Read up on him in the Albuquerque Tribune. I did.
It made me homesick. Real bad.
California, or at least the part of California where I live, the over populated part, isn't real big on rodeo. I have to say, I miss it. I think about it on a warm summer day...or on Fourth of July. The sights, smells, sounds. I really miss it.
Oh sure, people will jump up and down about how it's bad for the animals. I can't say I can entirely disagree....I mean, spurring the sides of a horse and strapping sharp object to a bull's huevos isn't exactly dainty treatment. I do actually understand that.
But I was raised watching rodeo. It's a sport I love. Very few events am I so totally engrossed in every moment of the action. It's a blink and you'll miss it kind of sport that inspires gasps and shouts from the crowd. Love it.
Travis is a local guy, from Edgewood, who has made it big on the circuit. And he is all of 19 years old. Nineteen.
In regards to the toughest bull he's drawn: "'You never know what he is going to do. I got on him twice, and he gave me a concussion both times.'"
I think about my bad days...the boss was stern, the food in the work cafeteria was bad, it rained puddles so big I can't get my car out to go home. But my work doesn't involve me getting concussed with regularity (just, you know, normal cussed), and then going back in to get concussed again.
Travis took some time off from work recently. "I tore two ligaments and chipped some bone off so there was some loose bone floating around in there," he said.
Ow?
I also took some time off from work recently. I watched Giants Spring Traning Baseball and drank margaritas on the patio at Julio G's in Scottsdale (the one by the ballpark). There were, you know, some loose brain cells floating around in there, but that's the extent of the damage.
Travis is competing this weekend at the Ty Murray Invitational at Tingley. (is anyone else as tickled as I am that Tingley Coliseum has a Wiki entry? *giggle* I should file that away for a whole blog entry all to its own....)
Sure wish I could be there this weekend to watch this event and to watch Travis compete.
Here's to a good ride, cowboy.
