Driving, Rodeo & Dancing

In just 2 and a half days we drove 1500 miles or there abouts! Other than stopping to cool down and grab a smoothie at MacDonald's nothing of note happened. We drove through 4 states in one day which was quite cool, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana! Admittedly only for 60 miles or so in Alabama and Mississippi but still awesome! We find it amusing some of the road signs you see as you cross state lines, because of course they all have their own laws, so the one saying 'State Law, obey road signs' had us cracking up! We stopped in New Orleans for a bit to drive around and take a look as a lot of books I read are set in this area. Also it was interesting to see some clearly old , fairly dilapidated buildings mixed in with brand new, what must have been rebuilt since Katrina. They have a huge stadium called the Dome, which is exactly what it is and looks really cool from the outside all shiny metal! It still being too early to stop, we carried on until we got to LaFayette where we spent the night, undisturbed, at a Walmart.

In the morning we carried on driving, thankful that even though the days are almost unbearably hot, at least the nights were much cooler now we are further North and we can sleep comfortably! After checking the internet we headed for San Antonio and about 25 miles North for the evening where there was a weekly Rodeo due to take place. Quite excited as its something I've always wanted to go to, we parked up and went for a look round with about an hour or so before the Rodeo itself started. There was a steakhouse which advertised 'steak & whiskey' a place selling hotdogs, drinks, ribs (which looked and smelled delicious) etc at very reasonable prices as well as a number of small stands selling the usual stuff, clothes, souvenirs, cowboy boots and hats...also there was a rodeo bull being set up...another thing I've always wanted to have a go on! We got some drinks and decided to go and find seats as it looked like they would fill up fast, good job we did as it was packed by 7pm with the show not starting till half past! It began with a demonstration by the Tejas Rodeo Roughriders Team who carrying large flags on poles in one hand performed some very fast manoeuvres to music that looked like great fun, lots of galloping and wheeling in and out of each other with good precision. After this and the national anthem (its America...!) the night began with 'The Greatest Show on Dirt' aka bull riding! These guys are absolutely CRAZY!! they hang on with one hand to a bit of rope tied around a 2000lb 'bucking bull' which has only one thought in mind...to maim, injure or kill the annoying creature on its back by whatever means possible!! They shoot out of the stall bucking, twisting, spinning, plunging until after about 4 seconds (no-one even got in the points where you have to hang on for 8 seconds) the cowboy is thrown to the ground, usually somewhere between the bulls legs and runs for his life as 2 guys on the ground try and keep the bull off him!! Amazing to watch and I agree with them when they say its the most extreme of any extreme sport on Earth, I cant think of anything else so likely to get you killed in such a short time!! After the bull riding came several roping events, the 1st where a calf is released to be chased and brought down by 2 cowboys with incredible speed and skill, the quickest time being about 8 seconds! Amazingly one of these pairs was a father, son duo and the son was only 8 years old!!He certainly could ride and rope though especially amazing considering his feet barely reached the stirrups on his quite spirited horse! Another one where a cowboy has to rope the calf round the horns, jump off his horse then tie 3 of the calf's legs together for 6 seconds before someone goes to release it...again, incredible skill, they literally leap off their horses, who know to keep the rope taught, whip the calf on its back and tie it up before jumping back in the saddle all in about 9 seconds!! There's big money to be won at these events with several of the men there doing it for a living! Women are not left out of the events, there were a couple in the pairs roping, one of whom was in the winning couple, plus they have 'barrel racing' a super high speed event where they enter at full gallop towards a barrel off to one side, turn around it, head to one the other side of the arena, round this one and on to shoot round the final one at the end of the arena before galloping back the way they came...best time about 15 seconds!! The funniest event of the night has to be 'mutton bashing' its basically bull riding for kids, any child there can have a go, most between the ages of 4 and 7, they get a crash helmet and body protector and are sat onto a big sheep which has a collar of wool left unshawn for them to hang on to. Again they shoot out of the stalls and make a run for it with the child clinging gamely on or even underneath depending how determined the child is to stay on lol!! Fantastic to see and great that 'health and safety' hasnt got this far yet...can u imagine this being allowed in England?!! After a final round of real bull riding (crazy b******s!) the Rodeo was over and the band started playing out by the dancefloor. We spent the remainder of the night trying to learn and understand 2 step which feels a little disjointed, kind of like a one sided bachata/cha cha cha/!!! The Rodeobull was in full swing and we watched on as people of al ages gave it a go, even one little girl who stayed on about 4 seconds before falling off and dislocating her elbow!! Ouch, poor little thing, reminded me of dislocating my shoulder and that bloody hurt!! Never the less, later in the evening when it was a bit quieter(didnt want too many people laughing at me!) I decided to have a go myself :) It was $5 for a go, a lot cheaper than I've seen it in the UK and was soooo much fun!! I think I did ok and stayed on quite a while until it started spinning as well as bucking, I only had my shorts on and every time it swung round, my legs would scrape against the leather strap running round it until I didnt grip on quite tight enough and came off the side. Note to self, make sure wearing jeans next time! :) After this and a few more dances we decided to call it a night, we'd changed timezones during the day so it now felt like 1am to us instead of midnight and it was still a 47 mile drive to the rest stop where we spent the night.