Officially, it’s known as ‘The Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show’. I’ve been here twenty years and I’ve still never seen the like of it before. Out this way, everyone just calls it ‘Rodeo’. As in: “What are you doing for Rodeo, this year?”
The world’s largest (arguably) Chilli Cook-off and Barbque Cook-off as well as all the blue ribbons for the best Beeves and other assorted farm animals, acres and acres of animals, is what we’re talking about here.
But the real topper for me has always been the trail-riders! These folks take off up to four weeks of their lives to commit to riding a horse, or inside a covered wagon, from one part of Texas or another, some from hundreds of miles away, and they fill the highway trails (the really wide parts of most roads out here are still dedicated to horse riders) and camp along the way to the large parking areas that become massive camp sites for the sixteen days that Rodeo takes over the fourth largest city in the US.
Since some of these folks first set out for this year’s version of Rodeo, we’ve had rain, snow, sleet and up to eighty plus degree weather. Still, they come, they ride, they assemble in time-honored fashion, keeping a Texas tradition alive and well as it is passed down through generations.
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