Web Log for March 2006

Early in the month we took another visit to the Houston Rodeo but this time to actually see the Rodeo and all the other side shows. It was a really great day with nice spring like weather. Like the BBQ contest it was held in the Reliant Stadium grounds which encompassed the enormous car park (as far as the eye could see, the Reliant Stadium, the old Houston Astros Astrodome (once considered the 8th Wonder of the World, and the two cavernous Exhibition Centres. It was difficult to know where to start.

In the car park was the vast Fun Fair and so Eddie had to re-visit some of his favourite rides from last time. Also in the car park were petting zoos that included all the domesticated farm yard animals including very large pigs and baby llamas. There was also a pig racing stadium. Before it got too crowed both Eddie and Steve went on a mechanical bull in front of a screaming crowd. They were both very chuffed to stay on and not embarrass themselves. The video can be seen by clicking on this link.

Inside one of the Exhibition centres was a vast Farming Convention selling or advertising anything you could think of concerning farming. This included brand spanking new John Deere tractors and mowers that the kids could try and destroy, cow milking devices, trailers, farm apparel, furniture, hunting gear of all descriptions of course and so much more. It would take at least a day on it's own to give it justice. Whilst here we got Eddie an authentic cowboy hat and he enjoyed listening the Country & Western songs whilst riding around on a toy horse in a make shift barn. He also got a lesson on lassoing and managed to lasso a metal horse on his first go.

As you'd expect the food was fantastic - especially the BBQ'd meat. We also had something that we've never had before an Onion Rose - basically an giant onion with the top trimmed off, drenched in batter and deep fried for 5 minutes. The onion comes out with all the layers flaring out like a new bloom. The onion is really tender and tastes delicious - naturally it's highly calorific. From there went to watch the Rodeo in the cavernous Reliant Stadium which holds about 90,000 people. Being a Saturday it was pretty busy and it was probably 4/5th full. Basically the Rodeo is a non-stop event of bull-riding, wild horse riding, horse racing around barrels, calf lassoing. Everywhere you looked were real cowboys and cowgirls. It was a great atmosphere and the giant TV screens overhead had very earnest but illuminating commentary from rodeo experts (the Rodeo tours all around the country all year and has it's own dedicated TV channel which we watch when we're really bored at home). Perhaps the best bit was where 40-50 kids are brought into a big square in the middle of the Stadium. Then about 20 calves are let loose and the kids have to capture a calf and tie it up and bring it back to the square. It's actually a very equal contest and after 10-15 minutes there were still some very frisky calves giving the kids the run around. If you catch a calf you earn the right to rear it for a year and to bring it back for auction. If you are lucky you can make up to $20,000 dollars so you can see that the kids were really going for it. As the Rodeo wrapped up a stage was seamlessly set up for a full blown Country & Western concert by Lee Ann Womack (there is one every night for the 4-5 weeks the Rodeo runs for) and a full scale indoor fireworks display. We watched a few songs until Eddie grew restless for the the fun fair again.

A few rides later we managed to drag Eddie to another Exhibition Hall to watch a real live Texan Longhorn cattle auction complete with the auctioneer doing that rapid, drawling speech they do to keep the bids coming in. We managed to get a front row seat amongst all the hard-core cowboys chewing tobacco. All in all we stayed for 12 hours and we hardly touched the surface - it was a real blast.

Eddie continues to enjoy soccer (although Steve tries his hardest to educate anyone who will listen that it's really called football and that it's an English word). He even scored a goal in one the first matches they played (and the only one they have won to date). Watch this link carefully for Eddie's goal. He still has a blast running around for 40 minutes and is lucky if he has a kick of the ball. At this age if one kid is slightly better than the rest he or she will just dominate the ball - passing and teamwork does not come into it at all. We're fortunate to have a pretty good crowd of parents who are not competitive at the least. We've heard horror stories of competitive Mums and Dads and seen some in our matches.

At the end of the month Clare and Eddie went off to Austin with one the neighbors - Mina and her two kids - Cassidy and Liam. They had a great time on Mina's parents ranch in the Hill Country just to the west of Austin and enjoyed fishing and riding quad bikes around.