Parada del Sol Rodeo

Well, this past weekend I helped out at the Parada del Sol rodeo up in north Scottsdale. David was helping out with beverages and pretty much ended up running the whole area the entire weekend. Friday was absolutely insane with me running the kids to school in the morning, and then taking the rest of the day to wash sheets, pillow cases, and towels since we would be staying up there for two and a half days. At noon, I got a call from David who blew out both of our car chargers in the golf cart he was using and he needed the home charger ASAP. So, I ran up there and took him the charger and then came home and kept washing as fast as I could. I took my shower and got dressed and packed, then had to go get the kids. I had to take Nicole's friends up to the rodeo grounds so they could help and then I had to come back and pick up Nicole from her school after her softball game. We made it back just in time to meet Gabe who picked up the Leslie and Katie for the weekend. Nicole and I threw stuff into the back of the truck as fast as we could and high tailed it up the Scottsdale which made my third trip up there in one day.

When we got there, we went to work at different areas and continued until 10 or 11 pm. When we went back to the mini trailer I took one look and both David and I agreed that we should just go home for the night. So I jumped in the driver's seat and started to drive us the 20 minutes or so home. Well, I just barely had jumped on when everyone was merged off the freeway and that alone took 20 minutes. Finally we got home around midnight and crashed for about 4 hours.

We got up at 4 and had to go back out to the grounds to meet the ice guy at 5 so we met him and then went to the trailer and David slept a couple more hours until he had to get up and we got going setting everything up. I couldn't go back to sleep so I went outside and sat in a chair reading a book. Where the trailers sit is back where the cattle and horses are kept. So imagine you are sitting outside having a cup of coffee reading, it's peaceful and then the wind slowly shifts and all of a sudden you get this lovely smell that just curdles your nose hairs. And there was no room in the trailer because it was one of those one person jobs where you can barely fit your left butt cheek on the toilet let alone the shower.

So, for the rest of the day we were transporting alcohol and taking orders from vendors. We were also filling up the VIP section with drinks and alcohol. The VIP section was set up for the cowboys and the rodeo queens. They had two long horse troughs filled with ice and we would fill them up with beer and various other drinks. We had to make sure we kept counts of everything that was taken to either a vendor or another bar section. So, Saturday night's performance came and it was insanely busy. We couldn't keep the beer stocked fast enough. So after a while we would take the flat that the Coke was on and section of a part of the trough and fill it with two or three 24 packs of Coors and pour more ice on top and try to cool it as fast as we could. Then after a few we would take the beer and move it to the front of the trough where the bartenders could grab it for customers. Needless to say, soon I was barking orders at the guys telling them what I needed for the bar and shoving my hand into ice cold water and shifting beer forward and dumping more packs in. My right hand was pretty numb about midway through the night so I was really the only one who could move everything fast enough. LOL. So we didn't get out of there until about midnight and then David wanted to drive back home so we both drove home. Again we got up at 4 in the morning to meet the ice guy on Sunday, but we didn't know that the committee had told him not to come because they thought they had enough ice. So, we went back home because I was absolutely sore and then I drove David back up to the rodeo later. I came home and then got bored out of my mind. Gabe was taking the kids to the rodeo and so I decided then and there to go back up to the rodeo and help out a little bit. When the kids were done, I drove them home and this time we stayed.

It was a pretty fun weekend although for the first few days this week I was trying to catch up on sleep. And we will do it all again this next year.