Rodeo and Pat Benatar - Friday, Feb. 26, 2016

The show must go on. I'll explain later in the blog.

My work allowed me to leave a little early to head over to the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo with Bob. We have tickets tonight, Friday, Feb. 26, for the semi-finals of the rodeo, followed by a Pat Benatar and husband, Neil Giraldo, concert.

The rodeo starts at 7:30 pm, and the concert follows about 9:30 pm. The rodeo is held at the AT&T Center and Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio.

We found parking across the street from the carnival midway, so that's where we entered the grounds. No rides for us, but it was fun to see the carnival.

Great kiddie ride.

We arrived just in time for Bob to see the BMX stunt show. The vantage point and sun angle were awesome for picture taking this evening.

Pretty good trick!

Flying high

Jumping completely over father and son!

Can you spot both bikers?

Pretty cool trick, I think.

The bike almost got away. LOL.

Upside down in the flip

Tough cowboy dad with a tiger in his pocket.

After the BMX bikes, we headed straight for the turkey legs! 

Nom, nom, nom.

Now you see it...

...now you don't! Glad we could share!

We didn't eat dessert here, but it looked good!

Instead of dessert at one of the food stands, we shopped around the exhibits and ended up with toffee, taffy and chocolate-covered pecans to eat during the rodeo. [Note: We had leftover desserts to take home!]

All of our "looking around" time was used up and it was time for the rodeo. The AT&T Center where the indoor rodeo is held (and where the San Antonio Spurs play, though not at the same time!) recently underwent a major renovation. One new thing was a huge, colorful mural on the wall next to the escalators.

Big, colorful mural above the escalators

Our seats were pretty high up in the arena. Our row was mostly empty when we arrived so we didn't have to climb over people to get to our assigned seats. All the following photos were taken from these seats.

The opening flag ceremony took place first, followed by a female lieutenant singing the National Anthem. 

Presentation of Texas and rodeo flags

 Then the U.S. colors were presented.

Look at all that silver decor on the horses.

So patriotic

Let the rodeo begin! First was bareback riding; next was steer wrestling.

Steer wrestling. Gotta. Get. This. Steer. Down. NOW!

Next was the ever-popular mutton bustin'. This is when little kids are put on the back of a sheep and try to ride it across the arena. A four-year-old girl won. She just wouldn't let go...made it across the arena and two adults had to lift her off the sheep!

There she goes! She's got a good grip on that wool.

And here's our little winner with Miss Rodeo. Her prize
is that honkin' big belt buckle from State Farm Insurance.

On to team roping where two cowboys on horseback rope a steer: one ropes the steer around the neck; the other ropes the steer around both feet.

Team roping

Team roping

The last four events were saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, barrel racing and bull riding. These events are very exciting!

Saddle bronc riding

Saddle bronc riding

This horse went all out!

The wild mustangs

Tie-down roping

Tie-down roping

Tie-down roping

Barrel racing

Barrel racing

Bull riding.

All of the semifinal events had winners except bull riding. Something was making the bulls crazy tonight! One bull that must have weighed about 2,000 lbs came out of the chute and kept jumping straight up into the air with all four feet off the ground. It was like a Jack Russell terrier: up/down/up/down/up/down. Most of the other bulls were whirling dervishes going around and around.

To win, a cowboy must stay on the bull for eight seconds. Only eight seconds. Only. Ha! Most of them were thrown off within 4-5 seconds. One cowboy made it to 7.91 seconds. He was so disappointed! If a cowboy does not stay on for eight seconds, he doesn't win the whole pot of prize money for that event. So tonight, because no one stayed on a bull for eight seconds, the prize money was divided evenly between the six cowboys. And this is the semifinals. These are the best of the bull riders in the rodeo.


With the semifinals over, our price of admission to the rodeo included a concert. Tonight we get to see Pat Benatar and her husband Neil Giraldo (who used to play with The Derringers). So, after the rodeo ended, a revolving stage was brought out and set up for the concert.

Here we are just before the concert started..

Bob and Susan

As stated at the beginning of this blog: the show must go on. Two nights earlier, Pat Benatar cancelled her concert at The House of Blues in Houston, Texas, so she could attend her mother's memorial service. I'm amazed she was back on the road so quickly.

The Pat Benatar concert was awesome. She is my favorite female rocker, followed by Joan Jett. I sang along, Bob didn't, though I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the show. Her husband, Neil Giraldo (AKA Spyder) is a wonderful rock guitarist and played with Rick Derringer, Kenny Loggins and Rick Springfield. He also produced music for a couple of very famous musicians, wrote songs for other artists, and composed music for movies.

Pat Benatar

The whole band

An intimate moment with her husband, Neil Giraldo

Neil Giraldo and their bassist

Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar

If you are ever in San Antonio during the middle of February, make sure you spend time at the Stock Show and Rodeo! It is so much fun.