Pasco County Fair & Rodeo

February 22-23rd:

My dad was able to stay the entire week of Spurs, and the following week to attend my next rodeo with me down in Dade City. I was glad to finally have a traveling partner, because driving 7 or 8 hours one way EVERY weekend on my own has gotten old, real quick! In light of this, I made sure to sleep the entire way from Ft. Walton Beach down to Dade City. I woke up occasionally, to tell dad he had missed the turn about 10 miles back. Luckily, this only happened a couple of times. Once we arrived in Pasco County, we went to our hotel, which turned out to be a motel. The outward appearance was a little rough, but I figured it couldn’t be that bad. I figured wrong. The check in room was locked, so you had to ring a door bell for the attendant to come let you in. Once inside, you wished you weren’t because of the overwhelming smell of chili powder. Trying to get a room proved to be a bit challenging, but after overcoming the language barrier, I managed to get us a room. We got an ‘old-school’ kind of key, not the kind you scan but the actual key like you would need to get into a house. With my track record and losing keys, this couldn’t be good, so I gave our sole copy of the room key to dad. Once inside our fancy new digs, I realized the bathroom light didn’t work. There wasn’t a plug-in in the bathroom, either. No shower curtain. And you could only have one thing plugged in at a time, the fridge or the microwave – take your pick! Next time, I’ll let dad book the room – he’s less concerned about saving money anyways!

Finally, we made it to the rodeo. It was a good crowd and a nice set up to the arena. They took a dirt bike track, pushed the dirt level, and put up panels and bleachers. They had the coolest VIP room in the top level of a 2-story building where we got dinner before the rodeo. The view was amazing because it was up so high! However, I wouldn’t be enjoying it for the rodeo – I’d be on a horse! I found my trusty steed, the same palomino I used in Lakeland, and found the announcer to tell him a bit about myself. He wrote down my info and headed into the arena to announce on horseback. I waited all through the opening ceremonies and national anthem to be announced, but nothing. He had forgotten! It eventually got straightened out and I came in after a couple of events, oh well. He remembered the second night, so that’s good! I was also able to throw out my frisbees during this rodeo which was really fun, it was my first time getting to throw them out.

During the morning/afternoon on Saturday before the performance, Miss Rodeo Florida Princess, CarrieAnn Clements and her mother, Tracy took my dad and me up to Crystal River to swim with the manatees! It was near the Three Sisters Spring, so the water was actually pretty cold. We had a great time though looking for the sea cows, snorkeling and boating around on a pontoon boat. We were so busy having fun, on the way back to the rodeo arena we had to get ready in the car! Luckily both CarrieAnn and I brought our ‘farrets’ so we didn’t even need to step into a hotel room, we got out of the car looking like a million bucks (but we might have smelled a little bit like lake water, haha)!

After the rodeo my dad & I went and stayed in Kissimmee, so the next morning we could go on an Air Boat ride by Boggy Creek! We had a blast. I was sad to drop him off at the airport on my way home because I was going to miss him a lot, and that also meant I would have to be the lone ranger again, driving all by myself. I was a little out of it on the way home, talking to my mom on the phone, and actually drove into a truck weigh station because I thought I was getting off to get gas! That was awkward… woops!

Running Time in a Car: 57h 10m
Running Mileage: 3867