Rodeo Time

So....It's that time again....The Rodeo has come and gone. It was here for three weeks and pretty much turned the town upside down...as usual! This was my first year going to the Livestock and Show and Rodeo...I know, I know, I've lived her for 4 years and have only just now made it to one of the largest events in this city. What can I say? Anyways, a friend and I chose two concerts we wanted to see - Sugarland and Rascal Flatts. How it works is that your ticket to the concert (ranging from $16 to $300) gets you into the Livestock Show, the Rodeo and the concert. The concert is pretty much done to insure that people show up at the Rodeo.... :)

Well...I liked the rodeo - no one was seriously injured, which is always a good thing. They had all the major sports - calf roping, team roping, steer wrestling, bareback bronc, saddle broncs, bull riding and barrel racing. Let me tell you, some of those guys are GOOD! One guy wrestled the steer in 3.7 seconds...That's from the gate, off the horse and the steer on the ground....Very impressive.

The Sugarland concert was good. I would definitely go see them again. The Rascal Flatts concert, however, was cancelled. We were bummed but they were replaced by three artists - Joe Nichols, Jack Ingram and Clay Walker. These guys were gracious enough to fill in for Rascal Flatts at the last minute when the lead singer - Gary Levox - came down with severe bronchitis. Clay Walker had already done a concert at the Rodeo on Mar 3 and Jack Ingram flew in from New York that day to do it. I'm not sure where Joe Nichols was at. He may have already been in town, or nearby.

I will gladly go see Clay Walker and Joe Nichols again. I would love to see them perform at a "true" concert - as opposed to one that's after the rodeo. Jack Ingram....probably not. He played 6 or 7 songs and I only recognized 3 of them...and I just didn't care for his performance. I still liked the songs I recognized but he just didn't impress me otherwise. I recognized all of Joe Nichols' songs and all but one of Clay Walker's. And the one I didn't recognize of Clay Walker's was a new one that hadn't been released yet.

The one down side to all of this was that, in between each artist, they had to break down the last artist set and put up a new one. This took about 20-30 minutes each time...The concerts at Rodeo usually last about an hour and start after the rodeo ends (usually around 9/930 pm on weeknights). We didn't get out of there until 1130 p.m. - and then we had to catch the Metrorail to the zoo and then drive home. We got home around 1 a.m. I, luckily, didn't have to work the next day but my friend did. She got about 3 1/2 hours sleep...and she had the closing shift...She was *really* tired by the time she got home that night.

All in all, though, it was a fun experience. And we now know what we're going to do for next year - 'cause we're definitely going to go again. :)