IT'S HOUSTON RODEO TIME!!!

Friday, March 15 – Houston has the largest livestock show and rodeo in the nation, and today we are “in the house.”  Their motto is "Celebrating Agriculture, Education, Entertainment & Western Heritage" and boy do they do that!

We are meeting our daughter, Carrie, this evening for the Rodeo and concert. We went early to take in the sights and enjoy some of the displays.

It is “Spring Break” week in all Texas public schools, so as expected, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is busy. The midway was packed. Luckily, we have NO interest in any of these rides.

No way would be on these rides.

More our speed.

The kids section of the livestock show was also jammed pack with kids. Marsha had to shove several out of the way so she could get pictures of the newborn calves, piglets, peeps and more.....ha ha!

We found this sign to be very interesting.

Bambi was just born the day before we visited. She weighed 70 lbs. at birth.

The Alpaca Costume contest was hilarious and a must see. The kids dress up their Llamas and themselves in great costumes. We didn't stick around the see who won, but it was a great show.

We caught a little of the donkey show. The riders have to coax their mules through a set of pre-determined maneuvers. Some of these donkeys have a mind of their own and like to just stand and watch the crowd. Funny!

We really enjoyed the Livestock area. This has got to be the cleanest “barn-yard” in existence......and air conditioned too! Nothing like the county fair back in Ohio where the kids sit in hot humid barns with 100's of fans running.

Oh, we can't forget the food vendors. The saying goes....”Everything is bigger in Texas.” This is certainly true with some of these sausages, hot dogs, and orders of fries. Prices too! Ten dollars for a hamburger, hotdog, or French fries. Big yeah, but expensive!

A simple piece of sausage.

No thank you.

Ever buy crawfish at a rodeo?

The FFA (Future Farmers of America) exhibit was really special. These high school students compete in various areas of agriculture related careers. Today was the Mechanical-Ag competition. Some of the trailers and other agriculture related machinery these kids built were simply amazing. They compete for prizes. The equipment is for sale.

We walked through most of the Rodeo Merchandise section. Hundreds of booths selling t-shirts, jewelry, ranch furniture, and most importantly – COWBOY & COWGIRL wear. You'll never see so many cowboy hats and boots. There must have been a million dollars worth of boots in the rodeo tonight! We were sure to wear our boots but haven't been brave enough to invest in a hat. Where the heck does an Rver store a cowboy hat?

These aren't your grandma's boots.

The student artwork area was fantastic.

The Reliant Park was a great time. Even though we arrived early, we had to rush much faster than we liked and didn't see everything. In past years, we attended the rodeo for two days. We think that's what we'll do in the future.

Once we met up with Carrie, we found a chair and a couple of big stones for seating and enjoyed a nice bottle of wine at the Barker Hughes Wine Garden. Becoming quite the wine drinkers, aren't we! Never knew Texas was such a big wine state!

We checked the website to see what the paid attendance is with only one more day to go. It is a record of 1,307,966. Today is George Strait day. Can't image how awesome that concert is going to be.

More on the Rodeo and Blake Shelton concert in future blogs.

To all our Irish friends….HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!