One can not be in Texas without going to a RODEO…With some luck, the Houston Livestock & Rodeo was in town, Houston, during our last few weeks of stay…Tickets were cheap for what we could afford and it came with a band that we never heard of before…The Eli Young Band???
Once we knew we wanted to go to the Rodeo, the first thing we had to do was pick a very convenient day and ask some friends to come along…We asked our friends, Bill & Alice and Dave & Jim…Bill & Alice decided to go with us…March 5 was the date..
The first thing we had to do was park in the YELLOW parking area…The little bit of a walk to the tram and off we went to the front gate with our tickets that I printed online…However, the tickets I printed were “too small” to be scanned…So off to the ticket office to get “real” tickets…Upon going through the gate, we encountered a “real” cowgirl and “real” cowboy…A must have for our photo album…
The first place we headed to was the Reliant Center…We didn’t know what to expect but we went in and saw where all the vendors and livestock were…Vendors galore with all types of merchandise…Very expensive Stetson cowboy hats, beautiful belts, leather bags, lots and lots of boots, dresses, chaps, Ford vehicles and calfs...
Has anyone ever seen a calf being blow dried by a vacuum cleaner or being groomed with a shaver for the livestock show? Well, I did and it was very interesting to see…
The girls split up from the guys and decided to meet up about 4pm at the entrance to head out to the Mutton Bustin’ contest…Alice and I walked and saw beautiful outfits, hats, belts and we came across a woodworking man who could make signs that would say your name, state, etc. at different prices…I always wanted to get a wood sign that had “The Hanna’s Richard & Shelly” on it to hang outside in the yard…The price was right so I ordered one to be made…Polyeurothane is all we needed to make the finishing touches…Richard was very excited about the sign and surprised…Alice and I saw all kinds of turquoise jewelry that were beautiful and very expensive…
During our walkabout, we came upon this gorgeous truck called First Responder…OMG! What a gorgeous Ford truck…All the memories were shown on the truck…The men who invented this truck were very talented and special…
Pictures did not do this truck justice…Every part of the truck was painted with many events that happened on 9.11.01…Firemen would leave their company’s badges on the back lift of the truck…So very special…
It was time to go see what Mutton Bustin’ was all about…Over in another area outside of Reliant Center, was a tent set up for this event…Mutton Bustin’ is where little ones ages 5 – 9 wore a protective helmet & jacket and was put on top of a sheep…Then the kid wraps their arms and legs around the sheep and holds on for dear life while the sheep starts running…The object was to hold on for as long as you can without falling off…It was so cute to see these young ones just hold on for all their might to earn points…After about 8 riders, a rider was declared a winner and won a belt buckle…A very special moment in the child’s life…
From here we went to the Pig Races…Little pigs were sent out of their homes and in to a racing stall…Little blankets of 4 movies or colleges were for the 4 sections…These little pigs were so cute…The pigs names were changed to match movies or actors/actresses…There was a little pig named Swifty who went for a swim across a water trough too…So very cute…
Before getting to the pig races, we came across some Ford vehicles…I got to see a very nice Mustang and this Ford hauler…It was very nice but the price was very “nice” too…I still didn’t like it as much as I love our truck…lol
After the pig races, we walked around the carnival games and rides heading towards Reliant Stadium…This is where the rodeo was being held…but first we stopped for a little animal show to take up some time…We got to see a sloth, tortoise and a baby zebra…All were very adorable but too many people got in the way for us to continue on with seeing more animals and taking pictures…So off we went to the stadium to find out seats and get a drink…
This is our friend Alice in her fancy red cowgirl hat…Behind her is the city of Houston…
The beginning of the rodeo was pretty good…The National Anthem was played while a cowgirl on horseback carrying the USA flag rode around the arena with the flag…It was a very sentimental moment…We got to see Bareback Riding, Calf Roping, Team Roping, Bull Riding, Wagon Racing and Calf Chasing by kids who chased calves until they could get their lasso/reins around their calf and hauled them in to the roped square…It was very interesting…There was this one girl who caught her calf by the tail but could not get her rope/reins around the calf’s nuzzle…The calf walked her all over the grounds…Then a boy ran in to her and her calf was set free…She never did get her calf…
We had a fantastic time at the Houston Rodeo…However, the Eli Young Band was too loud and you couldn’t understand what they were singing…The stage set up was great and they were on a 360° stage…Fireworks were sent off in the arena at the beginning of the show…After too much loud music and not understanding what they were singing, we headed out of the stadium and headed towards the tram waiting line…Pretty soon we were heading back to the campground…
We were very glad that we got a chance to go to a real rodeo…I really wanted to see Brad Paisley in concert here at the Reliant Stadium but it was on a Spring Break weekend, Saturday March 17…If one gets a chance to see a rodeo, please go…Next time, I hope to be able to sit a bit closer to the action than up in the nose bleed section…lol
No comments:
Post a Comment