Somewhere Between the Mayo & the Mustard

Summer catch up… Thank God that’s not what Tate had to do this year, but here I am and it’s October, and I’m just now catching y’all up on the whole summer run! Honestly it’s amazing to me that this rodeo season is already over. I feel like just yesterday we were starting off in Odessa. Man the year sure flew by but it was a good one that’s for sure! Tate is making his 3^rd NFR this year!!! We couldn’t be more excited especially with how great and consistent Tate has been riding. Tate truly has excelled this year! It’s definitely the best I have EVER seen him ride! And he’s won more rodeos than I’ve EVER seen him win! My prediction is this NFR is going to be one to remember J but before we get there I must catch y’all up on just how the rodeo trail treated us this year!

Well, May was pretty jam packed with just about everything, lots of rodeos, and a trip to Canada, work, and my baby brother graduating. First off I'll start by telling you just because Canada is near the US doesn't mean it's the same. Talk about diverse! You think the US has a mixture of cultures, try going up there. Literally, every street had a different ethnicity of food and market to choose from. Plus the people just aren't friendly. I mean I'm used to being home and everyone talks to everyone, there they don't! They keep to themselves. Might not be a bad thing! Maybe everyone's not gossiping about one another. Lol! But the country side was beautiful. We went up to Grouse Mountain, which still had snow falling in May, and went zip lining. It was gorgeous and the view of the ocean and Vancouver was amazing. Our tour guides (none where actually from Canada) were so fun. I highly recommend going zip lining! Now the town of Vancouver was okay. Pretty dirty but we did stumble into this awesome little organic coffee house that was having open mike night. Of course neither of us were going to sing because we're both awful but we listened to some good ole Johnny Cash and 80s hair band music. It was super fun! The whole reason we went to Canada though was because Tate got invited to the Cloverdale Rodeo. Which he was pretty pumped about because he'd never been to any rodeos in Canada. So we kind of turned our trip into a vacation... Kind of! We decided vacations on a warm beach are much better. Lol! But we had fun together and we loved seeing new things. Our favorite part was river rafting down the Chilliwack River. It was about an hour outside of Vancouver and the place was a little gypsy compound. I totally loved it because I'm a gypsy at heart. The people there were so much nicer! Now the river on the other hand was freezing!!! Like probably 33 degrees! We had a blast rafting, even though we thought our limbs were going to fall off. Lol!  We also did 2 of our favorite things; went to a winery and ate sushi... Cheap sushi. Everything was extremely high up there so when we found an entire (good) sushi meal for $11 we jumped on it. We ran into the winery as we were lost trying to get to our hotel. It was called River Bend Winery and what was funny is they had jams and salsas they were selling that came straight from Texas. Lol... Texas will rule the world someday! Oh, why we were lost going to our hotel is because we totally forgot a map and our phones didn't work there, unless you pay extra, so we were just driving around in the dark. Now if I do say so myself, I got us around wayyyyy better than Tate did. He kept getting so lost and turned around. I think I finally proved my sense of direction to him ;) So that’s why we kept stumbling onto things because we had no idea where we were going. Like my nerdy husband wanting to visit the science museum. We found it on one of our lost adventures! I swear he's too smart for his own good but I sure hope my kids get his smarts. It was pretty cool, other than we looked like weirdos without any kids and no one talked to us the entire time. Lol! Our Canada trip was an experience! Tate did well at the rodeo and we learned we never want to vacation there... Unless it’s for fishing, Tate says. Lol! As soon as we got back home my baby brother graduated. He's growing into a fine young man and working his way up to be a great bull fighter. Personally I'm beginning to feel old when I call 18 year olds "kids". Lol! The day after his graduation I flew to Boston for the Lacrosse finals for work. Another new thing! I'd never been to anything that had to do with Lacrosse or to Boston. I mean I don't even think people know what that is in Oklahoma unless you go to a private school. The finals were actually in Mansfield so I didn't get to visit anything in Boston (besides the traffic on the interstate). It was a nice cozy town with much more wild life than I expected. Wild turkeys everywhere! Oh and Dunkin Donuts everywhere! After Boston I enjoyed being home for a few days and getting things done around the house. May was full of new travels and interesting places!

Come mid-June it was time to hit the road…. good and hard! We packed up the camper after hitting a few rodeos around the house and headed out on the summer run. I didn’t go on the start of the run because I had to work the College World Series in Omaha which was a blast! I love baseball so that event was totally my thing, unlike the Lacrosse finals. I sometimes fly out to jobs but sometimes I travel with my 3 close little gypsy friends. We all have so much fun working together! We worked a lot in Omaha so we didn’t have much time to go out and see the city which we were kind of bummed about. After getting back from Omaha I flew to meet Tate and pulling all-nighters started but first we visited his parents in New Mexico. After leaving Tate’s parents’ house we had to stop and pick up another one of his traveling partners. On the way there, we thought it’d be a good idea to swim the Rio Grande ;) Lol! We actually stopped in Truth or Consequence (yes that’s the name of the town) and went for a dip in River Bend Hot Springs. I’d never been to a hot springs before and I fell in love! They say they’re fountains of youth so I really think I should attend more of them! Lol!  The springs where right next to the Rio Grande. What you would do is sit in the hot springs then jump in the COLD river! Apparently its good for your muscles but it was cold.  After that we found, of course, a good little Mexican food place called Maria’s. We ate dinner there and breakfast the next morning! It was yummy!!! I was only on the road for about a week and a half with Tate, so I didn’t get to go to many rodeos but Tate ended the month well.  He won Coleman, TX and Clovis, NM and placed in a few others.  During June, my brother started fighting bulls in Cody, WY every night.  I thought I’d be a nervous wreck knowing he was literally fighting every night but surprisingly I wasn’t!  June didn’t consist of anything to exciting; it was only preparing me for what was to come in July J

Oh July! July is the busiest rodeo month in the entire year.  A cowboy could literally go to a rodeo every day of the month if he could make it and this of all months is when I decide to go the entire month almost! Lol!  Talk about rodeo trail break in!!!  Starting the month off I worked in Kansas City at the MLB Allstate game.  I flew out the second week of July and from the get-go it was nonstop rodeos the entire month.  Now let me fill you in on the details of what nonstop rodeos consist of… Driving all night to get there a few hours before the rodeo, finding a shower somewhere on the rodeo grounds (this shower might or might not be warm or clean), going to the rodeo (praying he actually covers), then packing up and doing it all over again.  Some people, most people, probably think it’s insane.  Heck, I think it’s insane sometimes but for the love of the game right?  No pain, no gain!  So needless to say,  we went to more rodeos than I can remember and most of the towns we were in and out of so fast we didn’t have time to even eat but we did have a few days to enjoy in one place.  Cheyenne was the first long stop.  We camped there for a few days and it was sure nice because Cheyenne does have clean, warm showers.  I think I spent an hour in the there the first night.  Tate ended up winning the first round of Cheyenne and making it back to the short round.  In between the go round and the short round, we had time to kill before we had to be in Salinas, CA.  So we thought it’d be a good idea to stop by Reno… Bad idea bad, bad idea!  I’m not much of a gambler and when I lose $20 I get mad so Reno was not nice to me because I did lose more than that! Lol!  We had fun though which counts for something but a word to the wise, don’t go visit the Tequila bar in the Grand Sierra once again… Bad idea bad, bad idea!  After we got out of that terrible town, we made it to Salinas, CA which was freezing in the middle of July.  We had to book it right back east for one of my favorite rodeos, Deadwood, SD.  I’m totally in love with that place!  I would actually consider moving there if I could convince my family that it’s much, much nicer than Oklahoma in the summer.  My mom says “yes, in the summer but what about all the snow in the winter?”  So I guess it’ll have to wait until I can afford 2 homes!  Lol!  We headed straight back to Cheyenne after Deadwood so I didn’t get to enjoy much of the town but, the rodeo itself is just so wild west.  I just love it!  We ended the month visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Encampment, WY.  It’s a tiny town but after being on the road a month a good home cooked meal tasted better than ever!  After that Tate dropped me off in Denver to meet some girl for work the next week.  Tate ended the month well.  Consistently setting in the top 15 and placing at rodeos.  July was just really full of RODEOS but, hey that’s what pays the bills J

I started August out in Sturgis, SD of all places.  I was working the bike rally there.  Now that is an experience!  I’m pretty sure you can see EVERYTHING you want in Sturgis.  People just have no shame!  Lol!  It’s always really fun though and once again I love that part of the country so it’s pleasant besides the million bikes you hear for 10 straight days.  We went to some really awesome concerts.  My favorite was rocking out to Lynard Skynard!  Yes, I know they’re not the original but I still love them!!!  Just a little hippy at heart ;)  Now I was ready to get home after Sturgis.  Tate was still on the road doing awesome!  He won Jerome, ID, Caldwell, ID, and Kennewick Xtreme in August.  All these wins and a few more places made him get a pretty good seat in the top 10.  Until September 30^th I don’t say he’s made the NFR but we were pretty sure he was in.  That felt amazing since last year he squeaked in the LAST day of the year winding up 15^th.  I was home most of August and Tate finally got to fly in for a weekend.  First time he was home in 2 months and he really didn’t want to leave.  I was very excited because he came in the weekend of the Alzheimer’s Walk and I’m on the committee.  The disease is very close to my heart because it has affected a few people in my family.  It meant a lot that he was here for it!  Tate had to fly right back out and hit the road again but his time home was well spent.  During his time home though I got a call late one night from my mom, knowing this wasn’t normal,  I called her right back.  My brother had broken his arm fighting in Cody and was going to have surgery.  Don’t worry people I didn’t freak… It’s just an arm!  Totally a bummer though since it happened the last week of the rodeo but, they always say it’s not if you get hurt its when.  I don’t want to think of anyone getting hurt but I thank God it wasn’t much worse!  With August coming to an end, that leaves us with one more month of the 2012 rodeo season.

As for September I’d have to say it was the best month out of the year so far!  I flew up to meet Tate in Puyllap, WA and from there we slowly made our way home.  It was awesome just being the two of us and getting to be on our own schedule.  After Puyllap we headed to Lewiston, ID spent the night there then slowly made our way to Pendleton, OR.  When I say slowly I mean it!  We stopped to go hiking and somehow got lost in a national forest on top of a mountain and what should have took about 3 hours turned into 7.  Luckily, it was beautiful and we actually enjoyed our phones not going off for hours.  We went to the forest thinking there would be some hiking trails and boy were we wrong!  Nothing but hunting and it was the opening weekend of elk season.  Lol!  We finally made in to Joseph, OR.  Joseph was a cute, little, mountain town with a lake smack dab in the middle of it.  We finally made it hiking!  I like to slowly enjoy the scenery, you know be one with nature and Tate wants to just run up the mountain.  Well, I’m from Oklahoma and my lungs just can’t take that!  Lol!  It was beautiful though.  After the hike we drove on to Pendleton that night.  Gorgeous drive and LOTS of deer up there, even deer in town that is!  After making Pendleton, we had a few days to kill before Tate rode, so of course, we had to visit the famous Pendleton Woolen Mills where the blankets are made and the prices weren’t any better unfortunately.  We took a tour of the Mills and it was really neat to learn the history and to think all of their blankets used to be made by hand!  Amazing artist!!!  We also visited Stetson Steakhouse in Pendleton and had a very tasty steak… We’re too cheap for Hamley’s Steakhouse!  Lol!  I mean it’s probably coming from the same cow anyways.  Tate didn’t make the short round in Pendleton, so we headed out after he rode.  We made our way to SLC, UT and then the next day went hiking in Moab, UT.  Moab was gorgeous!!!  Great things to do there too!  The hiking was awesome besides my fear of getting bit by mosquitoes (because of west nile) and I’d went all summer without being bit.  Then as luck has it, I was literally attacked by those suckers!  Lol!  After our hike we were starving so we found a Mexican restaurant in town and it was to die for!  The Baja Grill!  It’s a must if ever visiting Moab and I highly recommend visiting.  We wanted to drive a little further after our hike so we drove on to Cortez, CO and on the drive I totally freaked myself out.  The highway we were on used to be Hwy 666 and it has been claimed it’s haunted!  I mean I don’t believe in that really but I’d rather not test the waters in the middle of the night.  So I made Tate camp in a Wal-Mart parking lot on the side of Cortez the highway didn’t run!  Lol!  Thank goodness for the good ole Ram Inn.  You can just park her everywhere!!!  The next day we made our way to Tate’s parents’ house and stayed there a few days.  After going to Albuquerque and Amarillo we were homeward bound.  Tate couldn’t get there fast enough!  I’m pretty sure he was counting down the minutes.  Lol!  But literally he was so excited and I was too.  I was excited just for everyone to be home.  I only got to see my brother 1 day in 3 months and that’s really weird for us.  Plus just being home feels so good when you’re never there!  The end of the month, we finished up with some rodeos around the house.  Tate went to Omaha the last weekend and I worked Bikes, Blues, and BBQ in Fayetteville.  It was just so extremely nice knowing Tate had made it into the finals before literally the last minute, like last year.  For the last rodeo of the year, we headed to Anadarko, OK.  Mo Betta Rodeo Company put it on.  After the rodeo we went to the Tate’s (not my Tate but that’s their last name) and had a wonderful little get together with our rodeo family.  Ending the month with all of our family’s both our “rodeo family” and our “family” was amazing!  Truly a blessing to be able to have had such an amazing rodeo season this year.  Now Viva Las Vegas!!!!!!!! Oh and wardrobe planning J  My favorite part!

Oh and can y'all guess why the title of this blog is what it is???  Well... The moto on the road is just to keep the truck somewhere between the Mayo and the Mustard J