As a matter of fact, this is our first rodeo

Norm doesn't miss a bite in the food court

A classic cliché you often hear is “This is not my first rodeo,” referring to some great experience in your life, but truly you can only literally say this once in your life: “This was my first rodeo.”

(To enlarge the photos simply click on them)

So last night was the one and only rodeo experience for Joan and me. Along with our friends from California, we attended the opening night of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo at the ATT Center. And until the music started about 9:30 p.m. it was a great experience. This was not their first rodeo and they enjoy professional bull riding competitions in the west.

Sadly, this was our last day with Jan and Norm as they are heading back to California as I write this Friday morning. Joan and I know that we will miss them and have only each other to stare at until her sister Diane, and brother-in-law Denny, join us in Houston in a couple weeks. You should feel sorry for Joan.

Opening ceremonies

The day Thursday was spent doing chores around the trailer, waiting for 5 p.m. when Jan and Norm would arrive and we would head to the rodeo.

Joan did laundry while I cleaned up the barbeque grill which we used the other night. I also went to the post office to mail some new moccasins to my son William. It was also cleaning day for the inside of the trailer.

As I was sorting my clean clothes, I noticed that half my undershirts and underwear were missing. All of Joan’s clothes were present and accounted for, but half of mine were gone. I made a quick walking trip back to the RV park Laundromat and found the rest of my clothes in one of the dryers.

Keep this between us and don’t mention it to Joan, but that is why I like doing my own laundry. Her lame excuse was that she had checked that dryer, noticed a cloth bag in it that she didn’t think was part of our laundry and decided she didn’t want to rummage through some other man’s underwear to determine if it was ours.

The cloth bag was ours, but she said she didn’t put it in the laundry basket, so it was probably “my (Jim’s) fault” that she didn’t check further. The three most important words a man can tell his wife: “I was wrong.” They work even if you weren’t wrong.

Youth calf scramble

OK, with the missing underwear mystery solved we waited for the rodeo.

At 5 p.m. Jan and Norm arrived and we drove to the AT&T Center. With a couple hours to spare we looked around the grounds. They had countless vendors with mostly cowboy apparel and ranch items, a carnival midway and a food court with lots of offerings.

For dinner we all went to a Fajita and rib tent that was raising money for college scholarships for young cowboys and cowgirls. It was very good and we enjoyed the music of a country trio “The April Hall” band. April had a very nice voice and we listened until the chill of the air drove us inside to the vendors building.

Team calf roping

After shopping for a while we headed over to the ATT Center for the rodeo.

There was a time in my life I was deeply involved in horses. Even owned and took care of a couple on a little farm in Oxford, but this was the first time I had been to an honest-to-goodness rodeo.

It was fun.

The opening laser light show was pretty cool, the horseback drill team carrying Texas flags was pretty impressive and the color guard was equally amazing. There was a very nice prayer and then the Star Spangled Banner with the flags of Texas and America all presented on horseback.

The two-hour rodeo was a lot of fun. Of course I had seen bits and pieces of rodeos on television, but never watched an entire rodeo in one sitting even on the idiot tube.

barrel racing

Those cowboys who ride the bareback bucking broncos must run up a pretty big bill at the chiropractor as that event looks like it should be named “guaranteed whiplash riding.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person so violently shaken back and forth for that long a time.

We enjoyed watching the little kids riding sheep in the “Mutton Bustin’” event and then the “Calf Scramble,” which included a heavyweight wrestling match between a young boy and a pretty tough calf.

There was bull roping and team roping, which is a pretty interesting event. In team roping, one cowboy has to rope a steer’s head and then the other cowboy has to lasso both hind legs of the same steer. It doesn’t sound easy and apparently it is not because a couple of cowboys only got one leg which cost them a five-second penalty which put them out of the money. Everything is timed and the winner is determined by the lowest time.

Laser light show

Steer tying was fun to watch as the cowboy must chase a fleeing steer, grab it by the horns, wrestle it to the ground and tie three of its legs to make it immobile. It was another timed event.

Saddle bronc riding was not quite as violent as the bareback riding, but my favorite, and the crowds favorite, was the bull riding.

We were in section 201, which was high above the floor of the arena and with those nasty animals that still seemed a little too close for comfort. I have a lot of respect for those cowboy clowns who stand right in front of the bulls to keep them from attacking the riders after they fall off, which all but one of the ten riders did. Only one cowboy made the entire 8-seconds. The rest all met an early end to the ride.

Joan and her latest celebrity

Finally it was time for the entertainment which was Chris Young, a rising country star. It took about a half hour to set up a stage, musical equipment and chairs for the high-priced, front row customers, who I eventually felt sorry for. We had planned to stay for about an hour of the entertainment, but that was not to be.

When the music started it was loud. Not just loud, but standing-behind-a-jetliner-engine loud. The ear splitting deafening sound drove us out after just three songs.

My friend Norm is a long time country music fan, but he told me that Nashville has ruined country music with the over emphasis on loudness. We might as well have been at a Mega Death or heavy metal concert considering the noise. It’s too bad because through the din you could almost make out a nice voice on Mr. Young.

So it was a quick exit from the parking lot and a short trip home for our final good-byes with our friends. The time, as it always does when you are having a good time, flew by. But our visit with Jan and Norm, who I have known for about 46 years, proved something to me.

No matter the distance in time and space, good friends are just that forever. Since we have reconnected with Jan and Norm, and I have seen them occasionally over the years, it was like we were never separated.

I just wish we lived closer so there would be more times like these. We’re hoping to get them to Michigan some day and we will certainly see them on one of our nearly annual trips to California.

The rain held off today until we got home from the rodeo, so we were thankful for that. Godspeed home Jan and Norm. Thanks for coming to visit. We miss you already.

As bright as the lights are, the sound was much, much louder

One new state showed up in the park: Joan’s home state of New York pulled in yesterday afternoon. The man had a trailer about the length of ours and from what I could see at a distance was struggling mightily to back it into a spot like ours. He had plenty of help from neighboring campers.

My new rule is that I only need help from one person. Two’s definitely a crowd when you are trying to back a trailer as everyone has a different opinion of what is close and which way you should turn.