We started out the day by viewing a beautiful sunrise from our hotel room.
After getting ready & grabbing a bite to eat, we headed to the Monorail and rode to the Las Vegas Convention Center on North end of the strip for the Cowboy Christmas! Basically it was a convention center full of cowboy clothing, supplies, furniture, and even stock trailers! For Steve, it was probably comprable to the Arkansas craft shows I've attended in the past! :-)
While we were there Steve met Stran Smith, a tie-down roper who ended up being the National Finals Champion! We got his autograph and he let me take a picture of him & Steve.
After spending hours at the Cowboy Christmas, we headed back to our hotel room to get ready for the RODEO!
We took a cab & got there pretty early, which was great because we were able to walk around and check stuff out, as well as get in early & grab a great seat for the Academy of Country Music Pre-Rodeo concert featuring Crystal Shawanda. She is really a great country artist - I'm guessing we'll hear more from her soon!
After listening to a couple of her songs and grabbing some hot dogs & Steve's beer, we made our way to the rodeo arena and found our seats. Even though we were fairly high up, we still were able to see really well. The opening ceremony was awesome! It included fireworks, a recognition of rodeo legends, and a grand entry of all the riders. The National Anthem was very moving, and was sung by Reba McEntire's sister, Susie Luchsinger - she sounds just like Reba!
[Legends L to R: Dean Oliver, Roy "The Super Looper" Cooper, Joe Beaver, Fred Whitfield (raise the roof!), and Cody Ohl] Roy & Fred are 2 of Steve's favorite ropers!Here are some pictures from the rodeo, including some good pix of Stran Smith!
Above: Tuf Cooper (Roy Cooper's 18-year-old son) is an awesome up & coming tie-down roper.
Stran Smith - pix of him after tying calf & of the jumbo-tron as he prepares to compete.
Day 3 is on the way...
3 comments:
Wow. I didn't realize that Las Vegas was so far west that days actually start with a sunset! Great story, keep it up! Love you, mean it! Hey Billy smiled too.
I don't know what you're talking about???
Sneaky Sneaky
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