Wednesday, March 12 – We attended the self-proclaimed largest rodeo in the world today – The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. It is held at the Reliant Center which is the indoor stadium of the Houston Texans NFL team, the Reliant Arena, and the Houston Astrodome,which will be demolished in the future. This is a huge facility located just east of the downtown area.
Parking at our daughter's apartment in Mid-town, we rode the mass transit train to the Reliant Center. This is a nice way to travel, missing all the traffic from the thousands of people driving to the Rodeo and the $20 parking fee. The train dropped us off just a few hundred feet from the Reliant Center Exhibition Hall.
Our first stop was checking out the vendors. We enjoy this part of the festivities. We even bought a couple items, a Houston Rodeo T-shirt for Paul and a pair of high tech gardening shears for Marsha. We walked through the 100's of vendors, which are mostly cowboy/cowgirl related. You could sure spend a few bucks on some nice cowboy boots!
Plenty of bling for the gals.
For some reason, Paul thought he might be able to put a pair of stirrups to good use…oh dear.
Two very interesting fountains.
Every Texan knows what part of the cow the brisket comes from. Do you?
Marsha bought a chain from one of the vendors several years ago. The gal then told her the chain is guaranteed for life. Well, we all know how that goes. So, Marsha decided to see if this was true. Her chain had tarnished and asked the gal how she could get another. The gal looked at the chain, recognized it immediately and gave her new sparkling chain for her cross – FREE! No questions asked. Now that is a vendor we will deal with any day!
We then walked over to see the livestock and were a little disappointed that only the goats were in attendance today. Not sure why, but the cattle, hogs, llamas, and other animals weren't here yet. Maybe it has to do with the rodeo lasting nearly a month. The animals must come in different waves.
This little boy asked Marsha if she wanted to pet his goat. “Of course,” she said. He then began to explain why they have that thing over their mouth and why they were all wearing coats. The goats were being judged on Thursday and Friday, and their coats needed to stay pretty. Also, he explained in great detail how goats like to eat everything. He said the thing over their mouth is only taken off when they give them their “good” food. They didn’t want them eating anything bad and throwing it up when they were getting judged. He was such a cutie. (Marsha’s words, not Paul’s.)
The kids area was very crowded. Remember, it's Spring Break for the schools in Texas, so many families take advantage of the time to attend the Rodeo. Also, Wednesday is $10 Day. A bargain that includes everything at the Rodeo including the nightly concert.
The kids area is like a petting zoo full of farm animals. The really neat aspect is there are several displays of baby animals being born. If you can't get close enough to the pen to see the action, don't worry because everything is displayed on large screen TV's. Amazing!
Yes, Marsha got her fix with the little chicks. Each time we come she needs to watch them being born.
Wow, look at the size of those feet.
We then rode the tram over to the horse arena to attend the Junior Horse Agility Competition. Some of these girls can really ride. A little scary for the parents, one would think. This was a very enjoyable competition.
We even found something for Kelly. Her colors for the wedding are purple and silver. If she decides to ride a horse to the reception, this would fit right in with her color scheme.
We stopped at one of the hundreds of food tents for a quick lunch on the way to the stadium for the Championship Rodeo. This was Round 3 with an eventual purse of $50,000 going to the winner. There was bucking bronco riding, bull back riding, calf roping, chuck wagon races, a horse agility competition, and a calf scramble. Tell you all about that in the next post.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
I'm thinking that saddle would make quite an impression for Kelly's trip down the aisle.
ReplyDeleteSaw you Buckeyes advanced past round one in the Big 10 tournament. congrats.
After seeing that saddle, I can tell what Paul was thinking when he was looking at the stirrups.
ReplyDeleteDon't encourage Kelly with that horse and saddle. Horses aren't cheap and since Paul's the father of the bride, he might be in charge in getting a good one for her.
ReplyDeleteWe've seen some pretty expensive boots in Scottsdale! I didn't know they could cost that much!
Looks like you were keeping yourselves busy at that rodeo. It looks like there was padding on that saddle under the purple seat.
ReplyDeleteBe Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
Now THAT is a rodeo!!! How neat!! I never knew what part of the cow the brisket came from until I saw the visual...just know I love eating good brisket!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you found a truly honest vendor!!
One day I will have to attend a rodeo..on the list of things "to do." Thanks for taking us along!!
Me thinks you were much too close to that bull in your header picture. Isn't it great when you have a vendor who really stands behind their products. Definitely would buy from someone like that again. You guys are really getting into this cowboy stuff.
ReplyDeleteLove going to the rodeo vicariously through you two. What fun...and you couldn't have had a better teacher of all things goats! He obviously was rightfully proud of all his hard work in raising in goat. I'm not a connoisseur of baby chicks, but those are BIG feet! LOL
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a just-born chick before ... my what big feet it has!
ReplyDeleteI will make it to the rodeo in Houston one of these days. If we hadn't got the rv back we would have gone this year.
ReplyDeleteIn Deming, NM tonight.
That is a lot of bling on those belts! Spurs...I can only imagine what is going through Paul's mind!! One of those boot fountains would fit right in to your backyard decor, don't you think!!
ReplyDeleteThose little boys are so cute. I would have loved to hear them talk about their goat. Hope they did well.
It would have been disappointing not to see all the animals. Now you'll have to go a few times...or not!
Yes!! Great idea! I hope Kelly takes you up on the horse ride down the aisle.
A real Texas Rodeo looks like a great time. Stirrups whatever would Paul use them for???
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ReplyDeleteI so apologize, I did it, again! That should teach me to proof! One of the happiest days in my childhood was going to the rodeo in Madison Square Garden in New York City. We were in the nose bleed seats, but guess who was there. Roy Rogers...oh, how in love I was with him. When he rode around on trigger and touched all the outstretched hands of the kids in the first row, I wanted to be them so badly. There really aren't any more "cowboy heroes" for kids--such a shame. And, Trigger--I wanted a horse so badly. I used to go to sleep every night pretending that Roy and Trigger rescued me from something or other and Roy pulled me up into the saddle with him and off into the sunset we rode. LOL What a nutty kid I was! Thanks for bringing back the memories. :)
ReplyDeleteMy favourite pic was the one of the steer showing where all the different cuts of meat come from. Very interesting. I had no idea about brisket.
ReplyDeleteIt has been years since we have been to a rodeo. This looks like quite the event. Out of all the photos you posted, I must admit that the one of the baby chick grabbed me the most. I have never seen one right after birth.
ReplyDeleteNow that's a rodeo.
ReplyDeleteoh my goodness. . .what a wonderful time!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how I got so far behind on your blog posts. . .seriously. . .I gotta pay more attention. . .looks like you guys are enjoying yourselves immensely. . .I love it!