Meet Me in Kansas City!

In the fall of my senior year of high school, I attended the American Junior Hereford convention held in Kansas City during the American Royal Livestock show. As secretary of the Wyo. Junior Hereford Association, I went as one of the delegates to the convention. The other Wyo. delegates, which included my older cousin, and our sponser were to fly out of Denver on the evening of my high school homecoming football game.  I had been asked to homecoming for a first date by guy I had liked for some time, making this a special date. Our flight left that evening, so unfortunately we were only able to attend the game. Troubles with the flight out of Denver meant that we arrived in Kansas City much later than expected, acutally just in time for the morning session of the convention. Euphoria from the nignt before and weariness from the trip swirled together in my mind during those opening sessions as I struggled without success to stay awake. However, I did make a mental note of the handsome tall blonde delegate from Colorado who was one of the presenters.

Lunch sponsered by a registered breeder from Nebraska included a slide show presentation on his operation.  Following the lunch and presentation, delegates filed by thanking the  host for his generosity.  Near the last of the line, I thanked the host family and started the walk back to the hotel for the afternoon sessions.  As it happened, the Colorado delegate I had noticed that morning was just behind me in the line and joined me for the walk. As we walked we found out about each other.  His name was John and he was attending CSU planning on going to vet school.  His family ranching operation had many similarities to ours including extended family and cousins. We sat together during the afternoon sessions, enjoying each other's company which resulted in his asking me to the dance that evening.  I was delighted but also somewhat mortified because I had very little experience dancing, and certainly not western dancing. Thankfully, my paltry dancing skills did not deter him and we spent every available moment together during the rest of the convention.

All too soon, the convention came to a close and it was time to part and head back home.  The Wyoming delegation was scheduled to fly out of Kansas City an hour before the Colorado group, so we came up with a plan for me to trade seats with one of the other Colorado delegates enabling us to fly to Denver together.  The Wyoming group had a layover in Denver before catching the flight to Cheyenne where my cousin and the girl who traded seats with me were to have someone to take them back to UW in Laramie.  Our plan would have worked out just fine except that a severe thunderstorm in Kansas City delayed the Colorado flight, which created a domino effect of complications.

The first group arrived in Denver just fine, but since the Colorado flight was delayed, I missed the flight to Cheyenne.  John's younger brother, a freshman at CSU who had used his car while John was in Kansas City, was supposed to bring the car to the airport to take him and others back to Ft. Collins.  However, he had an accident with his brother's car and so a fraternity brother was there to provide a ride instead. Oh my, how to work through all of the trouble we had created that faced us then. John ended up borrowing a car and taking me home to the ranch twenty miles beyond Cheyenne, a 130 mile round trip out of his way. My cousin assured my mother that he would not have let me trade seats if he had not thought John was a great guy.  Although my parents had little reason to put much confidence in the decision making of seventeen-, eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds, everything eventually worked out. 

  In coming years, our younger sisters eagerly anticipated attending the American Junior Hereford Association convention in Kansas City hoping for a similar experience.  However, each person's love story is unique, so none had the same experience there, and the homecoming date before Kansas City became a distant memory. Thus began a relationship that has lasted over 44 years!