After they had eaten the last morsel of food, exclaiming over the taste of each item, Monty took their trash to a nearby barrel and then took Laura's hand to better lead her through the throng in the arena. When they took one of the many exits under the stands and were out into the wide passageway circling the building, it seemed natural to keep holding hands although the crowds here were much thinner. There were a few people who hadn't gone to the barbeque, and they were checking out the goods in the vendors' stands, or purchasing beer, hot dogs, or other foodstuffs to tide them through the coming performance.
When they reached the south end of the building, Monty led Laura out the wide doorway and down the sloping ramp which was used to lead show cattle or horses up into the arena. They skirted around the two cattle barns rather than going through them as they had earlier, on the way from the exhibitor parking area to the main building, and headed down to the maze of pipe corrals where some of the range bulls from yesterday's sale still remained. These holding pens were laid out in a huge rectangular grid, with wide pathways running in both directions to allow easy movement of the livestock. Beyond that set of corrals were more, these holding the rodeo stock - the saddle broncos and the big horned bulls for the bull riding, all standing placidly, some eating hay, all looking quite calm in marked contrast to their actions when they exploded out of the bucking chutes during the rodeo performance.
Monty realized that this was probably a new experience for a city girl, so he cautioned Laura as she walked beside him in one of the lanes between the pens, "Unless you want to really authenticate those new cowboy boots, you need to scan the ground ahead of you." Workers kept the grounds as clean as they could, but with the constant movement of cattle, there was often manure on the path. People who lived in the country automatically checked the ground ahead as they walked, wanting to avoid manure, mudholes, or rattlesnakes.
When they arrived at one pen with three massive black bulls, Monty thought he recognized ones he had bought, and when he checked a paper attached to the pen gate he saw that he was right - the numbers on the bulls' yellow plastic ear tags matched the ones on the list beside his name. But there were only three, and there should have been five.
"I certainly don't know much about animals, but those sure are beautiful creatures. They're so big when you see them up close - aren't they dangerous, like the ones we saw in the bull riding last night?" asked Laura.