Flametoad

Last weekend Mrs. Flametoad and I drove to Houston to attend the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Now, for those of you who aren’t Texans, you most likely won’t appreciate what this event is like. Let me try to paint you a picture.

Houston is like the 4th largest city in the US. The Houston Livestock show is held at the city’s largest convention and event center, which was built next to the Astrodome when it was decided that that building was just to small and old. The livestock show is held indoors and takes up the entirety of the convention hall. In addition to show animals, it is filled with a petting zoo, commercial vendors, and educational displays for school children. Several enormous tents adjacent to the convention hall hold a few dozen food vendors. A stone’s throw from the tents is a massive carnival. The rodeo itself is held in Reliant Stadium. It is rated with a seating capacity of 71,500, although I would guess that number includes concert floor seating.

What I’m trying to say is that this is a huge event. You have to see it to believe it.

On the afternoon we went, we weren’t going to look at livestock or watch cowboys rope calves. My wife is a die-hard, pantie-throwing (okay, maybe not quite that fanatical) Brad Paisley fan, and he was in concert that evening after the rodeo. My wife bought her tickets two months ago, and we learned when we got there that his show was sold out. That means 70,000+ people were filling the stadium to see this show. My wife had bought tickets on row F. That’s "F" as in A = row 1, B = row 2,…F = row 6. It was a fun show, and we both had a great time. The parking was a bit interesting, as we’d taken the park & ride shuttle from several miles away. Coming in wasn’t a problem, but 70,000 people leaving the show meant that we had a 1.5 hour wait in line to catch a shuttle back to our car. All in all I’d still choose that over the inevitable road rage I’d experience trying to 1) find a place to park, 2) find my car when it was time to leave, 3) actually exit the parking lot.

I need to extend a huge thanks to Jason and Jennifer, who really saved the day when they agreed to watch the tadpoles when my mom turned ill and couldn’t come down. The tadpoles themselves were sick, so it was very generous of them to let us escape for an entire afternoon (and late evening). I also just want to brag on how beautiful my wife is. She’s as beautiful on the inside as she is hot on the outside. The shot in this post was taken from my iPhone at the stockshow, and you can click on the thumbnail for a larger version. Clearly I married above my station.

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