The Two Fans at the Event: Day One, Part II

The Stockyard Queen gratefully relinquishes the floor to Shannon, who continues to report on the PBR event in Anaheim. I am so jealous of the seats she got!

The Two Fans at the Event: Day One, Part II

Finally, we made it to the event. We found my brother and said hello, then paid too much for fries, chicken fingers, and soda, and went to our seats. And what seats they were!! Five rows back from the dirt and four rows in from the chutes! You could feel the heat as the demon bulls breathed fire! The bang from the fireworks actually made me jump! The bulls were so close that when one of them hit the fence in front of us, we jumped back, and when one of them flung what I was hoping was dirt, it came inches from hitting me! In front of us were Flint’s wife and daughters, one of whom was so wiped out from her week at Disneyland and less amused with her father’s antics than the rest of the audience, that she fell asleep for most of the event. Behind us was the Cutest Cowboy recipient with his beautiful mother, as well as Mrs. White and their adorable son. Right down in the front row was one rider’s sister (whose names I will leave out, out of respect to them should anyone who knows them be lurking here)—a pretty girl who should be told that it’s not solely up to her to keep the make up industry afloat—or the rhinestone industry, or the hair product industry. Next to her was J.B. Mauney’s girlfriend. She’s very pretty and I swear, I could starve myself to 80 pounds and still not be that tiny! Besides them the rest were just everyday fans and crew/staff members. I heard a comment after Mike Lee was done riding (a buck off with a tricky dismount) about wearing a helmet to which his buddy responded “Hell, I’d wear a body cast.” Amen.

As I said, I can’t say too much about the rides. I watched most of it through a camera lens anyway. There were some really impressive ones and only one reride all night, although I did question why two of others weren’t offered rerides, but I should know better than to try to figure out what the judges are thinking.

After it was over, we got the obligatory autographs and I finally got to say a word or two to Ryan Dirteater, who responded in a very polite, sweet way, and I watched as some adoring fans insisted on photographs only to make the guys wait because the camera wasn’t working. [Stockyard Queen: The Wait a Minute School of Photography. My ex-mother-in-law founded it.] Others foisted their babies into their arms only to make them wait while they attempted to get their little ones to smile. Our guys are so patient!

When we realized that no one else was coming out, we left, and after getting turned around and having to find our way back, we went to the party. After ten minutes of music so loud it was making our ears bleed, we decided to go back the hotel bar instead, where we found J.B., his girlfriend, and Kasey sitting quietly at the end of the bar chatting. The teenager in me wanted to sit there as long as he did and just watch him, but the mature adult in me forced myself to turn away and only steal an occasional glance. Around midnight, I left for my hour drive home, crawled into bed and now, after four hours of sleep, I’m about to get ready to head out and do it all again. If there’s anything more that is worthy of reporting, I’ll do just that.