10 NoraSaturday morning, Nora zigzagged along the crowded downtown sidewalk, weaving her way between battered denim-clad cowpokes and beefy tourists in shorts and flip flops. Dressed in yesterday’s drab slacks and sweater, she had to be inside the Umatilla County Courthouse by ten o’clock for a special meeting with the deputy district attorney. Hoofing it was her best shot.
When she’d reached the outskirts of Pendleton Friday afternoon, she’d found the streets clogged with monster RVs, gleaming Harleys, and pickup trucks of all makes and models.
It was Round-Up Week. Quaintly spelled with a hyphen on every red-white-and-blue banner because that was how the name was immortalized on the downtown stadium.
City boosters claimed the rodeo drew fifty thousand visitors, more than tripling the
