A Double Room

Back in 1989, on our way to the College Rodeo Finals in Bozeman, MT, Rex and I shared a room with some real good friends of ours. We were coming from the Sacramento, California area. They had  a two-year-old son and our daughter, Sydnee, was just two months old. We stopped to get a room just outside Yellowstone Park because it was so late and we wanted to get a good night's sleep before pulling into Bozeman for check-in. After getting a double-room, we started to get the young ones ready for bed. A partially pulled out a drawer from the dresser, lined with blankets, was the baby's bed. It locked, so that it would not come completely out and was perfect. The two-year-old, however, walked over to it and tried to push it shut when he felt the baby was crying too much!

It was then that I started thinking about how rodeo cowboys travel, hotel rooms, and all the stories Rex had about how many cowboys  they could sleep in a double room. This is a slight exaggeration, but there is some truth to this poem!

A Double Room by Eileen Phillips


When travelin' from rodeo to rodeo,
A hotel room is often needed.
But when paying your own expenses,
The cost surely needs to be heeded!

So how many will a double-room,
Comfortably sleep for overnight?
The answer my friend, is fourteen.
Anymore would make quarters quite tight!

Three lengthways in each of the double beds,                                       
One guy on the floor in between.
Because of trips to the bathroom,
This one should be quite lean!

Two bull riders could sleep width-ways,
At the foot of each of the beds;
One could fit in the bathtub,
With a pillow to protect his hard head!

There's floor space beside the door,
But this guy should be first to leave;
For getting cowboys up early,
Is reason for all of them to grieve!

Two more skinny bronc riders,
On the floor to the left of each bed;
And the fourteenth could stay on the dresser,
But this is the spot they all dread!

And so the total for a double-room,
With tax is Sixty-Five and Twenty-Two.
Each man only pays Four and Sixty-Five cents;
Provided the hotel doesn't ever have to sue!