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Part 6- Trip to Cheyenne, Wyoming
for Frontier Days!
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July 24, Thursday: Not so early after all, about 7 or 7:30 AM! Had green beans, oatmeal, etc. A fine breakfast – but my! What all I have to do to get ready for the trip: wash, comb, change clothes from hide -out, etc. etc- even to polishing my shoes! I had to hurry around in great shape in order to be ready when the rest were and MY what a disagreeable morning it was! Cold, and a drizzling rain or a heavy fog, and cloudy, cloudy, cloudy. Something seemed to hold us back and tell us not to go. But we were finally ready to go at 8:30. Mama hated to see us go –all did, and we almost dreaded to go, too. But we did. Going down the gorge or canyon, we could not see the tops of the mountains for they were all covered by clouds. Even the foothills were covered. We arrived in Denver at 10 AM and bought some meat, bread, olive relish & made some sandwiches and were ready to leave. Papa was in the Overland- Lou’s Baby Overland sedan, in front of Lou’s, right behind Mr. William’s big car. He was trying to see how to operate it and Iva, she thought she could show him something about it so she hopped in and thought she would try her luck and operate it. Well, about the 1st thing she did was start up and bump right into the back of William’s car and scrape his springs. It scared us all weak and white, but Mr. Wm came out and advised us to leave cars alone which we didn’t know anything about! He was quite angry! Well, Papa got in then and we followed suit and we started out as nice as could be at about 11 or 11:30. Papa drove the car fine and looked at the pretty fields and crops and sometimes I wished sincerely that he would remember and obey the song which says “Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eyes upon the rail”. We ate our dinner north of Brighton by a big irrigating ditch and under large trees. |
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July 24, Thursday: Not so early after all, about 7 or 7:30 AM! Had green beans, oatmeal, etc. A fine breakfast – but my! What all I have to do to get ready for the trip: wash, comb, change clothes from hide -out, etc. etc- even to polishing my shoes! I had to hurry around in great shape in order to be ready when the rest were and MY what a disagreeable morning it was! Cold, and a drizzling rain or a heavy fog, and cloudy, cloudy, cloudy. Something seemed to hold us back and tell us not to go. But we were finally ready to go at 8:30. Mama hated to see us go –all did, and we almost dreaded to go, too. But we did. Going down the gorge or canyon, we could not see the tops of the mountains for they were all covered by clouds. Even the foothills were covered. We arrived in Denver at 10 AM and bought some meat, bread, olive relish & made some sandwiches and were ready to leave. Papa was in the Overland- Lou’s Baby Overland sedan, in front of Lou’s, right behind Mr. William’s big car. He was trying to see how to operate it and Iva, she thought she could show him something about it so she hopped in and thought she would try her luck and operate it. Well, about the 1st thing she did was start up and bump right into the back of William’s car and scrape his springs. It scared us all weak and white, but Mr. Wm came out and advised us to leave cars alone which we didn’t know anything about! He was quite angry! Well, Papa got in then and we followed suit and we started out as nice as could be at about 11 or 11:30.
Papa drove the car fine and looked at the pretty fields and crops and sometimes I wished sincerely that he would remember and obey the song which says “Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eyes upon the rail”. We ate our dinner north of Brighton by a big irrigating ditch and under large trees. About 13 miles s of Cheyenne, a mile or so s of Wyo. And Colo. Line, Clara was driving the car (reaching over in front of Papa) and we were going up a small incline when the car stopped. The engine kept running but the car refused to move. Well Papa took the shift apparatus apart and looked to see if the gears were stripped, but they were not. A man came along and advised Papa to tighten the clutch as it was loose so her worked and worked. He adjusted and readjusted it and still it didn’t work. Another man advised him to wash out the thing he was adjusting with gasoline and he brought it, but Papa went ahead and didn’t wash it out.
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Two men and a boy were going by in a Dort sedan and turned around to help us, and their car ran off the side of the road & broke a front wheel all to pieces –and hurt the back wheel badly. I thought their car was going over but somehow it managed to stay up. One man who stopped to help us said he would have a garage man come and help us, so soon one came in a large car to pull us in. They had got their wires crossed! But for $10.00 he would pull us on in to Cheyenne so after considering we got in his car and departed, Leaving the “Overland” behind.
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1923 Dort Sedan
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Going up Russel street, Cheyenne, I looked back and the hind left side of the car was down and Pops was honking the horn. The wheel was laying out at the side of the road & an axle was broken! What luck! No wonder something seemed to tell us not to go this morning! But I was mighty, mighty thankful that we hadn’t had a real accident like we saw E of Golden or any other serious accident. He pulled the car to the side of the road and took us all up to Hattie’s place, several blocks away. There we saw the much dreaded, “white-headed Hattie –and Ned.
Wow!! Ned was taller than Papa & big! No wonder they called him “Big”! Well, Papa and Ned went to the “Mentz” garage & got someone to haul in our car and get it fixed! Ned came back & played piano for us – beautiful! |
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July 25, Friday: We got up about 7:30 and Hattie made some extra fine biscuits for breakfast. Harvey, her husband, came home and went to bed. Nina, Iva, Ann and I all went down town to get our tickets to the last day of Frontier Days. Our ticket as $1.65, lower deck of steel grandstand, 9 rows back from the arena. Then we went in search of a pair of shoes for me. Finally I found a pair of a sort of beige colored ones, $4.89. We then returned home and ate a rather early "lunch" and papa took Nina, I, Annabelle, and Iva to the SHOW. Hattie wore Annabelle's knicker suit and she and Billy rode horses to Frontier Days. The show was wonderful. There were two military drills, one by black horses and blue uniformed men, and another by brown horses, and khaki-dressed soldiers. There were races, relay, Shetland ponies, wild horses, and a man on two horses, etc. Lorena Trickey won the relay races. There were roping of steers, large and small. I thought they would break the steers' necks the way they jerked them but when untied the cows would get up and run away, fast as possible. |
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| One cow was killed outright, Mabel Strickland the only woman roper, broke a steer’s leg, and it had to be hauled away. There were bucking horses! Two or Three were injured being thrown from their horse and as one horse reared, it fell backward on the rider. There were wild horses to be saddled for the wild pony race. It was a sight. The rearing, pitching, and pawing horses, with sweat rolling off of them! Indians and squaws had races and dances and parade. A big feature also was the bulldogging of steers. Some were awfully hard to throw and some were as easy. Trick and fancy riding was wonderful. There were two mules and two clowns who performed always, making one laugh at their pranks. the show lasted until about 6:30. Papa and Clara were there to take us home when it was over. After supper, Papa, I, Annabelle, and Clara walked downtown and went to see Harvey at the depot. He is wire chief there in the immense telegraph office, which he showed us through. We then watched the fireworks from an airplane flying around after dark, and then we went on, walking around and seeing the sights. We stopped in at the Mentz Garage to see our car but it was laid up, not near finished. We went home and soon went to bed. |
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Newspaper accounts called Mabel DeLong Strickland ‘the Lovely Lady of Rodeo’ and some said she looked more like a ‘Follies beauty’ than a champion cowgirl. Her features were delicate, her hair was always done in the most attractive style and her western clothing fit perfectly and was always of the most flattering styles. Throughout her twenty-five year rodeo career she had the respect of all who knew her and later received honors from various Halls of Fame confirming her rodeo prowess. |
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July 26, Saturday: All got up about 7:30 as usual, but Iva & Nina stayed in bed until 8:30 or 9 AM. Ann & I went down town to get some souvenirs, etc. & we walked around seeing to town. We ran into Papa and we went together for a while then he went and got a shave, haircut and shine. |
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Ann and I went up to a Delicatessen and we got a “long coke”. I wanted an orange crush but they didn’t have it – that was the first time for many a month that I had ventured to do such a thing. When we got home Papa was there and dinner was ready. After dinner dishes all washed, I had nothing much to do. Hattie showed us her sewing, etc. and we looked at her pictures. She began to treat us more as humans and consequently we liked her better. I reviewed and read “Oh! Money, Money!!” looked at magazines, played the piano,& thus spent the afternoon. Hattie, Iva & Nina went out for the afternoon and so everything was quiet. They cam home for supper and Harvey got up. After supper Harvey (Mr. Cash) did not have to work until midnite that night so he, Papa, Clara, Ann and I went car riding. He showed us around the town, saw the air-mail service station, north of Cheyenne –many, many airplanes equipped with lights to travel at nite, going from NY to San Francisco. It costs 16 to 24 cents to send a letter this way! Then we went out to see Ft. D. A. Russell and saw all the houses, etc. – a large Fort- largest I ever saw. When we got back with the car, the rest went out and we went to bed. First, however, I copied a song “Your Eyes Have Told Me So”, which I liked very much. |
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July 27, Sunday: A breakfast of bacon and eggs & then to prepare to leave. Papa got the car out of the garage at last- he went down to see about it so often that when the Mentz people saw him coming they knew just who he was and why he was coming. You could almost see the path he wore going back and forth. I gathered up our things while Annabelle helped with the work. There was a household search for her knickers. They had been misplaced and everything was dropped to find them. At last they were found – had been laid on a desk and had slid down behind them! At 10 AM we were ready to go. Went down to train to get Nina and she was going as far as Loveland with us. Before reaching Fort Collins, our car, which had been so far working good, went back on us. It would run fine just a minute & the next minute all gas seemed to be shut off & slow us down, then start up again; a long time it did this. Papa adjusted and readjusted the carburetor. He looked at the float, etc. –all of no avail. Hattie said we would be going along like a turtle and then suddenly would stop, out would come Clara, then Papa & he would fly around the front of the car, turn (or “play” as she called it) with the carburetor & again fly around, get in and soon we were crawling away again. Sometimes we were going 20 miles an hour, other times slowing up to 10 mi. an hour. Hattie tho’t papa got to talking to Clara & forgot to put his foot on the gas. So when we stopped to get some gas she flopped herself down behind the wheel, told him to open the carburetor & “don’t be afraid of using a little gas –he was crazy as a $7.00 bill for fooling with it in the first place”. And we started again. The car worked the same. How exasperating it was! She got disgusted and got back in her car –mad as hops! We ate our dinner under a large cottonwood tree –cookies, dry-meat sandwiches, watermelon. Once more, along a dry and dusty dirt road, Papa worked on the carburetor, etc. and it ran a little better. Then he stopped and fixed a missing cylinder and our troubles ceased. We passed out of Hattie’s and Harry’s sight and never saw them again until at Lou’s.
We got to Lou’s about 6:30 or 7 but they were up the mtn. side at our campground. We went in fixed supper and were eating when Lou and Olga came. Now that our car was back we were going out to camp, but Lou said our car wasn’t working so good. It was getting late so we decided to stay that night.
Before going to bed, Papa, Billy and I in the front seat (Billy is the image of Harry McVay) & Annabelle, Clara, Harvey & Russell in the back seat of Harvey’s sedan, all went out to Lakeside to see Clarence. He was up in the ball room- where 2000 were dancing! 7000 had paid admission to the hall that evening. Some mob for a few policemen to watch. Clarence said he had taken 3 men out that evening. We visited with him and watched the dance awhile & then we left, went home to Lou’s and went to bed. Annabelle and I slept in the Overland, Papa & Harvey in east room Lou slept on the back porch on cot. There were beds strung from the top of the house to the back alley.
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