The dogwoods are even starting to bloom, I have never seen anything so beautiful in all my life! I love it here!

And just in time for everything to be in bloom are my guests! Cindy Bapst, one of my committee members and good friends of mine offered to host myself and three other state queens at her home so that we may attend the Opening weekend of Polo and the fashion show that they hold in conjunction with it.

Miss Rodeo Colorado, Kasie Pigg, Miss Rodeo Oregon, Ashely Zeigler, and Miss Rodeo North Dakota, Tiffany Kuntz were all able to make it out for the big event.  I had them come in a few days early so that I could show them around the Washington D.C. area and Cindy helped me rent a car so that I would have something to take them around in.

We had a really great time.  When they all got into D.C. the first place we went was the National Mall.  We walked around until three in the morning going to all of the monuments.  But no worries, we had an old high school friend of mine guiding us as well as 'body guarding' us!  But I will say if you are in DC and feeling up to it, the monuments are so haunting at night and definately worth it.  It is so different then going during the daytime.

The next day we went to Arlington National Cemetary and some of the National Museums and China Town.  I laugh because every meal we stopped to eat was usually desert or sushi.  Tiffany had never had sushi before coming to Virginia and I am thinking that she wishes that she never would have tried it in the first place! She was not a fan no matter how much Kasie, Ashley and I tried to sway her!

That Saturday I had arranged a Battlefield ride at Antietam Battlefield for the girls.  The Spencer family was so nice to loan us the horses and Chris Wagner, Charla Wagner's beau was gracious enough to take us. It was really nice of them to arrange everything for us! I know we all had a great time, even though Chris accidentally got into trouble with a park ranger because of us girls! I guess you are not supposed to ride on the grass...whoops!

One of the things that I found to be the most fun was getting to stay at Cindy's house.  She and her husband Randy as well as their two sons live in a beautiful old mansion that was one of George Washington's rental properties way back when.  It's even insulated with horse hair and has the original fire places! Cindy also gave each of us girls a dress from her company Union of Angels as well as a beautiful pearl bracelet and crystal earrings and other assorted gifts! She and Randy were wonderful hosts!

Randy himself is such and inspiration to us girls.  He should really go into motivational speaking.  He made us homemade popcorn and told us stories of his life and we talked about everything from our future plans, to staying motivated and positive and how we could use our titles to do so much good for others this year.

The girls also got to meet Ray Reagan, who is a great friend of Cindy's and is also a polo player. We got to go to dinner with him and Cindy one night at a charming little restaurant out by Delaplane, Virginia.  

The night of the big event unfortunately brought down buckets and buckets of rain, and the polo was rained out.  I was really sad about this because Cindy had arranged for us to carry our state flags in and for me to get to carry the American flag in.  The kicker here would have been that we would have been riding polo horses, in English saddles, in our chaps, carrying flags...would have made for some good pictures for sure.

However, that did leave the fashion show for us to participate in.  Us girls actually had the honor of being the kick of to the fashion show and celebration party.  Cindy arranged for us to get our make-up done with the rest of the models... we all felt like movie stars! Now, all of us girls have also been to many rodeos with packed stands, and I will guarantee you that they have never been cheered for like they were that night at the fashion show.  People were cheering so loud we could barely hear the music that was blaring! We were such a hit that Cindy's phone wouldn't stop ringing the next day!

All in all I consider this trip a success! I was sad they never got to see a polo game in action, but we made the best lemonade out of the lemons that life threw at us and we had a fantastic time anyways!

Thank you so much for letting me share with you!

All my love,
Anita Moorhead
Miss Rodeo Virginia 2010


 Ashley was trying to get a good picture of the Washington Monument.  Rodeo Queens get so weird on lack of sleep!
 All of us girls at Antietam Battle Field!
 This was before they all fell asleep...they would kill me if I posted those pictures, so I resisted!

Getting ready for the Fashion Show!!

Ashley Zeigler, Miss Rodeo Oregon at the Vietnam War Memorial. 
This is one of my favorite pictures!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Guymon, Oklahoma

"Happy Birthday to Me!" It only makes sense that I spend my birthday in my birth place...right? Good Ole' Oklahoma! (Yeah, I know, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska....Virginia....what can I say other than, I LOVE to travel!)

I have been enjoying the sights, sounds and FANTASTIC people of Guymon, Oklahoma. But to get this story started off right, we should start from the beginning... I flew in from Virginia a week before I needed to be in Guymon so that I could attend my baby sister's senior prom, which I promised that I would not miss.  Then I drove to Denver and picked up Miss Rodeo Idaho, Measha Gittins from Denver International Airport and we started our 10 hour drive to Guymon, Oklahoma! But not before we stopped in to visit one of my sponsors! Andraes Tsagus makes sure that I am wearing only the latest and the greatest in the fur industry! He even loaned Measha a jacket out of the shop to wear!

We got about 5 hours into that EXTREMELY boring drive and I think we were both wishing we would have just flown into Liberal, Kansas which was only 45 minutes away.  I have never seen such flat land in my life, and that says a lot, I used to live in Nebraska.

But I will say this..... Guymon was worth the drive and I would drive it ten times over just to experience it once more.  Becky Ronbinson, had everything organized for us girls when we got there and we had great little goodie bags from the businesses in the community as well.

We had an awesome welcome party! The Stonecipher family hosted all of us girls, which was no small thing either.  We had Miss Rodeo Okalhoma, Chassity Sisco, Miss Teen Rodeo Oklahoma, Sydney Spencer,  Miss Rodeo Oklahoma Princess, Taylor Spears, Miss Rodeo Arkansas, Synda Lockard, Miss Rodeo Idaho, Measha Gittins and myself. Miss Rodeo Nebraska, Michelle Boeshart was there as well, but she was staying with some friends. To top the 6 queens they allowed to invade their home, did I mention that they have 4 sons from ages 7-16?  It was really fun and they boys were good sports and allowed us girls to take over their bed rooms.  I felt really bad for them, because they had to carry all of our luggage into the house! (6 Rodeo queens round out to about 20 bags atleast!)

Becky gave us State PRCA Queens the opportunity to actually judge the Guymon Rodeo Queen contest and we had a lot of fun with it.  We were also judges for the little kids rodeo clown costume contest and visited many, many schools and were in the Guymon Pioneer Days Parade! Becky also got us into the Spikes and Spurs golf tournament, where my team that I was assigned to figured out very quickly that I would be a much better golf cart driver than I would be a golfer.

I even saved a poor little Chihuahua from getting ran over on the main drag in Guymon.  I probably looked really funny stopping traffic and then being chased by this little dog... did I mention that I had fur top boots on?  Yes, there were people pulling off the side of the road and taking pictures... I am sure those pictures are floating around on MySpace somewhere, but at least the little guy didn't get hit!  

One other thing to keep in mind if you ever go to Guymon, Oklahoma for Pioneer Days, drive a little car.  Oklahoma people are the sweetest people on earth, but they don't know how to park, or in Chassity's case drive.  Chassity drove her dad's dodge dually to Guymon and we got blocked in countless times and although we were never late for anything, and she was able to get us out of some pretty scary parking situations.... her escape route usually involved a couple of curbs to be jumped, a few trees to be dodged and maybe even a field or two to be driven across...never a boring moment with this girl! Thank goodness our tour guide just so happened to be on the Sheriff Department, so I don't think we would have gotten a ticket!! But needless to say, Chassity was a great host! She made sure we ALWAYS had fun!

The Rodeo itself was a lot of fun.  It was produced by Carr ProRodeo it ran like clockwork.  We had a production meeting to go over everything before hand and each of us girl were assigned a palomino horse for the week.  I got a cute little guy whom they call "Fat Dave" and he was a great horse to ride! I loved him and if he would have fit into the back of my Volkswagon Beetle that I drove from the airport, he would have been in it!

The people of Guymon were so amazing and I must say that Oklahoman's have the greatest hospitality.  To take a break between the afternoon and evening performance of the rodeo, us girls all decided to go visit the local McDonald's and get an ice cream and a burger and the manager Mike, presented each of us girls with a $25 Arch Card to help us in our travels.  It was very kind of him to think about us!

I can't even use words to describe the wonderful time that I had in Guymon, you will just have to go sometime and check it out for yourself.  I made so many wonderful memories and friends while I was there that I will keep close to my heart for the rest of my life.

Thanks so much for letting me share with you!
God Bless!
Anita Moorhead
Miss Rodeo Virginia 2010


 Measha and I showing off our A.Tsagus Jackets! I am so blessed to have him for a sponsor!

 All of us girls getting ready to help the mutton bustin' before the rodeo.  The National Little Britches Princess was even able to make it!
 Look at all of those QUEENS!! Lots of glitter and lots of hairspray and Palomino Carr ProRodeo Horses!
Our wonderful host family, the Stonecipher's!
My trusty steed for the week, "Fat Dave" and I after an afternoon rodeo performance!
4 Red Bull, Two McFrappes, two bottles of water and two meals of McDonalds got us as far as Lamar, Colorado.  We had too much fun and were almost too tired to drive!