RODEO HOUSTON…YEE HAW!

Friday, April 18 – We went “Rodeo Houston”. We watch the rodeo and a concert by Alan Jackson. Tonight Alan Jackson will sing to his one millionth concert goer. We're not huge Alan Jackson fans even though we listen to country music.

We parked off site and rode the train to the Reliant Center to avoid the traffic. We were cutting things close because Carrie, our youngest daughter, was returning from Chicago. She travels as an Exxon employee. Our plan of avoiding traffic didn't work....US-59 was PACKED.....what a mess.

The 79th edition of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo ended on a record-breaking run, with 2,262,834 in total attendance. The Rodeo is the largest in the country. Now you can understand why all the traffic. 

But Carrie was sitting in the airport.....her flight arrived late....surprise, surprise, surprise. Kelly was already at the parking garage, so we decided to move on and meet Carrie at the Rodeo. Thank goodness, Kelly knew where and how to find the train station. The train ride was awesome. We really like mass-public transportation in big cities.

We arrived at Reliant Stadium, along with thousands and thousands of other people. Since Paul and Kelly's birthdays are coming up in the next couple weeks, Carrie paid for the tickets......thanks girl! The seats were actually pretty good.....a little high, but as the commercial goes....”No bad seat in the house!” The stadium roof was closed, and the air conditioning was cooling things off nicely. And of course we had the huge screen TV's giving us up close views of the action, if needed!

View from our seats.

The rodeo was GREAT! We saw Tie Down Roping, Some pictures are enlarged from the zoomed in version of the original picture. They may be a bit fuzzy but not bad.

Bareback Riding. While we were looking at the TV, Carrie noticed something on this cowboy’s helmet.

I zoomed in and there as big as day is Chief Wahoo. Our Cleveland Indians mascot. GO TRIBE!

Team Roping. This was really exciting. Two cowboys…one had to rope the calf around the neck and the other had to catch a hind leg in a rope.

We also watched steer wrestling, bucking broncos, bull riding, barrel chases, and even Mutton Bustin’. That last event was hilarious. It involved little boys and girls, all dressed-up in their cowboy outfits, riding lambs.....bare back! It was sooooo cute! And a 5 year-old GIRL WON! Way to go.....girl!

Notice how all the sheep are running to the opposite end of the pen. They are trying to get away from the kids.

The Chuck Wagon race was fast and looked dangerous! They first had to work their way through the barrels, and then race around the track.

The last event was the Calf Scramble. Twenty-eight teenagers scrambled after 14 calves in the 4 acre arena of the Reliant Stadium. The teens that rope one of the calves received a $1,250 certificate to purchase a registered beef heifer or steer and will return to Houston next year to exhibit the heifer. All year long a record book is kept. Awards are given based on the records and scrapbooks kept, as well as scholarships. It was hilarious watching these kids chase these calves. They really had to work to rope them.

One lucky winner.

After the rodeo was the Alan Jackson Concert. They had set up a stage in the middle of the arena floor, and it even rotated around.....again, not a bad seat in the house.....especially with the Jumbotron TV's.

The concert was fabulous. He sang so many familiar favorites, and the crowd really enjoyed the show!

Even fireworks…inside…roof closed!

His last song brought the house down. He sang, “Where I Come From”, but put a twist on it and made it a Texan version.

We walked around a bit looking for the dance hall, but alas, we couldn't find it. So, we joined the crowd heading home. The train ride (free on rodeo weekend by-the-way) was packed, but everyone was enjoying the ride and we were soon back at the parking garage and on our way home. US-59 was open and moving freely. Instead of the 90 minute ride during rush hour, we were home in 20 minutes.

For those of you, like Marsha’s dad, that like to know what some of the livestock sold for at auction, get a load of these prices! Remember…these are kids selling to members of the community, be it private or commercial. Great job kids!

2011 Grand Champion Junior Market Steer
2011 Price: $350,000

2011 Reserve Grand Champion Junior Market Steer
2011 Price: $310,000

2011 Grand Champion Junior Market Lamb
2011 price: $200,000 (world's record)

2011 Grand Champion Junior Market Goat
2011 price: $100,000

If you can make it to Houston in the month of March, DO NOT miss the Rodeo/Livestock Show. Another one of those…Must See Events.

Can you tell that we had a great time?

Kelly, Marsha, Carrie, Paul

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

MOTOR HOME MAINTENANCE

Thursday, March 17 – Headed out on my morning bike ride, bright and early, only to have Marsha come flagging me down in the car. The RV Mobile Lube truck was here....EARLY....for my oil change appointment.

I had read about this company in Odel & Laurie's Blog, Semi True Tales of Our Life on the Road. They were happy with this service and so was I. The gentleman did what I felt was a wonderful job....changing my oil, filters, lubing the chassis, checking air pressure, checking oil in my wheel hubs, changing the generator oil and generator filters. He was here about two hours and did an outstanding job. They have offices/trucks in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio....check them out here: http://www.rvmobilelube.com

Dumping oil

His truck was well equipped.

Adding oil.

Greasing rear end.

Paul then did some work around the motor home, and Marsha started dying pine needles for her next pine needle basket. I wonder what shape and size she has plans for now????

Marsha purchased liquid clothes dye…dark brown. First, she had to soak the pine needles in warm water for ten minutes. She mixed it and placed some wet needles in a tin pan. Be sure to wear gloves and old clothes!

Something heavy needs to hold the needles down in the dye. She put some water in another tin pan and laid it on top. She left them this way for about 30 min.

She then rinsed them in cold water and laid them on a cookie sheet to dry.

Before and after….they did turn a dark brown. She was thrilled.

Friday, March 18 – Paul has another project! We've never been especially happy with the appearance of the MH front end. It has a protective coating of plastic manufactured by 3M that has proven unsatisfactory by MH owners. As a matter of fact, the product application has been discontinued by Tiffin. They now use Diamond Shield, which many owners praise but many are unhappy, as well. The problem with the 3M product is it is soft and therefore gets stone nicked and stains easily by the bugs splattered while driving. It is impossible to clean. Furthermore, after several years, mold begins to form between the shield and the paint.

The only solution is to remove it! The fear, of course, is while peeling it off, you may damage the paint......YIKES! That is what's kept Paul from attempting the removal procedure. After talking with a fellow Rver, parked next door, Paul has decided to give it a try. If the paint is damaged, I guess we'll get it painted.

Everything went AWESOME with the plastic film removal.

Only one little goof-up, the rest looks like new.

The word Phaeton was glued over top of the coating. It was very easy to remove.

Paul is soooooo happy with the results.

This is the same spot as in the second picture above. Pretty amazing change.

Before


After

Once the protective coating was removed, there was some glue residue. We purchased 3M Adhesive Remover which worked amazingly. It just melted that residue away.

He then polished the front.

Like new.

Hopefully it will hold up to the abuse of bugs and stones being thrown up from the road. Eventually, Paul figures the front end will need painting.....hopefully a few years down the road.

We're heading to the Houston Rodeo tonight with our two daughters. We will report on that event in our next blog.

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

HOUSTON RODEO/LIVESTOCK SHOW

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Tuesday, March 15 – We're heading to the Outlet Mall today.

Our daughter, Kelly, is a teacher and is on Spring Break this week. So it's off to shopping! We went to the Houston Outlet Mall in Cypress. We had a pretty successful trip. Kelly made quite a few purchases, Paul came in second with new sneakers, flip flops, shorts, and sun glasses, and Marsha found a top and a bracelet. Now what do we throw out??? (Background: Full-timers say if they buy something new they need to get rid of something to have room for the new item!).

Wednesday, March 16 - Off to the Houston Rodeo!!! It's held at Reliant Stadium – home of the NFL Houston Texans.

Wednesday is Value Day. Five dollars entry fee (normally $12) and if you are 60+ it's free entry! Grand total for parking and entry for the two of us….$10...what a deal!

The event is actually held in several different buildings. The Reliant Center has the AGventure, Livestock show, exhibits, food, school art, and shopping. Reliant Arena holds the Stockman’s Club, horse show, llamas and turkeys. Reliant Stadium is where the Rodeo and all the “big name” entertainment is held.

We have never attended a “fair” that had directional signs.

We attended the Livestock Show Arena, the animal education section, the Horse Show Arena, and the Cowboy/Western sales area. The sales area was packed with all types of western wear sales booth, and the people seemed to be buying.

A  very interesting exhibit was a stone carving area. These stones were carved in Texas Motif. They must weigh a ton and were very impressive. Wished we could have seen some of the carving being done!

This gentlemen made flag poles that were beautiful.

There are many fountains outside the stadium.

One of the many stages. Marsha is at the Cowboy Stage.

The school art display was amazing. These kids are so talented. We only took a few pictures because all the work was behind glasses partitions.

This was done by a 6th grader.

 
Very clever. A display for Beaver hats.

Paul is contemplating buying a hat.

Any one need furrier chaps?

We weren’t in the market for a gun safe. They make them BIG here in Texas.

We were again a bit temped to by one of these for the front of the MH.

And what would a fair be without the tractors? This one is for Marsha’s dad.

The Livestock area was HUGE. Boy was it clean! We wore our old sneakers, thinking one of us might accidently step in some animal pooo .....but things were very clean.....don't want someone to get those expensive cowboy boots dirty.....ha! Ha!

Even the rabbit pens were tidy.This little guy actually poised for us.

The Educational Area was very impressive. Someone was very creative in developing this area to teach the zillion kids here on spring break all about livestock. The new born area was especially interesting and PACKED with kids wanting to see the baby animals. Marsha had about as much fun as the kids.

Little piglets just days old.

Marsha saw this little guy come right out of the egg.

To get to the Horse Show Arena, we walked through the amusement ride area. WOW! Every ride one could imagine or has ever seen was there. The kids were having a blast. All we could think about, was how sick we would get on some of these rides. It did bring back old memories of when are kids were young, and the hours spent on some of these rides.

We have never seen this ride.

These people were crazy to do this!

We must be very old. We didn’t know you could lie down and ENJOY a ride. NUTS!

Now here is the most unusual ride we witnessed. Yes…CAMEL RIDES!

There was very type of food vendor imaginable. Even ones you would NEVER think would be at a fair.

The Horse Show was very colorful.We aren’t “horse people” but  The horses were beautiful, and the riders were dressed in very colorful and glittery western wear. Unfortunately, they were competing in a basic skills competition and it was a little ... s-l-o-w .... if not boring. Before they made the winner announcement, we picked our favorite and actually pick the winner. We enjoyed the show for a while!

And the winner is…

All the vendors in this building were selling riding related items.

After a full day of visiting all the areas, we boarded the tram and were quickly returned to our car. We easily made our way out of the parking area and were home in less than thirty minutes. They have the traffic problems pretty well handled, I'd say!

We are returning with our daughters on Friday evening to see the Rodeo Show and Alan Jackson in concert. There is no way you could see everything in one day! The Rodeo is held in the new and huge Reliant Stadium, with its movable roof. Mucho Bucks spent here!!!! Very nice though.

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