but there was it , the pride of the ranching community , that old patriot-mobile rolling down on me , and all i could see was a mass of flags , and sticks and hay bale benches , manned by the freakish ranch hands in what was probably their only day off the ranch in six months , whooping and hollering for all it was worth , as this crazy machine bore down in its highly twisty and dangerously downhill wind .