Yesterday was relatively uneventful in terms of riding; we did another 70-odd miles; I started to feel better athletically but the pain of repetitive riding started to set in. But the most interesting thing about the day by far was the Medora Musical which we saw at the end of the day. I had some context for this because years ago I had seen something similar in a canyon in Texas; a sort of outdoor wild-west extravaganza of the sort that used to be popular 60-70 years ago and still lives on in a couple of places in the rural parts of the country. They were obviously quite proud of it and everyone said we should go. And I’m glad we did. It was exactly what you would think; kitschy, conservative, occasionally awesome, often a bit…tone deaf. There were jokes about Jesus, a gospel number, a song where all the kids got to get on stage, some horses riding through a canyon, a very funny but oddly out of place comedian from the Conan show who did a quite edgy skit involving kids from the audience, a few off-color jokes, and a heaping helping of Teddy Roosevelt style patriotism. The best joke was as follows: “I’ve been having trouble sleeping through the night; I often wake up 4 or 5 in the morning. Which is a lot of people to have in bed at one time.”
