Unfortunately we arrived late and only caught the tail end of what looked to be a kick ass St. Patrick's Day Parade, complete with an Irish accordion player,

After enjoying some St Paddy's day tunes in the lobby, we took a walk around and snapped some photos. The place is immersed in railroad history. A real museum that you could spend hours browsing through.

When we were done in the lobby, we made our way out the back door and to the other side of the bridge that crosses the Amtrak's Empire Builder line, past the refurbished cabooses you can rent (they have 4 of them available) and over to the snow rodeo.

 

It was perfect weather for a snow rodeo, Mother Nature even threw in a small blizzard for us.

In order to get where they were having the competition, we had to walk along side some of their groomed cross country ski / snow shoe trails. I have to tell you it is other worldly back there. The trails were in fantastic shape, but what I really noticed is how quiet and peaceful it was. You could really lose yourself out there.

They had goat roping, barrel races, and I'm not sure what they called it, but they had an inflated inner tube that they tied a red bandana to. They would roll the tube down the hill and the contestant would have to catch the tube and pull the flag. The clock didn't stop until the red flag was in the air.

For the barrel racing they would ski (or snow shoe) up a slight hill, through a gate, then around 1 barrel and downhill to the 2nd barrel, around that and a slight uphill to the 3rd and last barrel. Once they make it around that, it's downhill to the finish line and for added hilarity, they threw in a twist, .,.. you have to cross the finish line backwards.

Folks came from all over and there were a few veteran contestants that you could tell had experience with this kind of fierce competition.

The rodeo clown had a couple of close encounters with the roping goats but I think he managed to escape with only a splinter or 2.

After the competition we headed back to the Izaak Walton Inn where we enjoyed lunch in the dining room surrounded once again by artifacts from the railroad dating back to it's arrival in Essex.

Hill had the lunch of the day. The chicken and dumplings were superb. I had the pulled pork wrap which was good, but had a few more red onions on it than I cared for, .... so I finished Hill's lunch.

To finish up our day at the rodeo we decided to split a huckleberry cobbler at our servers request. and I have to tell you, it was the BEST huckleberry cobbler I have ever had. Big enough for 2 (although I wish I had ordered 1 for myself), it came warm out of the oven with a mound of french vanilla ice cream that made great even better.

Even posting that delicious looking picture of the cobbler has me craving more. I don't think I can wait until next year's snow rodeo for my fix. I see a road trip to Essex in my near future.

See you there!