Old Spanish Trail Rodeo

It’s always nice to have a rodeo close to home, and this one is probably the closest I’ll get all year. Baker, FL is home to the 24^th annual Old Spanish Trail Pro Rodeo. It is about 40 miles North of where I live. Mark Todd, production manager, saw my article in the NW Florida Daily News earlier this year and learned that I was in the military and also involved in rodeo, so he contacted my board and requested my attendance. I thought that was really great to pick up a new rodeo to attend, and also one that’s in the Panhandle because there aren’t many up this way that Miss Rodeo FL’s have gone to in the past.

The rodeo was great - both nights the bleachers were packed. One of the highlights was getting to meet the Trish Lynn & the All American Cowgirl Chicks. They are a trick riding drill team/entertainment group from Texas. They have their own TV show on RFD-TV also, called “Cowgirl Chicks Never Quit.” But what is so cool about this group, is that they are riding for a cure for cancer, and have rescued all of the horses that they ride from being abused or abandoned. Sadie & Hattie are Trish’s daughters, and they did all of the trick riding in Baker. It was really cool to see them working together, and it reminded me a lot of my sister and I – even their hair color matched! I got to have a couple of autograph sessions with them during the day and after the rodeo, so I got to get to know the girls a little bit and ask them tons of questions about how they got started and where they are today! I hadn’t ever seen their show before, but after I met them I went and found tons of their episodes online. You can watch all of season 1 & 2 of their TV show on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/cowgirlchicks

A lot of my friends were able to come to the rodeo because it was so close to home, and a lot of them had never even been to one before! I was glad that they got the chance, and also that I was able to be there to explain some things. I had to laugh about one of the comments my friends made about calf roping – they said all the men sure did a good job, but when they got to the women none of their ropes stayed tied to the saddles! I explained the difference in tie-down roping and break away roping, but it really was funny.

After the rodeo on Saturday, I packed my bags and got ready for a long day ahead. I would fly out to Oklahoma City, OK in the morning to do a photoshoot for the cover of Supermodels Unlimited Magazine, & then back home by Monday morning to go to work.

Check out my video blog from the Old Spanish Trail Rodeo here: https://www.facebook.com/dale.gmc#!/photo.php?v=10200687214238557

Running Time in a Car: 144h 58m
Running Mileage: 9,461
Running TV Interviews: 6

Running Radio Spots: 2

Running School Visits: 4

Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo

This week I went to the Sooner State for a rodeo I have always wanted to go to, but never had the chance. Oklahoma City’s Jim Norick State Fair Arena is host to the Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo. There were about 20 other state queens who joined in the fun, so it was really great to see all of the girls again! The RNCFR features 24 contestants/teams in each event who earned the right to compete by doing well in their home circuit (there are 12 geographic regions in ProRodeo’s circuit system). The top 8 qualify for the final performance. The total purse is nearly $480,000, so there’s a lot of money up for grabs, but the top prize in each event is a $20,000 voucher for a new Ram truck.   

For whatever reason, I didn’t get the official queen schedule until Tuesday, the day I ended up leaving. I just assumed our first day was Thursday since that’s when the first performance was, and I had planned on flying standby into OKC sometime Wednesday afternoon/night. When I learned that the first appearance was Wednesday at 11:00am things changed! I wasn’t going to be able to get on a flight with that late of planning, so I made the last minute decision to drive. I didn’t want to miss anything! After work on Tuesday I went to my house and frantically started packing, knowing I had a 14 hour drive ahead of me. Since I was driving I basically took my entire closet and figured I could decide what I wanted to wear later! I headed out of Ft. Walton Beach at about 5:30pm… which meant my expected arrival was 8 or 9am the next day.

I don’t really mind driving, until I get tired. That usually happens when I hit about 7 or 8 hours behind the wheel. With this trip, I started out tired because I had already been up at 6am and at work all day! I don’t know how I made it the entire way to Oklahoma City, but I did. My original plan was to stop at my sister’s house which is in Wynnewood, an hour South of OKC to take a power nap - but the GPS in my phone took me on an incorrect route and I ended up passing it by 20 miles and wasting at least a half hour. By the time I figured that out I was so mad I lost valuable sleeping time that I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I found it anyway. I drove the rest of the way into OKC and took about a two hour nap at the hotel before meeting the rest of the queens at our appearance at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

The rest of the day went great, I was so excited to be there that I didn’t really feel too tired. It’s amazing how much sleep you don’t really need to function! All of the state queens had a blast riding around on the huge bus that was provided for us. We were rocking out to music and standing up on the seats dancing, of course! A ‘Harlem Shake’ video was of course made… Justin even posted it to their facebook page!! You can check it out on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEfH4o8GtXo

There were two performances on Thursday, one Friday, and two Saturday. We had so many visiting queens that they split us up. I rode for three rounds, and had a different pony each time! After the rodeo Thursday, we all went to the Thompson Square concert which was really fun!  Friday morning we went to the OKC Gun Club to skeet shoot and got on teams with a few of the cowboys who were competing to see who could bust the most clay pigeons. My team had Jake Wright & his wife on it, myself, and Miss Teen Rodeo Oklahoma. We didn’t place in the competition, but we had a great time. I’d never shot clay pigeons with a shotgun before, so I was a little nervous for how I was going to do – but as it turns out I’m a pretty good shot. MRArizona, MRArkansas and myself were all pretty good and we decided we could be considered the “dream team,” that’s why we had to do a video-blog on the spot, check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw470HGtaYo

One of the highlights of my week was having the honor of walking Bareback rider, Bobby Mote into the arena for the opening ceremonies of the final round. We walked through flames & smoke and were the first ones to be introduced. I was lucky to grab a picture with Bobby before it took place and I got to visit with him for a bit about the horse he drew that night. He was such a nice guy and I really enjoyed getting to visit with him. 

Running Time in a Car: 140h 58m
Running Mileage: 9301
Running TV Interviews: 5

Running Radio Spots: 2

Running School Visits: 4

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

Florida Gateway Pro Rodeo

 

March 15-17th:

Finally, a rodeo that I didn’t have to drive over 5 hours to get to! This weekend I traveled to Lake City, FL for the Florida Gateway Pro Rodeo. I had so much fun at this rodeo it was probably one of the best I’ve been to yet in Florida – but then again I say that almost every rodeo I go to  :) I was provided a room at the Fairfield Inn which is always nice and after work on Friday I was able to stop there for a quick shower before heading to the performance – which beats the alternative that I was planning on - changing in my car & putting in my fake hair piece (I like to call it my ‘farrett’).

At the rodeo Sierra Coward, Miss Teen Rodeo Florida, and myself were able to carry flags the entire time. This is a rare occurrence down here because usually flag teams assume that responsibility. We had a great time and I made sure to let Sierra lead the group at times and switch with her. I think she really enjoyed that!

Rider Kiesner was the specialty act that was hired at this rodeo. He is a multitalented performer, a true Wild West showman. His performances include Whip Cracking, Gun Spinning, and his specialty, Trick Roping. I originally met him in Las Vegas where he was featured for one of the performances of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. He met the entire flag team, so I don’t know if he really remembered me or not at first – but we had a great time the entire weekend and now I’m sure there’s no way he’ll forget the flag girl who is also Miss Rodeo Florida :)   

 

 

Other than the rodeo, I was able to help out with kids activities at the fair. I was in charge of the bean bag toss and also the saw horse roping! Another event that I attended was the kids rodeo where I led kids around on horses who hadn’t ever gotten the chance to ride before. This is always a rewarding experience because the kids get so excited and some are scared to death! It’s fun to share my love of horses with those who have never been around them before.

One other neat thing that I got to do was drive a maroon, 50th Anniversary Corvette Coupe! Dion, an individual who hosted Miss Teen Rodeo Florida & Miss Rodeo Florida Sweetheart at his house for the rodeo, was the owner. I couldn’t believe he let me drive it! Apparently it is a tradition for Miss Rodeo Florida to take it for a spin during the rodeo, and I wasn’t about to break tradition! I had never driven such a powerful car before in my life. It had so much torque it was incredible! I tried to keep it under the speed limit, but that didn’t last very long. We had a great time driving it around and I was sad to hand the keys back over to Mr. Dion! 

Catch my video blog about the corvette here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Miss-Rodeo-Florida-Association-Inc/79862699396?ref=ts&fref=ts#!/photo.php?v=10200541072465104

Running Time in a Car: 98h 38m

Running Mileage: 6653

Arcadia All-Florida Championship Rodeo

March 10:

Frontier Rodeo Company was the stock contractor and they sure brought a good pen of bucking horses! Wow! The Arcadia rodeo itself was probably the best rodeo I had been to in the state of Florida as well. The bleachers were huge and they were packed! The rodeo set a single-day attendance record with an overflow crowd of about 8,000 on March 9 and also broke the overall record with more than 21,000 spectators for the three days

Cort Scheer, two-time NFR qualifier, rode Maple Leaf for 89 points to win the saddle bronc riding. Other bucking stock that was there included Full Baggage, Horse of the Year, and Delta Ship who holds the arena record at the NFR. Donny Gay was the announcer in the bull riding, where three rides scored 90 points and the win for 91. It was an impressive group.

I really had a head-ache for this performance, though, so I didn’t get to enjoy the great rodeo action as much as I should’ve. After the grand entry I just took a seat in the shade and watched, then left a little earlier than it got over with the people I was catching a ride with. I made sure to call ahead to the hotel where I had previously left my car. I asked if they had any cars towed from their parking lot over the past week, and the receptionist said she didn’t know! I then asked her where they might have the cars taken if they were towed – and she did know that information. So, I took the phone number down and called the towing company. Luckily, they didn’t have my car in their possession – so the chances of it being in Tampa at the same location I left it was looking pretty good!

Riding with a couple of bareback riders was far more entertaining than simply traveling alone. I thought I might want to sleep until Tallahassee, but there was no chance of that. Blade & Tanner kept me laughing almost the entire way. We talked about all kinds of things – but the most memorable topic of conversation came after the question was raised, “What’s the coolest thing that you’ve ever done?” My response was about flying in an F-16 and also being in the lead for the opening of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. I will never forget Tanner’s response, though. He talked about having the perfect bareback ride and how awesome it felt. He went into how much he loved the sport of rodeo and not just the bareback riding, but every aspect. Every event would be something fun to compete in, and even the job of a bullfighter or stock contractor would be an interesting job. I couldn’t help but agree with him, and have an overwhelming feeling of pride in the sport that I was lucky enough to represent.

When we finally arrived in Tallahassee, I crossed my fingers and prayed to have a car to put my things in. By this time it was about 11 at night, and I still had three hours to go and the guys I was riding with had about 7 more hours to get back up to Alabama – so we didn’t need any more delays. We pulled in and I was so relieved to see my little black Mazda sitting exactly where I had left it. What a relief! I threw my bags in, said my goodbyes and was ready to hit the road. I put the key in, turned it, and absolutely nothing happened. Not even a click. Not one single light. Great! My battery was dead.

By the time I realized what had happened the boys had already left, and since they had so far to go I just called AAA. About an hour later, I was back in commission. I guess I need a new battery, but I made it home just fine and was able to get at least a couple hours of sleep before going in to work the next day.

Running Time in a Car: 90h 36m
Running Mileage: 6121

Okeechobee Cattleman’s Spring Rodeo

March 9:

Eye surgery in San Antonio went great. I got it done on the 5^th, and normally it takes most people a full week to recover. But most people aren’t Miss Rodeo Florida ;)  I flew from TX to Tampa three days later so that I could attend the Okeechobee Rodeo. Regina, my National Director, drove to Tampa to pick me up. The weekend started out with a parade and then rodeo. I was glad to be there and be a part of it, but I did feel kind of dumb wearing sunglasses everywhere I went. Yes, even on horseback! The doctor said I was absolutely not allowed to expose my eyes to UV light and that it could do serious damage, so I did what I was told. If you see a picture of me riding around the arena doing a fly-by with shades on, now you know why! I wish I could’ve told everyone why I was wearing the glasses, I didn’t want them to think anything negative of me – but I just had to do it or I couldn’t be there at all! CarrieAnn & I tried on plenty of pairs at the western store in town before we headed to the rodeo - 

The rodeo was a great performance, and a record-breaking one at that! Biggin Gold was one of four horses that bucked in both the bareback riding and saddle bronc riding and he came through with wins in both. After the performance I was lucky to find a ride with some bareback riders, Blade Elliot & Tanner Phipps, who were headed to Arcadia and then back up to Alabama afterwards which meant they would drive through Tallahassee and would be able to drop me off at my car! I was excited to find some traveling partners. I was also a little nervous that my car wouldn’t really be in the spot where I left it, parked it at a hotel. The parking lot where I parked it said, ‘Guests only, violators will be towed.’ I figured that was just a scare tactic, because I looked at all the other cars in the parking lot to see if they had some sort of window sticker or tag somewhere and I couldn’t find one. Didn’t scare me - so I took my chances! This hotel had a shuttle to the airport where I was renting my car and I figured that would save me a lot of money if I didn’t have to park it in airport parking.

Running Time in a Car: 81h 49m
Running Mileage: 5541

RFDTV’s Best of America by Horseback

March 2-3rd:

After the rodeo in Ft. Pierce, about 9:00pm, I headed west to Tampa (which was about 3 hours out of the way). I had to get a rental car there. This is where logistics gets a bit confusing. You see, I planned to drive my rental car to Mayo and film for the TV show, and then take the rental to San Antonio, TX the next week where I was set to receive PRK Refractive Surgery. After the surgery, I wouldn’t be able to drive, so my plan was to fly from TX back down to Tampa where I would then have my actual car, go to the rodeo in Arcadia, and drive myself home. It made the most sense to me! So as I am on the road to Tampa, I’m on the phone trying to get ahold of rental companies. I’m happy to hear that almost every company at the airport was open late. I got ahold of Hertz, tried to use my reward points, and realized they were waaaaaay too expensive for a one way drop off. I called 3 or 4 other locations only to find out the same thing. When I say expensive, I mean about $800 expensive. Not worth the rental! I might as well just fly! By this time, I wished I would’ve starting making these phone calls a lot earlier, because it looks like I’m not going to be able to get a car. I just wasted 3 hours of valuable sleep because of failure to plan! At this point, I’m tired and quite upset, so I just push through and drive up to Mayo. I would figure out a new plan later. I drove until about 5:30am in the morning to find the R O Ranch where we would be staying for the filming of the show, and couldn’t have been happier to hit the pillow when I got there. What seemed like two seconds after my eyes closed, my alarm went off. 6:30 came much too early! Instead of getting up and taking a shower like I should’ve, I simply hit snooze until about 6:50. I finally got up, and was quite pleased when I looked in the mirror. I looked a lot like I did the night before at the rodeo – my makeup hadn’t moved and my hair was salvageable!  Good thing I didn’t roll around too much during the hour of sleep I got! I put on a little more makeup, put my fake hair piece in, added in some hair spray and was good to go. I couldn’t believe how easy that was!

Del Shields was the person who invited me to go on the ride. He is DJ Shields’ dad, and DJ dates my sister, Trisha. I hadn’t ever met him before, so it was nice to spend some time with him and I was so excited he thought of inviting me on the show! Tom Seay was the host of the show and I had seen him on TV before. He was very hospitable, cooked us breakfast every morning at his trailer! And he was a pretty good cook, too! He gave Del an awful lot of gruff. He didn’t let up all weekend! Friday night, before I got there, Del had gotten bucked off of a BLM mustang two separate times. Tom wasn’t about to let him forget about it!

The R.O. Ranch is a 2,500-acre equestrian park, located at the northern end of approximately 20,000 acres of public lands. The theme of the park is set in the Florida "cracker" style of the 1920s. All of the buildings and facilities are reminiscent of that era with white board siding and tin roofs. For the show, I gave an introduction to everyone. I welcomed the group to Florida before we started out on the ride. I also did some promo clips, commercial clips and did an interview of the winners of an art contest. I did really well in front of the camera. It made me nervous, but I figured it was good practice for Vegas.

One of the coolest things about the ride was meeting all different kinds of people. Everyone was so nice and a lot of them were quite interesting. There were tons of breeds I had never seen before that people were riding. I had the chance to ride a Tennessee Walking Horse, a Pasafino, and a Saddlebred. I saw a Morgan and a Kentucky Mountain Horse, too! One lady even invited me to go fox hunting with hounds like you would see in pictures! I was so excited. I had such a great weekend and I can’t wait to see it air on RFDTV, but I will have to wait until June for that to happen.

After the filming, I had to come up with a new logistics plan, I decided I’d drive to Tallahassee and rent a car there to drive to San Antonio. I found one for pretty cheap so we were in business! Now, I would just need to figure out a ride from the Tampa airport to the Okeechobee rodeo, and to the Arcadia rodeo, then back up to Tallahassee on Sunday and I’d be golden!

Running Time in a Car: 67h 30m

Running Mileage: 4552