Where Did All the Animals Go? -- Tues., Feb. 19

Today was beautiful, breezy and 72. It was Tuesday and Senior Day at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo grounds. I invited Debbie of Great Escape from NJ (via email) to accompany me to the show. They are parked next to us at the RV park.

We left about 10:30 a.m. She graciously paid the $10 parking fee (thank you, Debbie) and we got into the show grounds free because we're seniors. Unfortunately they didn't even card us. What's with that? We must look old. Not!

The first thing I wanted to do was walk through the animal exhibits, starting with the sheep and goats. Bob and and I had only passed through one row of building when we went two weeks ago. Guess what? No sheep and goats, now it was a big, empty building...part of it had swine. So we looked at pigs.

We walked toward the wildlife area, which is where some of the animal shows would be. On the way, we watched cattle have showers.

One of the buildings we hadn't been in before was the farm animal exhibit for kids. Baaaa. (Get it? Goats? Kids?) Anyway, there were animals in this exhibit.

More pigs.

Angora goat.

Another goat.

Chicks getting a drink at the bar.

Sheep.

We had a few minutes to kill before the wildlife show at noon, so we stopped to eat free samples at the Chuckwagon tent.


At the wild animal show, we were surrounded by restless kids. Lots of school tours were at the rodeo grounds today.

The gentleman putting on the animal presentation was interesting. I learned the difference between an alligator and a crocodile, which modern animal is most closely related to dinosaurs (it wasn't what I thought--see below* for the answer), and all about beaver pelts.

Alligator.

Harris hawk.

American opposum.

Beaver eating a carrot.

Wolf mix.

Red fox...so adorable. Look at that tail!

From the wildlife show, we braved the crowds of screaming, restless kids at the reptile house, then moved over to the Victoria Zoo exhibit tent.

Burmese python. These are currently taking over the Everglades in Florida.

An owl.

The gorgeous ocelot.

Ringtail cat sitting still for two seconds.

The ringtail cat and the coatimundi must be the busiest animals I've seen. I think they're busier than beavers!

We had time before the Dock Dogs show at 2:00 p.m. so we stopped in the garden tent and had free samples of ice cream, "window" shopped in the merchandise areas, looked at horses, and bought lunch, which we took to the Dock Dogs arena so we could get good seats.

Miniature horse.

Percheron.

This horse could be a Hobbit horse...look at those hairy feet!

Clydesdale putting on a nice pose for the camera.

Debbie shopping.

This sounded good--Chiwaffles. Didn't have it, though.

No, we did not have deep fried candy bars or deep fried cheese.

Now this looked yummy!

Soba chef at wok. He added 21 vegetables to the soba noodles.

We had soba noodles with teriyaki chicken. It was good. Probably one of the healthier choices at the food fair.

Food in hand, we settled in to watch the Dock Dogs. One dog was practicing while we ate, but never got the hang of jumping off the dock into the water. One time they had to throw the dog in and another time they had to open the gate to the exit ramp and send the dog down the ramp to retrieve the ball.

When the Dock Dogs show started, the first dog up DID NOT want to have anything to do with retrieving the ball. They finally took her off the stage. The second dog, however, was a ball of bundled up energy who couldn't wait to go after the toy. It was a well-trained dog and did exactly as its owner commanded. It was funny, too. Every time she asked him to back up, he barked...like a warning sound on a truck backing up. Here's the little bundle of energy. This dog was consistently hitting 20'-21' and didn't want to stop. He went about five times.

Look at that form.

High flying.

After the show, we tried to go to the Chuckwagon tent for more free food, but the line was too long. Instead, we had our photos taken with the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Debbie, Doughboy and Susan.

Our day at the rodeo grounds was almost at an end. Our last stop was the youth Western art exhibit. I am always blown away by the talented young artists. Some of the best drawings were with graphite or colored pencils. A number of the artists won Scholarship Awards.

On our way back to the car we "found" some of the animals. They were being moved from one place to another, mostly cattle.

This shorthorn cow was a favorite. Yes, he is white and sunburns easily.

He felt like velvet. We petted him with his owner's permission.

Debbie and I enjoyed our day exploring the stock show and rodeo grounds. We headed back to the RV Park about 3:30 p.m.


Once Debbie and I returned to our rigs, I put homemade chili (that I made last night) into the CrockPot to warm it up. At 6:00 p.m. we were invited to Steve and Mona Liza's for Happy Hour, dinner and games. We took chili, wine, crackers, sourdough bread and our Sequence game. Steve and Mona Liza took a bus tour of San Antonio today and got back to the RV park about 5:00 pm. They reported they didn't have enough time to spend at each stop they made on the tour.

When we arrived Steve was barbecuing chicken breasts on the grill. Mona Liza had salmon, honey mustard, mango cheese, crackers, olives, chips and salsa arranged on the table. This group was not going to go hungry tonight! While Steve finished up the chicken, we drank wine, talked and snacked. By the time we finished our chicken, chili, bread and appetizers we were feeling full. For dessert there was cut up pineapple and fresh blueberries. The pineapple and blueberries went very well with the mango cheese.

Steve and Mona Liza had never played Sequence, but they caught on quickly. Four highly competitive people playing Sequence made for light conversation and heavy strategizing. We had so much fun. Mona Liza and Bob won all the rounds except one.

Next, we played a game called LRC (left, right, center). It seemed pretty tame after Sequence. Steve said it's more exciting with a lot of players when you play for money ($3 per person). Maybe next time. It was going on 9:00 p.m. Bob had to work Wednesday, so we called it a night.

Wednesday morning, Steve and Mona Liza pulled out early on their way to Houston. I hope they had a good trip without too much rain or wind. Can't wait to catch up with them again.

*answer: birds (through pterodactyls)

Travel Bug out.