Southeastern Pro Rodeo

March 22-23rd:

Ocala, Florida hosted the 20^th Annual Southeastern Pro Rodeo. This isn’t too far of a drive from Destin, but I couldn’t resist heading down towards Orlando prior to the rodeo. I just love driving! There was another pretty good reason for heading down that way, other than my love of getting behind the wheel, though. I had set up a meeting with the Sherriff at the Osceola County Sherriff’s Department to pitch an idea to him. I know they had repossessed cars & trucks, and as much driving as I do – I am in the market for a different vehicle! Mine has been having so much trouble lately and I hate to put around 1000 miles on it every weekend. So, my idea was for the Sheriff’s Office to sponsor a repossessed vehicle for me to drive for the year. The best part is that it wouldn’t cost them a thing and they would get great recognition out of it because their name would be on the side of the truck and as you already know I get a lot of highway time in. I’ve already driven over 6,000 miles traveling the state of Florida alone & it’s not even half way through the year yet! So, prior to the Ocala rodeo, I ventured down to St. Cloud to stay with Mark & Laura Kessler and get a meeting in with the Sherriff.

The Kesslers have been some of the nicest people I’ve met down in Florida. They truly feel like my ‘Florida’ parents. It was nice that Laura worked right at the Sherriff’s office, so I have to give her all the credit for setting up the meeting for me. Mark had a hand in the presentation that I gave to the Sherriff as well, because he attended the meeting with me and had some great additions to my speech. To my surprise, the Sherriff was completely on board with the idea! I guess it isn’t that surprising that he thought it was a good plan, because I sure did, but it just seemed so easy I couldn’t believe I didn’t ask sooner! The only thing between me and my beautiful new truck is legalities – so the lawyers are reviewing the idea to make sure it’s completely legal. For the entire next week I will anxiously be awaiting the final decision! 

After the meeting with the Sheriff, Mark took me out for a celebratory breakfast! Then we headed to a shop downtown where I was able to design my very own custom flip flops. They aren’t just ordinary flip flops, they’ve got Swarovski crystal studded conchos and I added pearls in mine. They’re so beautiful and I will anxiously await their completion and arrival in the mail! So many things to look forward to this next week!

Laura & I watched a movie while we drove from their house to Ocala. Or should I say Laura watched the movie, I slept! The rodeo was great – both nights had an enthusiastic crowd and great competitors. Ruben, the production manager, saw my presentation of the American flag in Lake City last weekend and requested that I bring my uniform to this rodeo and do that same thing. The crowd responded with a standing ovation both nights! It was, again, a great honor to get to do that:

Between rodeo performances, we were staying at the Providence ranch just a little ways from town. Daryl Carter was the owner, and it just so happened that on Saturday morning he was hosting a Tough Mudder event at his ranch, the 5k Cowboy Crawl. Of course, I just had to get in on that! It was such a blast. I hadn’t ever done a mud run before so I didn’t really know what to expect – but any expectations I did come up with were surpassed! The obstacles were huge and complex, and very challenging! I broke a nail trying to go across the monkey bars that stretched the length of an entire lake (#rodeoqueenproblems). I was on a team from MVP gym, a local group that worked together in Ocala. I kept right up with them and even ran in the front, but we always waited for the whole team before we finished any obstacle. Did I mention we had to crawl through the mud under hot electric wire! That’s a little incentive to keep your head down! By the end, I was very pleased with myself for doing so well at the course and wore my mud covered shirt & shorts across the finish line with pride, ending with a jump through a ring of fire! It was so cool, I loved it!  

Catch my blog about the Mud Run here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPj4bBbk-bs

Running Time in a Car: 110h 58m

Running Mileage: 7495