Wyoming’s storms can come out of nowhere. On Friday, a group of out-of-state Harley riders found themselves caught in one of those summer bursts while traveling through Ten Sleep.
But the eight riders also caught a bit of luck, and stumbled on some good ol’ Wyoming hospitality.
As often happens in the Cowboy State, it turns out that the parties involved all carried a level of celebrity status.
One of the riders was Bobby Randall, a founding member of the country super-band Sawyer Brown; and the shelter was provided by State Sen. Ed Cooper and his wife, Becky.
Nashville Connection
Bobby Randall has been coming out west for years. The Nashville guitarist, pedal steel player and fiddler has family in Utah, so has been riding Harleys to the Mountain West for decades.
“I think I did it first in 1974, so I've been doing this a long, long time,” Randall told Cowboy State Daily. “That’s all Harleys.”
Randall started playing in bands when he was in high school in Midland, Michigan.
But his career moved into the fast lane in 1983, when the band he was playing lead guitar for, Sawyer Brown, won the grand prize on the inaugural season of the talent contest “Star Search.”
The win included a $100,000 prize and a recording contract, which launched their career.
Randall left Sawyer Brown in 1991, and later joined another superstar country act, Confederate Railroad.
“I've played everywhere that you can think of,” Randall said. “We toured with Kenny Rogers and all that stuff. So I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I always say my success has far surpassed my talent.”
In 2018, he found himself in Florida, and now hosts performers and jams with the stars at the Orange Blossom Opry in Florida.
“We probably run 2000 to 3000 people through there on a weekend, and we play in front of every one of them,” he said. “All these people come from all over the country.”
Sandy Randall (left), Becky Cooper (right) (Courtesy: Bobby Randall) 
Waiting the storm out (Courtesy photo: Bobby Randall) 
Heading into the storm (Courtesy: Bobby Randall)
Riding In the Rain
Randall said he and his wife, Sandy, and six of their friends were on a road trip through Wyoming when they got caught in one of Wyoming’s sudden storms.
“Both the people I'm traveling with are retired police officers and we came through some bad storms on the way out here, in South Dakota,” Randall said. “But we got into a storm yesterday, and it was just a little bit outside of Ten Sleep, and my wife, who's pretty tough girl too, started grabbing on to me at the back, going, ‘Hey, we need to get out of here,’ because the wind, it was just real bad.”
He wasn’t wrong. While the Randalls and their group were riding the switchbacks of Ten Sleep Canyon, State Sen. Ed Cooper and his wife, Becky, were just wrapping up the annual July 4th parade and celebration in the picturesque town at the base of the Bighorns.
“We knew the storm was coming, so we hurried home from the rodeo and tried to get a few vehicles in and out of the weather in case it did have some hail,” Ed Cooper told Cowboy State Daily. “And we knew it was going to have some more heavy winds.”
As they were battening down the hatches, they saw a group of motorcyclists pull into their driveway to get under some nearby trees.
“(Becky) and my grandson Zayne were in the process of bringing a vehicle home and getting it in out of the weather,” Cooper said. “And she pulled in the driveway, and these bikes are here, and she said, ‘Can I help you?’”
Shelter From the Storm
“When we pulled in there, this young man came running out of nowhere and said, ‘You need to get in here. There's a bad storm,’” Randall said. “They opened up all the doors on their garage and put all of our motorcycles in there and then closed the door while the storm raged.”
For the next 45 minutes, while the storm blew around them, the riders got to know the ranchers.
Neither party knew the background of the other - that one of the riders was once part of one of the hottest acts in Nashville, or that their host was a state senator.
“Just said, ‘My name is Ed,’ and the girl's name is Becky, and they were just the sweetest people,” said Randall. “We talked about nothing, I guess. You know, it's just small talk. Never said anything about what he did, or who he was, or anything.”
“You Like Country Music?”
After a while making small talk, Becky Cooper said Randall’s wife, Sandy, noticed the shirt that Becky was wearing.
“I had a shirt on that had cowboy boots on it, because I ran the parade yesterday,” Becky said. “The parade’s theme was, ‘Get Your Boots On.’ And she looks at me, she says, ‘Do you like Western music?’ I'm like, really? And she says, ‘You ever heard of the band Sawyer Brown?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘Well, that's Bobby.’ And I'm like, ‘What??’”
“New Best Friends”
Randall said he didn’t find out until the storm was almost over that their host was a Wyoming state senator.
“When we got ready to leave, it was still raining, but the major storm had gone by then, somebody told me that he was a state senator here in Wyoming,” said Randall. “The coolest thing about it was he and his wife, just without any reservation at all, just took eight complete strangers into their house here, ‘Just get in here right now.’”
“It was a great experience for us, and for them too, I'm pretty sure,” Ed said, “because, you know, we got them in out of the weather, and they met some new folks in Wyoming.”
Randall said had the Coopers not offered shelter, their trip could have taken a wrong turn.
“I'm not sure it would have ended real well,” he said. “We ended up, branches were breaking off of trees, and things were flying across the street or the road, and it was pretty tough. And really, at that place, geographically, nowhere to hide.”
And Ed said he was glad the group turned into their driveway.
“We moved some bikes and the car and pulled everybody inside and sat there and had a really nice visit for probably 45 minutes while the storm went by,” Ed added, “and made some new best friends.”
Ten Sleep Is A Way of Life
For the Coopers, opening their homes to strangers is just part of life in Wyoming. Growing up in Worland and Ten Sleep, Ed raised his family in the shadow of the Bighorns, and his grandsons will be the fourth generation to graduate from Ten Sleep High School.
“Ten Sleep’s not a place to live. Ten Sleep’s a way of life,” Ed said.
“It's still a community, and we take care of each other, and it's just a really tight group of people. We're growing. We've got a lot of new people who came through here in the last few years, and we've got a lot of the rock climber community for the canyon up here that has come in here and are trying to make their homes here. We don't have any room to grow, but we're trying.”
“He Has My Vote”
Randall said the Coopers’ willingness to help out strangers was an incredible blessing.
“Maybe the Lord was looking after us,” Randall said. “I had no idea who that guy was and his wife, but they're two of the most wonderful people that I've met. He took eight complete strangers into his home, all of our motorcycles into his garage. He has my vote.”
“It didn’t matter who it was, it was some folks who needed shelter in a storm,” Ed said. “That's just how I was raised. And what we do in Wyoming is, if somebody's in need, you take care of them.”
And their welcoming experience in Ten Sleep has made the Randalls appreciate the west even more.
“I'm not in love with Florida. Every time I come (to Wyoming), I think, why didn't I move here?” said Randall. “Because it's just, I love the West.”
Wendy Corr can be reached at: Wendy@CowboyStateDaily.com
