Sunday, March 30, 2008

Ride 'em Cowboy...

Last night we went to the Young County Rodeo in Graham (20 miles away). It was a fun evening. Most of the contestants were from Texas or Oklahoma, but there were a few from further away (MT, WY, NC, IA, NE, CO, ID, LA-Louisiana that is, AL and one from Marseille, France!). Unfortunately, my camera had limitations on indoor shots with lighting - on most settings pics were unfocused, too distant or blurred, but I finally found a setting that gave me marginal pictures, but you can at least catch some of the action! The above picture is the 'wait staff' - they collect loose horses and assist broncos and bulls our of the arena.
Here's a rider about half way through his ride, trying to right himself so he can qualify by staying on the bull for 8 seconds, but as you can see in the next picture,
he didn't make it!! He's in a heap over behind the bull and the clowns are coming to his rescue to distract the bull so the bull's not all over the rider. I missed good pictures of the barrel racing, calf roping and got marginal pictures of the bronc riding. Next rodeo is in May and it's here in Olney. It's also outside, so I should be able to get better quality pictures!! I would like to call your attention to the sponsor signs - particularly the one that says 'That's what I like about Texas: DQ'! In Ohio, I measured a town by the presence of a Walmart. Pam, EVEN Clovis had a Walmart!!! Olney has NO Walmart!! But every town that's anything in Texas, has a Dairy Queen and they're proud of it! It puts them on the map!! YUP - WE DO HAVE A DQ!!!!

2 comments:

Cheyenne and John said...

I haven't been to a rodeo since I was a kid. Looks like you guys had a good time! Maybe we'll have an opportunity here since I have heard of rodeo days around these parts. So it's the DQ why people live and obcess about Texas... I always though it was cuz it's the biggest state in CONUS.

Mike and Judi Winslow said...

I don't know if this still exists with all the sensitivity about the God word, but on all roads entering Texas, it says "Welcome to Texas! This is God's country, so don't drive like hell through it." Anyway, Texas does everything in a BIG way, but there are a LOT of little towns that can't support WalMart size stores! But everyone loves a DQ!