[thechat] Trailriders Spotted!

Luther, Ron Ron.Luther at hp.com
Fri Feb 21 08:35:07 CST 2003


Howdy Buckeroos!


Just injecting a tad of local colour here that some of y'all who hail from them thar "furreign places" like
India ... or uh ... Indiana might find amusing:

I ran into a bit of a traffic snarl trying to run some errands at lunch yesterday.

{Uh Ron?  That's neither unusual nor interesting.}

No?  Well now ... how 'bout the fact that the traffic problem was caused by a (and I believe this is the
proper technical term) ... 'passel' ... of folks riding their horses and buckboards into one of the largest
cities in the US?

That's right folks!  It's 'trail rider' season here in tropical Houston.  An odd tradition started in 1952 by
a fella that was so upset by a bad airline flight he decided to ride his horse in for the show ... and now
used as an excuse for more than 6,000 folks annually to ride their ponys anywhere from 70 to 400 miles
(camping and partying all along the way) to reach Mecca --- uh, I mean Houston ... and arrive just in time
for rodeo!

The bottom half of this link has some trail ride photos:
http://www.photohouston.com/Cowboys/cowboys.html

Rodeo itself is a month long event here in Houston ... and involves much more than just the many fun
things you can do with ropes while wearing tight jeans ... (although that *IS* a big part of the attraction!)
... there's also shopping, carnival rides, food, plenty of beer ... and music.  When it was held in the old
Astrodome I believe a good portion of the gate went to scholarships for schoolkids instead of to the
performers.  It was a pretty good deal -- a $10 ticket would get you a seat to the rodeo action, a break
to take in a few brews while the crew set up the stage, and then a big-name concert.

[It didn't always work out real well ... there's something that just ain't right about coming out of a
Saturday matinee concert with Luther Vandross ... and walking into bright sunshine ... <shakes head />]

Anyway, here's this year's schedule of performers:
http://www.hlsr.com/stars/

[L.L. Cool J at rodeo?  ...... Actually, I suppose that's probably more appropriate than Bob Dylan playing
last year ... or Rod Stewart in 2000.]


We may not have the blizzard-induced February freeway crawls of the Northeast ... or the 400 car pile-ups
pausing traffic along on the left coast .... buy, hey ... we got hosseses!     ;-)


"Tex" ... uh, I mean ... RonL.





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