While having dinner at Hamley Steakhouse on Wednesday, I was surprised to hear the piano player doing a very fast rendition of the challenging classic, “Flight of the Bumblebee,” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. She was too busy that night playing for a capacity dinner crowd to spend a minute with me. So I caught with her later in the week. Her name is Carolyn Mildenberger and she plays piano at Hamley Steakhouse every Friday and Saturday night year-round. So if you miss her during Round-Up week, stop in some other time.

“I’ve been playing since I was three years old,” said Mildenburger, who hails from Texas. “I would listen to the radio and I crawled up on the bench of the old piano we had and started playing. When my parents could tell what I was playing, they took me to the Fort Worth Conservatory. There, I had absolutely wonderful teachers. They made me learn classic music first. Playing the piano is something I have done my whole life.”

The conservatory required that students memorize all pieces for recitals. This practice has stood Mildenberger in good stead as she plays for hours without a sheet of music in front of her. She has memorized many pieces and does not have to “pack a pile of music with me when I play.”Mildenberger, who makes her home in Helix, enjoys working at Hamley’s and says of owners, Parley Pearce and Blair Whitfield: “Parley and Blair are great. The nice folks.”

While standing in the long line for coffee at the Hamley coffee shop on Friday, I had a moment to chat with Iva Moynihan of Grants Pass who was in town with her husband for her third Round-Up. “We came to Round-Up the first year after we retired. It had always been a goal of ours but my husband worked for the school system and was always working in mid-September. So this is our third trip. It is such a wonderful spot. The parade is a favorite of ours. We come to see the horses, the mules and the costumes.”

Walking next door to Hamley’s store, I saw a pendant of a bronc rider. The pendant was made of bronze and attaches to a necklace. Selling them was Jill Hansen. Her specialty is making handcrafted, unique, custom jewelry.

“The man on this pendant is my dad, J. Shirly Bothum,” said Hansen. “It was done from a photo of his competing at Round-Up in 1964. He’s aboard the famous bucking horse War Paint.”There is a long passage on War Paint on page 203 of the book “Pendleton Round-Up at 100” by Michael Bales and Ann Terry Hill. Suffice it to say, that War Paint was a flashy paint horse. He was mean, ornery and seldom ridden. The Christenson Brothers, a bucking stock contractor, owned him and it was well known he was hard to ride.

Well, it’s about lunchtime and I’m looking for some place to eat and across the street I see a sign that says Rainbow Cafe. That sounds like a tame, quaint little place. When I get to the door, I meet Cody Pearson, who’s the door man, checking IDs and making sure no one carries drinks in or out. Then I realize they serve more than food in the Rainbow Cafe. I poke my head in and it’s as wild as the Red Dog Saloon in Ketchikan, Alaska. (At the Red Dog Saloon, the singing and music goes on day and night. The entertainer has been there for years and his hair is as white as the snow on the mountaintops. Instead of a tip jar, he has a container with a sign that reads, “Viagra Fund.”) That’s Alaska for you, wild and woolley.

During Round-Up week, there is noisy fun going on in the middle of the day at the Rainbow. Cody and his friend Shiloh Taillon recommend that I look at the photos hanging on the wall. “It’s really special growing up around here,” said Cody, who looked young enough that I thought perhaps I should check his ID. “Their collection of photos of Round-Up winners is complete. There is a lot of history in there.”

Speaking of food makes me remember one of my favorite culinary treats I’ve had in Pendleton. While at Raphael’s earlier in the week, I tried the rattlesnake and rabbit sausage appetizer, whch featured a huckleberry sauce. The sausage was light and flavorful, much better than the heavier caribou sausage I had in Alaska earlier this month. I wish I could have the rattlesnake and rabbit sausage at home as it is more flavorful than the chicken and turkey sausage my husband and I have substituted for pork sausage lately.

I am sorry my week in Pendleton is drawing to a close.As I think back on the faces of the people I have met here this week, they are sincere and genuine, caring and friendly. I love the rodeo and the commitment the cowboys have to riding the bulls and broncs, roping the calves and steers, and, yes, even milking the wild cows. Watching some rodeo leaders I was rooting for wind up in the dust, brought home the truth: “There never was a horse that couldn’t be rode; never was a cowboy that couldn’t be throwed.”

Coming from a horse racing background, I really enjoyed the Indian races. Wish I had a video of that to show some of the jockeys and racing stewards I know.

Now I can understand the draw of Pendleton, and why people return here year after year. Some have been driving here since the days of two-lane roads and stopping at stoplights in all the towns along the way, like Pake McEntire told me his dad, Clark, did in the 1940s and ’50s. Clark was the youngest to win the steer roping and All-Around when he did so at age 19 in 1947. Pake won the steer roping in 1984 and continues to compete.

This week I’ve talked to so many people who put so much effort and so many volunteer hours into making this week a success. Many of them don’t even get to watch the rodeo highlights as they are too busy fulfilling their commitments. Round-Up Week has been unforgettable. It’s everything that Terry Hill, co-author with Michael Bales, of “Pendleton Round-Up at 100,” told me it would be.

As a newcomer, am I now qualified to say, “Let ‘er Buck!”

Julie Sarno has worked in and written about thoroughbred racing for over 30 years. From San Diego, California, she is spending her first Round-Up with former Round-Up Queen Ann Terry Hill.