When Monty had positioned the truck and trailer where they could exit the grounds quickly after the performance, he and Laura started toward the main building. The Cow Palace itself was up on higher ground, with the building used currently as a horse barn attached to the west side. The two cattle barns and the acres of open pipe corrals were down below to the south. As they started uphill, Monty glanced at his watch and said, "Rounding up my 5 bulls took longer than I thought. It's almost 8 o'clock and the performance always starts right on time at 8. I'm glad you got to see the opening last night, because it will be pretty much the same tonight - maybe a little more because it's Cattleman's Night. But let's hurry anyway."
He took Laura's hand and they walked briskly up the slope and entered by the wide doorway where the livestock were taken into the ring. The sharply-pitched seating around the area meant that there was a lot of space under the stands, all around the oval of the building. Vendors and food concessions were wedged back in the smallest space, leaving a wider path for customers to circulate, checking the wares and searching for the right tunnel-like entrance which led up a dozen steps to place them in the spectator area, from which point they could go up to their seats. If they were among the favored few, they went down instead of up, down to box seats in the first six rows nearest the action. As Monty and Laura started along this circular path, they could hear someone welcoming the guests over the loudspeaker, although they couldn't distinguish the words.
A few minutes before they reached this point, Ranny had come the same way. He had entered by the employee gate, flashing his old ID badge. Since he had just been fired late that afternoon, the grapevine hadn't yet gotten the word to everyone, and the guard on that gate wasn't aware that Ranny was no longer an employee. He did wonder at the way Ranny was dressed, since it wasn't really cool enough this evening to warrant such a long coat, but shrugged it off as just another thing marking that particular employee as being a strange one.
Ranny breathed a sigh of relief at getting into the place so easily - he was afraid that if he'd tried to come in through the normal entrance to the building, there might have been metal detectors. But he was in, and had his badge pinned in front of his coat to give legitimacy to his presence here, as he hurried, head averted to try to avoid detection by anyone who knew him. He had timed his arrival so that he would be getting to his selected seat area entrance tunnel right at 8 o'clock. He knew the schedule from previous years, and it never varied. The Cow Palace president would be in a special announcer's box at the south end about 5 rows up from the arena wall, at a small table where a few invited guests sat. All the lights would be suddenly and dramatically completely darkened, leaving only a soft spotlight shining on him, and he would greet everyone, welcome them to the Cow palace on Cattleman's Night, and jokingly ask if everyone had had enough to eat. Then he'd announce the opening of the evening's performance, and in the still-black Cow Palace arena, the spotlight would shift to the open gate at that end of the ring. One by one, the seven flags which had flown over California would be spotlighted as cowgirls carried them, racing at top speed around the ring.