HOUSTON RODEO

Wednesday, March 22 – After we visited many of the events going on at the Houston Livestock Show, we headed over to the rodeo. The Houston rodeo is held in the Reliant Football Stadium. It holds over 72,000 people, and it was nearly full. Amazing!

Presenting of the colors.

We enjoyed the steer roping, bucking bronco riding, bull riding, barrel races, and more. We particularly enjoy the girls barrel racing and the buckboard races.

The ladies could really ride! Several broke the record.

These kids get a chance to wrestle down a calf and keep it. It is a riot watching them.

After the rodeo is the concert. Tonight was Chris Young. We decided not to stay for the concert and beat the thousands and thousands of people to the exit. It was a very long day but well worth it. The rodeo is a blast!

The rides were packed when we left at 9:30.

We'll be staying at the Houston Elks Lodge until mid or late April. If you're in the area give us a shout!

Thanks to Mary and Marlene for sending Marsha the name of our mystery bird. It is a Loggerhead Shrike, also known as a "thorn bird". The Loggerhead Shrike skewers their kill on thorns or barbed wire or wedge them into tight places for easy eating. What a way to eat a meal.

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

HOUSTON RODEO, BABY!

Wednesday, March 22 – It's rodeo time in Houston. We spent the day enjoying the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show. Wednesday is senior day with free admission. We chose to pay $10 so we could also see the rodeo events and the concert. The rodeo is held at the huge Reliant Stadium and nearby events center.

We were going to park off site and ride the light rail to the stadium, but the place we normally park was full so we bit the bullet and paid $15 for parking. It turned out pretty good because we were early enough to get close-up parking and jumped on the shuttle for a ride to the front gate.

We started at the horse arena and watched the kids showing their horses. We enjoy the kids that work so hard to prepare for these events. Even though we are not ranchers and don't really know much about horses, it is obvious these kids spend hours and hours preparing to show their horses.

This little girls was so proud parading her horse around the arena.

Next, we went over to the events center where the livestock show is held. We started with the kids area where they were showing piglets being born, chickens laying eggs, cows being milked, and a petting arena for the kids. So far this livestock show there have been 12 lambs, 58 piglets, 16 calves born at the birthing area. Marsha just loves mingling with the kids and seeing these all goings on.

These guys acted like they were starving.

The boss man checking things out.

We then strolled through the livestock area. Today was cattle judging day. The livestock show is so huge they have to move animals in for the particular events. Pigs one week, sheep & goats another, cattle another week and so on.

Established as the Houston Fat Stock Show in 1932, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has grown to more than 30,000 entries. The Houston Livestock Show is organized by three categories of competitions: Junior Show, Open Show and Youth Show.

The Show is not only the largest livestock show, but also sets world records at the junior market show auctions. In 2016, junior auctions, including school art, totaled a record $12,350,133. (All info taken from the official website.) This year we saw some very unique colors on the cattle.

It was nice to see our neck brace for cows was a big hit.

After judging in the arena the winners are moved to an area where they are weighed and branded with the official Houston Rodeo brand. That was really cool to watch!

In the following photo, we saw this little girl with her dad earlier getting her prize position ready for the show. She took third place in her group.

Look how hot that iron is.

End result. No pun intended…lol

There is a sales area where everything from cowboy boots and hats to toffee is for sale. We did pickup a couple free toffee samples but passed on any additional purchases.

What a steal at only $175.00. We passed.

This guy was amazing.

No Paul!

How many of you go to a rodeo looking for a puppet? So strange.

They have wonderful information about Texas throughout the entire building.

Don’t worry about going hungry here. There are tons of places to eat with just about anything available under the sun.

Next up was relaxing at the wine garden. We shared a bottle of wine and listened to some music killing a little time until the rodeo began at the stadium. The weather was perfect and the wine garden was soon packed. We grabbed a quick sandwich and then headed over to the main event – the rodeo.

The gal at the table next to us had boots on that Marsha wants. She even poised so Marsha could get a photo.

Everything is bigger in Texas.

In our next blog, we’ll tell you all about the big rodeo!

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

FROM APACHE JUNCTION, AZ, TO HOUSTON, TX.

Monday, March 13 – We pulled out of VIP RV in Apache Junction, AZ, heading East. We planned on stopping in Las Cruces, NM, for the night but our destination park was sold out. No vacancies! So we continued on to Sunland Racetrack and RV Park in Sunland, NM. This park is actually about one hundred feet from El Paso and is a good overnight stop. It is basically a blacktop parking lot with W & E hookups. There is a dump station if needed.                                           

 

Tuesday, March 14 – As planned, we had an early start this morning. We were surprised how light the traffic was going through El Paso. That's good because every freeway in El Paso is under construction. What a mess! We had an easy travel day, although somewhat boring, traveling the entire time on I-10. We prefer the southern route I-90 to San Antonio but with the lack of overnight stops, it can be challenging. Texas is a challenge crossing regardless. Also, we forgot that it is Spring Break here in Texas.

We stopped for the night in Fort Stockton, TX. Before heading to an Parkview RV Park, we stopped at Elvin's Auto Repair to get the 5^th wheel inspected. Texas requires annual inspection but allows for an exemption if the RV is out of state. We renewed our license tags in January via the internet so got the inspection on the trailer today.

We are spending the night in Parkview RV Park in Fort Stockton. This place is pretty basic and a bit rough. It's a dirt parking lot with gravel roads and wires strung all over the place. The sites are FHU site with either 30 or 50 amp electric. It is a PPA park….$14/night. That is the only reason we stayed here. We understood by reading the reviews that we should select a site and pay at the office. It said that normally the office is vacant, and we were to leave our money in the slot.

Well, we did choose a site and set up. Marsha then went looking for the envelope we were to put our money in. She noticed that the office had an Open sign. The lady in the office was very upset with us. She said we were to check-in first and they assign us a location. Oops! We apologized for the misunderstanding, She reluctantly allowed us to stay in the dirty old spot we selected, but made sure we knew that it wasn’t an overnight stay site. Okay then. We are only here for one night so we'll be fine.

Looking right.

Looking left.

 

Wednesday, March 15 – We hit the road early again planning on making San Antonio by early afternoon. We had called the San Antonio Elks Lodge several times checking on an available site but did not receive a call back. We traveled I-10 in particular, planning on staying at this Lodge. Unfortunately, upon arrival, we found the camping area full. Campers were parked all over the place in a rather hap hazard appearance. Dang....no room in the inn.

We considered staying in a Walmart parking lot, but since it was rather early in the day, we decided to push on to the Houston Elks Lodge where we had a spot on hold. It wasn't too bad of a trip, although it made for a rather LONG day. It was good to be “home.” Bella, our cat, appreciated not having another travel day to struggle through tomorrow.

We had a little visitor. Marsha kept watching the show this little one was putting on. We think it caught a grasshopper and was feasting on its body. What do you think? Who know the name of our friend. We are terrible at birding.

Sorry for the blurry photo. It was taken through our rather dirty back window.

We were all setup and relaxing before dark. Glad we decided to push on to Houston.

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

A LITTLE HIKING AND A BIG WIN!

Friday, March 10 – We returned this morning to the Superstition Mountains just outside of Phoenix, AZ. We were here to hike Lost Gold Canyon trail. This trail is and out and back hike. You can extend it out to a 12 mile hike if you like. We're not doing anything near that. We went out a couple miles and returned.

Everything is so amazingly green!

This is a beautiful area we absolutely love! The scenery is unbelievable, and the trails aren't too strenuous. We could sit out here and enjoy nature all day. This trail was quiet. We didn't meet any other hikers the entire time hiking. Everyone else was hiking the Hieroglyphic Trail we did the other day. Both trails leave from the same trailhead. We did pass some horseback riders as we neared the trailhead on our return.

We left at 8:00 a.m, and it was already 80 degrees.

Ups and downs on this trail.

No sounds but the beautiful song of the birds and the bees.

The desert is beginning to come alive. We wish we were here in about two weeks. We know it will be a gorgeous showing on the desert floor.

Saturday, March 11 – We headed back to Goodyear Stadium on the Westside of Phoenix this morning to catch another Cleveland Indians Spring Training game. Today they were playing the Kansas City Royals. What a difference the weekend made on the crowd. Over 8,500 people in attendance today. Goodyear Ballpark features 8,000 stadium seats, 1,500 berm seats, six luxury suites and specialty group areas that seat more than 500. The place was nearly sold out!

As we passed through the gate to our surprise, we were handed a voucher for a Corey Kluber bobblehead. We weren't even aware it was bobblehead day. Kluber is one of the starting pitchers for the Indians. We had to go to a designated tent to pickup our bobbleheads but were thrilled to do so.

It was an exciting and VERY HOT game. The temperatures were in the 90's about the 3rd inning and very sunny.

A little humor for those back in Cleveland, Ohio.

Goodyear Stadium announces warnings about sunburns and even has sunscreen dispensers throughout the stadium. We've been out in the sun all winter and have pretty dark tans and have been blessed with dark skin, so burning isn't usually a problem for us.

The Indians played a great game. All the pitchers were starters so that was exciting. We even got to see a grand slam. That's a home run with the bases loaded for you non-sports fans...LOL The Good Guys win!

Our neighbor here at the park has the neatest sign. So perfect for us.

Another gorgeous sky here in Arizona.

We have really enjoyed our stay in Arizona. We are headed to Houston tomorrow. We plan to stop either in Deming, NM, or Las Cruces, NM. We are sure we will be on the road no later than 7 a.m.  We will see how far we get until we say…Enough is Enough.

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