The first day of March had us up before the sun. I had read that the first event of the Houston Rodeo started at 8am and I didn't want to miss a thing. We got on the road early and it was a good thing as traffic was already kind of crazy. After stopping for a quick McDonalds breakfast down the street, we entered the parking lot. Strange, it was mostly empty. We got out and started walking towards the arena. Strange, there were no signs. We finally reached one of the gates and saw people standing there. They asked for our tickets and we said we wanted to buy them. By this point it was 7:55. They looked around at each other quizzically and said that the ticket sales didn't start until 8:30, but we should wait until the guy in charge of their gate came back and he could help. We moved from one foot to the next, finally wandering around again and finding a ticket person who had just shown up. Ok, on our way.
We got to the arena and entered to a very friendly guy in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat showing us where to go and pointing us in the direction of informational books on the sport of cutting. Basically, each competitor has 2.5 minutes to get 2-3 cattle separated from the herd and to do it neatly and quickly. It was pretty impressive to watch. Also interesting, the fact that every person in the arena besides us had on cowboy boots. Last interesting fact of this paragraph, the event continued on all day and there was no reason why we should have gotten there so darn early. Oops.
After a few rounds of the cutting competition we headed back outside to check out the grounds. The festival section looked really fun, though the prices were astronomical. Food was just as expensive, which made us rather sad. A yummy free quesadilla did perk us up a bit. Wandering arund next brought us to the AGventure in the Reliant Center. It was geared towards little kids and for probably the first time on our trip we weren't as enamored as the kids. It probably didn't help that there were hundreds of children from what seemed like every school in the state.
As we moved down the building we came to the livestock show and the huuuge shopping section. One booth was selling John Deere equipment, including a sweet camo jeep. I wanted to take a picture in it, but Kat thought we'd get in trouble so she made me wait until the camera was in focus and then jump in, click, jump out, walk away fast. We also adored the pretty animals... and the strange animals. We tried to find the Cowboy Stage but after getting three conflicting directions we headed back in to a food demonstration we had been invited to earlier.
The food demonstration was put on by a waterless cookware company. He started with a pretty sweet manual food processor and made us a yummy salad. And then he cooked vegetables. With no water. Over low heat. They tasted amazing and kept their color and nutrients! Next he showed us the many ways to use the manual food processor to chop, slice, and ridge cut potatoes. He then threw the samples away and we were sad. He also threw away the egg he made to show us that when the egg turns brown it doesn't stick to the pan. Hey, I like my eggs brown! Last thing he made was some fried chicken and potatoes with no butter or oil. They were also delicious. Now, as he had been talking he had asked us a few times if we would take the food processor if it was free and how lucky we were that we were the first demo of the day on the first day of the rodeo. Catch: you had to buy the set to get the three free things. Now, his special would have given us almost $1000 worth of free stuff. Unfortunately, the initial set was $1695. A wee bit steep for two jobless girls on the road. Moving on.
We left the Reliant Center and came to the kids area again where a Mutton Bustin' session was starting. These happened every hour throughout the day and the winners of these competitions got to go to the finals at the rodeo later that night. Now, the competitors were either 5 or 6 years old and had to weigh less than 55 pounds. Not positive about that last number, however, tiny people. Two adults got a sheep under control and then another one took the kid (in a helmet and padded vest) and put him/her on the back of the sheep. The kid holds on for dear life as the gate is opened and tries to stay on the sheep as long as possible. It looked pretty scary, but the kids were champs about it.
By this point we were starving and the prices on the food carts were not going down. We decided to try and get to a nearby food place. As we were leaving I wanted a picture of the center and so Kat obligingly poses. A cowboy noticed and came right up to smile next to her. Kat's smile was much bigger in this picture. Ok, heading out of the park was just fine, tickets stamped and all. Getting out of the parking lot, however, was not going to happen without us having to pay all over again. Hm, where can we walk to?
We remembered a Big Lots and decided that maybe they'd have cheap food there. On the way we passed a pretty fun popcorn shop which we explored, crazy flavors. Not too far down from there was an all you can eat Mediterranean Buffet. Score, we were really hungry. We filled our plates and topped it off with some of the rare pop found in our trip. After eating we needed to sit for a while, to chat, rest, and make room for dessert. Dessert and coffee done and our heated talk winding down, we wandered out and explored the rest of the shopping center.
While in Ross an OMG look came over Kat as she realized we had not paid for our meal. In a strange role reversal, particular me wasn't particularly worried. We forgot, it happens and now we're paying. Kat, on the other hand, was completely mortified. The man at the counter hadn't even noticed we had left. Settling that, we started to head back to our car. Now, this was a shopping center across from the rodeo and a woman in a police cart came up to us as we were walking. She tried to croak out a few words and then gave up and instead wrote, "Please don't park your car here and walk to the rodeo. People are watching you". We explained what we had done, that our car was in the yellow lot, and she eventually pulled away. I don't think she believed us, but oh well, we weren't breaking the rules.
After not much sleep, a full day so far, really hot sun, food comas bearing down on us and still a few hours until the actual rodeo started, we decided to take a nap in the car. It was heavenly. We woke up refreshed and ready to be entertained. The walk to the rodeo was much more crowded this time and, in fact, we ended up taking the tram over. The actual stadium was rather empty at first. I can't believe people missed the dopey announcer (sarcastic) and the fireworks! (these were actually pretty awesome). The first four events (tie down roping, bareback riding, team roping, and saddle bronc riding) were incredible with amazing athleticism.
Up next was the calf scramble which had 24 children running after 12 calves and was quite hilarious to watch though did take quite a while. Barrel racing was also neat, though we were wilting a bit by this time. The final competition event was the mutton busting and oh my goodness, we saw a few kids fly off and get run over. They all looked pretty proud of themselves though. A quick break and we were on to the country singer, Clay Walker. As you can see in the pictures, I quite enjoyed the light effects. Finally the night was over, we made it back to our car, drove back to Marlon's and then snuck in quietly. No hot tub this night, it was all about the sleep.
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