Retail Therapy

Last weekend we opted for a little retail therapy west of the Mississippi. We took off Friday morning for a weekend in Oklahoma City to catch a little IPRA rodeo action and a well deserved shopping spree.
I won't rehash my disdain for ILL-inois, but to add to the endless amount of nothingness in this state, there is no decent shopping within 500 miles of our nearest cornfield.
Thank goodness for Whataburger, Candlewood, and Langstons.
We spent some time visiting some shop owners down in Stockyards city--stop by Suzanne Hill's "Stemwinder Hats" and get the full story on making George Bush & Charlie Daniels personal cowboy hats. We skipped Cattlemen's this year due to new owners and an entire city complaining of diarrhea, and instead discovered the local dive known as the Chuckhouse over on 10th.
Saturday night we headed for the fairgrounds to catch some rodeo action, and were happy to cheer on some fellow Carolinians; Joe Cook in steer wrestling, the Treadway stock, and Alan Moorehead announcing (which I can personally thank for a heinous migraine)! Combining my zoom lens and our excellent chute gate seats, I spotted this familiar face near the holding pens.

Hooray for Herbert hay! Those bucking bulls and horses are proudly fed by Herb hay--thanks Ken.

Having our fill of snobby horse / rodeo / country music / John Deere / camouflage /and Nascar enthusiasts, we packed the truck for the ride back to ILLinois. This time we avoided the toll turnpike and drove along the old Oklahoma route 66.
The sun never came out, and counting today I haven't seen the sun in almost three weeks. I realize that thanks to Twilight the vampire look may be "in", but it's getting a little ridiculous.
That's it in the vacation department for us, at least for a while.