Rodeo Night out

This weekend we visited Sara and Jason and their boys in San Antonio. We went to the Stock Show and Rodeo on Saturday night - and Ingliston Highland Show it is not!
It is held in the stadium for the San Antonio Spurs, which are the local basketball team. The stadium can seat about 18,000, and while it wasn't full, probably about 2/3 of the seats were taken and there was a great atmosphere.
Before the main events, there was a lot of flag flying, and horses riding around at top speed. A good spectacle.

And of course, there had to be a prayer, and the singing of the national anthem. Everyone stood at that point, and all the cowboys took off their stetsons (or baseball caps) and held them to their hearts.

Then the rodeo started in earnest. There were lots of events, including bronc riding. The riders only had to stay on for 8 seconds - easier said than done! The horses were so fast, I couldn't take decent photos of this event - but here is a video if you want to see what it was like. The buzzer that sounds near the end indicates the 8 seconds are over - not everyone made it that long! It was rather scary watching most of the riders limp off after their rides - I dread to think what they do to their backs in the process, especially as the rodeo travels round the country and they are doing this every week!


And then there was the mutton bustin'. No, this is not a classic Aberdonian pastime lost in translation, but is all about indoctrinating the young into this sport before they are old enough to feel the injuries. Basically they 'ride' (ie hang on for dear life to) a sheep for as long as they can. I think the youngest competitor was 4. Yes, as in 4 years old, barely old enough to walk.
The are very safety conscious, as you will see, they give all competitors a full-face helmet, and when they are trampled to the ground, a rodeo volunteer quickly picks them up and laughs in their face to show them that they are not really injured, so they shouldn't think about crying.


The rodeo part of the event finished with bull riding - a much more extreme version of the bronc riding, as you can imagine. There was a rather dubious 'clown', the only black man in the whole stadium, that I could see, and during the bull riding he chose to stay 'safe' in the middle of the ring in this - plastic barrel

The event finished with a performance by some famous country and western star - but unfortunately I hadn't heard of him and can't remember his name. He was good, though!

Burns' Supper

So, Boyd and Lorraine came over for Burns' Night - it was just the four of us, but we insisted the boys wear their kilts!
Boyd also brought his chanter, so far he has only learnt scales, but we forced him to play them for us anyway!
We are struggling a bit with some of the food over here - for example, their double cream just wouldn't stiffen up - possibly I should have started whipping it much earlier in the day, and definitely before Boyd and Lorraine turned up - it became a joint effort by everyone!


We finished the night with some Pictionary - boys v girls. I don't think we need to discuss which team won :-(

Lorraine's 30th

Last weekend we went out for Lorraine's birthday - and had a great night out in town.
This was an amazing sunset we saw the other day while shopping at Westgate. I love the donkey too - no idea what that is about!

Biking in the cold

So the first weekend back to Austin, we were keen to get some exercise in after large quantities of food and drink while back in Scotland. Suprisingly to us, it was below freezing for the first week or so, but nice, sunny skies, so we headed out to Nails Creek State Park, which is about an hour and a half east of Austin, for some gentle bike riding to get back into the swing of things. It was flat though!

On the way, we drove through Gidding - a classic small-town in Texas, with one of the best water towers we have seen!

Back in the Saddle!

So, as you can see, I sucked at keeping the blog updated past August - oops ! But, new year, new resolve, so let's see how many months I can last this year!
The most exciting thing that happened last year was our Thanksgiving trip to Big Bend - which was awesome. Cold, but great fun. There are too many pics to put up - the best are on facebook if you want to see them.

I was back in Scotland for all of December, and had the small matter of a hen night to organise for Lindsey. It went . . . well! I can't show you all the pics, but here are a couple of the earlier parts of the day:



It was cold and snowy at home - just what I was looking for after the heat of Texas.
I was getting a bit bored of it by the end of the month, though, as I guess were most Scots!

I met the beautiful Georgia:
And unfortunately missed Benjamin by just a week! Hopefully we will get home soon to see him, though.

And then there was Lindsey and Mark's wedding - a fab couple of days, and a great ceremony.
It was just as well we were staying at the castle - it was a late night, as is evidenced by the 'gangsta' moves in the library!
And as usual, Lindsey's leg was being used as an air guitar. My camera tells me this was taken at 9,10pm, but I reckon it must have been on Texas time!

Palmetto State Park

So this weekend we went to Palmetto State Park, which is an unusual park due to the fact that it has lots of palms and swamps, not usually seen this far north and west.

Here is the view from the viewpoint on the way into the park. Please remember this is Texas, where being any more than about 50 feet higher than anything else counts as a hill.

I was a bit spooked by the sign below, but luckily we didn't see any snakes (I didn't see much else, because I spent most of the time staring at the ground!)

On the way home we stopped at Lockhart, the BBQ capital of Texas, for some dinner. This is ONE beef rib (I did let Rich have some too).

More Silly Photos!

I know you love these! This is the back of someone's car, on the trip to pick up Rich from work. As you may or may not be able to read, they are celebrating the life of The King of Pop. Americans seem to love writing stuff on the windows of their car with this white stuff - I presume it washes off? Mostly used by people looking to sell their vehicles, or graduating students. This is the first time I have seen it used as an obituary.

And another supermarket, another chance to take a photo of an advert for cheese. Rich insisted I take this as he thought it was funny - I just think it is true.