Bonus Texas Rodeo

So the whole reason we were playing around in San Antonio, Texas in the first place was that we were on our way down to Mexico to go to our friend Viry's brother's wedding. Our flight was supposed to be today but got canceled. This set off a bunch of frantic attempts to salvage traveling today because we were going to miss some fun stuff, such as going to a winery we were looking forward to. At one point we were even looking into taking a bus as Monterrey is not that far away. It would have probably been a horrible ride though so we just booked the same flight the next day and came up with some fun stuff to do on our bonus Texas day.

Gruene Hall in the town of Gruene, Texas, is the oldest of a string of Hill Country dance halls. It has been continuously operating since 1878.

The good book: "Selling out Gruene Hall, despite its small size, is a rite of passage for country musicians, following in the footsteps of George Strait and Merle Haggard."

Even more important than all the history blah blah about the hall is that it was featured in 1996' Michael starring John Travolta as the Archangel Michael.

Cantina del Rio called to me with this jalapeño margarita sign. Since discovering spicy margaritas in the San Antonio river walk I drink about seven a day. 

They quench the very thirst that they inspire. It's a very yin and yang situation.

We headed back to San Antonio's AT&T Center where the Spurs play to enjoy the majesty of the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.

We started off strong with some entertaining sheep child abuse. Watching a kid getting thrown off an animal is just good clean family entertainment.

All of that bull riding had me hungry for some beef. In-N-Out Burger got it done.

I was drawn back to the magical Pearl District. This time we checked out the swanky Sternewirth, the hotel Emma's amazing bar.

There was a lot of brewery history on the walls. These defunct awesome breweries often remind me of Anheuser-Busch and how lucky St. Louis is that it has survived.

I found some money stapled to some bible crap. Poseidon works in mysterious ways.

This Is My First Rodeo

The local community college, Crowder College, sponsored a rodeo in town and we were mighty excited to go. Neither of us had been to a rodeo and we really couldn't start pretending to be cowboys until we had.

The show began with a really really long god and country intro. The national anthem was sung, there were multiple people riding around with flags, there was a prayer, a poem by a solider about how freedom isn't free, and so on.

Our state representative, Bill Reiboldt, gave a little speech which included a bit about how some people wanted to stop rodeos in Missouri but he wouldn't let that happen. You could tell he was serious because he said it "MissourUH". MissourEE is where the sissies live.

The rodeo was pretty awesome. There were multiple events and a joking clown came out to entertain while they were setting up the next event. When we first arrived there were little kids trying to stay on the backs of fast running sheep. Now that was amusing.

I'd say this was the most brutal event that we saw. In calf roping the calf is first lassoed from horseback. The guy then runs over to it and picks it up off the ground and body slams it down. The calf's legs are then tied up and have to stay tied for a certain amount of time for it to count. I recall one calf in particular becoming airborne from the whiplash of the rope around its neck. That's gotta hurt. One was so stunned it took a while for it to get up. It was all wobbly legged like it had the memory of learning how to walk knocked out of it. It was funny that even after all of the abuse the calves usually just popped up and started jogging to the exit like they hadn't just been severely womped.

At some point there was a kids event. Here a bunch of calves were set loose with some sort of prize tied around their tail, and the kids all chased after them. It was some pretty hilarious chaos. Maybe it's just a reflection of my own unfamiliarity with livestock, but having little kids so close to the animals makes me nervous. I feel like somebody could get knocked over and get their head stomped pretty easily.

Well my first rodeo was awesome. It was good that I liked it because I already had tickets to go to a different one the next day.