Omaha Rodeo

I must say that I had a great time in Omaha.   Although it was a hot drive down to Omaha in an air conditioned free car, the weekend was fun.

I got in town a tad later than planned, but I was still able to get checked in to the host hotel and make it to the Twisted Poker Crawl.   Tamara was the perfect host and she led the cowboys and cow girls to several area bars on foot.  At each bar we had to do some "twisted task" in order to earn cards for our poker hand.  (I am no longer a Karoke virgin after singing a verse from the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy!)  hehe  When we got back to the country bar, DC's, the one with the best hand won a prize.  It was nice to be able to see some of the bars and visit with fellow contestants and Omaha natives.

Friday consisted of shopping, eating, visiting, registering, eating, and dancing.  More than a few people questioned why I was dancing so much and so vigerously, but past experience has shown that you can never tell what shape you will be for dancing after a day of competition.

The weekend was reasonably sucessessful as a contestant.  I was the only single handed bronc rider to cover on Saturday and I took 3rd in steer riding as well.  Between bronc riding and the wild drag race, I was very sore and abraded.  Just for the record--rope burns are not pretty!  :-)  I came within a fraction of a second from making my bronc ride on Sunday.   Unfortunately for me, one of the men rode double handed and he covered both days, so he got the buckle.  (Although there is a point deduction for riding double handed, it is far easier to cover that way.)  I did feel better after placing 4th in chute dogging.   Although we didn't do as good as we had hoped, I had fun competing with my friend Randy in steer decorating and wild drag. 

I competed along with four fellow contestants from NSGRA.  Mike, Mark, Kyle and Jeanie all received ribbons for their efforts.   Kyle's main event is bareback bronc riding.  He didn't cover either day, but he did place 2nd in steer riding on Sunday and in wild drag!  Jeanie just rejoined NSGRA and did well in the horse events.  Mark received a few ribbons in the horse events, but broke his arm in wild drag on Saturday.  This was all the more heart breaking because he had avoided the rough stock events to give him more time to heal from Atlanta's rodeo.  Mike did well in the camp events and in steer riding on Sunday.

I only have one photo from Omaha right now, but more should be posted in the next week.

Sunday bareback bronc ride