Once the bull fighter got his hand loose and he was able to hit the ground, he stayed there for a few long, tense moments. But the young fella WALKED out of the arena on his own. Yep, he walked slow and had a bit of a gimp, but walk he did.

I got a total of 10 shots of this ride, but missed the most important one…the one of the cowboy walking out of the arena. Well actually, I DID get that one, but it was blurred as all get out because I was so excited to see him walking out on his own and so busy clapping and cheering, I wasn’t paying attention to GETTING THE SHOT. Well, whatever. It’s no secret that I need to work on my photo documentary skills. Most important thing was COWBOY UP!

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There’s a little theme park at the top of a mountain in a town called Maggie Valley, NC. It’s called Ghost Town…an authentic recreation of an old west town complete with cowboys, bad guys, Indians, etc. with old west skits played out throughout the day at varying intervals.

We were wandering around behind some of the stores when I noticed this fellow, apparently on a break from his role as an old west cowboy. He looked to be a full-blood Cherokee. He wasn’t smoking or eating or talking on a cell phone…just standing at the fence, quietly gazing at the mountain scenery before him. He never noticed us, or if he did, he didn’t acknowledge it.

When I look at this shot, I often wonder what he was thinking about…perhaps a time long, long ago when these beautiful mountains were home to his own people, the Cherokee. Though that’s probably a romantic notion. Truth be told, he was probably thinking about whether to have pizza or a sub for lunch…whether he wanted to go meet friends at the local bar after work, or just go home and watch a good movie…maybe even which girlfriend to call to join him.

Even so, I’ll stick to my silly romantic notions…and enjoy my OWN view. Heh.

(Click on the preview above to pull up a full view of the picture.)