yee haw.

Jesse instant-messaged me on Friday and asked if I wanted to go to the rodeo. I asked him when. Of course it didn't really matter when, I said yes before he could answer.

So we went to the rodeo on Friday night. It was at the Palace of Auburn Hills and we had free front row tickets and free parking. Nice! I had never been to a rodeo before and wasn't sure what to expect. The first surprise of the evening was the stink. It makes sense that it smelled like shit but for some reason I never even considered it. Yeah. I didn't enjoy that part of the rodeo at all. Hopefully the Palace has a sweet ventilation system because I can't imagine the Pistons would be happy to come home to a shit-smelling arena. I know I would be really mad if I had a job and went away and came back and my office smelled like shit. Or was filled with black mold. Ha! Just when you thought I was over that...

When we pulled in to the parking lot, there were a couple animal rights protesters with signs. I realized that I must hate animals. Between going to the rodeo and the dog track, I am personally responsible for the pain and suffering of so many furry, cute, and not-so-cute animals. But I'm okay with that because I work toward ending the pain and suffering of so many cute and not-so-cute human beings. Priorities, people. And besides, I watch Animal Cops and know that there are a lot of animals out there that didn't make the cut for the rodeo and the dog track that live pretty horrible lives. Anyway, I do give them props for standing out there in the freezing cold with their signs. Especially since when I went to DC a few weeks ago I was prepared to protest from my cousin's condo if it was cold outside. Just kidding. Kind of.

Pictures!

They turned off the lights and this was on the big screen. I love the Longhorn World Championship Rodeo!


I don't know if you can tell but that is a flame at the top of that there flag pole. Very patriotic.


Here's a calf that the cowboy was supposed to tackle and tie up but the calf got away. I'm not sure I understand why a cowboy would want to jump off a horse, tackle a calf, then tie up the calf but it was definitely entertaining. One guy couldn't get the calf to lay down so he picked it up and dropped it on the ground and it bounced. I started to feel bad for the calf and then I was interupted by my fond memories of the steak I had eaten for dinner on the way to the rodeo.


Then an entire cowboy family came out and did cowboy stuff. They shot stuff and lassoed stuff and stood on horses. The mom did stuff too but I don't remember because I was too busy being amazed at the concept of an entire cowboy family.


And then they did trick riding, which is different than what I thought when I heard it announced. Everyone was dressed and money was not exchanged. At least not out in front of everyone. There were three people who did hand stands and other crazy shit while riding a horse that was running really fast. Again, I can't remember exactly what they did because I was busy focusing on the gold lame' rider. Wow. I'm not sure if you can see it in this photo but she has a gold sequin headband to match her outfit. This photo is blurry but I really liked how she posed for this photo.


And then they did some other cowboy stuff. And then. Then they turned off the lights again. And then they brought out the bull.


Oh the excitement! I could feel it in the air! I don't think anyone rode this one but they rode a bunch of other bulls.

This is a photo of a bunch of cowboys beating on a bull that wouldn't cooperate. I think it kept laying down or something. So they kicked it in the head and hit it with their cowboy hats. And then it behaved so they could continue with tightening the noose around its balls so they could ride it.

I don't have much zoom on my camera so you can see how close we were. While it was exciting to have bulls and horses running at me, I don't recommend sitting in the front row at the rodeo (or at hockey games, but for a completely different reason). See, the animals and cowboys run around on lots of dirt. And when they run fast, dirt flies up and hits the people in the front row. Yuck.

So. Even though the rodeo smelled like shit and dirt landed on me, I loved it. It was waaay more exciting than the monster truck rally and I would definitely go again.