YEEEEEE HAW!! COWBOYS, PARADES, AND A LOT OF BULL!!

We walked the pathway into the Goliad Square yesterday for the Goliad Fair Parade. It was similar to our Yankee parades, but had more horses, cowboy hats, Queens and courts....and only ONE band..Den and I parked our butts on the curb with mostly locals and a few winter Texans..You can tell the difference..no cowboy hats on transplants. Here are a couple photos I took of the square. Across from us was the courthouse and down the street some neat old buildings... I said there were a lot of Queens and courts...Here is the float from Flatonia, said to be the oldest Polish settlement in the United States...right here in Texas.....Here is another from an organization celebrating General Zaragosa.....And here is the neat float from Lockhardt Texas, where Barbeque is KING!!!..
I mentioned one lonely band...Here is a lesson for all the high school bands that think they don't have fancy enough uniforms...This Goliad High School band had one of the best uniforms ever..matching T-shirts with the band name on the back..and jeans..Talk about frugal!! But that didn't affect their great sound!! Here they are.....and they were great!
After the parade we walked back to the state park and had some lunch..It was a beautiful day and about 12:30 we walked across the road to the Goliad County Fair...Like I said, everything here is "easy access". There was, of course, a carnival, where you had to buy a wristband to get unlimited rides..like our DeKalb county fair in Sandwich,IL. The difference was that there was no admission to get into the fair!! VERY different than our fair back home.
We walked around and I took some photos..Here are the bulls that were used for the rodeo bull riding event...
..and another...
..note that their horns are cut off..for the safety of the bull rider!!
We went into the place where they were auctioning off the Grand Champion Bull..which coincidentally happened to be the beer tent...Anyway, here is a photo of the Grand Champion bull,owned by a 16 year of FFA'er......look closely and see his "ribbon" on his neck was made of dollar bills, and he brought the sum of $14,000 to that 16 year old kid!! And here is the Grand Champion with all of the people who chipped in to buy him...
After a couple $2.00 Bud Lites (cheaper than any bar), we walked over to the rodeo arena where they were having calf roping events..This was really cool. I have never been to any "real" rodeo event and I LOVED this!! Here are a few pictures I took.....I do have a problem with a calf roper who wears a baseball cap. I think they should make it a rule that you have to LOOK like a cowboy to participate!! Now HERE is what a REAL cowboy looks like, (in my humble opinion)...
After a big day at the parade, fair and rodeo, we walked back across the road and collapsed in our camper..another super fun day in Goliad!!
I am now going to change from cowboys back to the mission Espiritu Santo, which is in our state park..A couple days ago we walked back up to the mission to get a few more pictures. We happened to be the only people there at the time and got the full attention of the park ranger who gives tours. We found out a little more about the old mission that I want to share. According to our guide, there were three entrances to the mission chapel. If you were baptized, you went in via the front entrance, pictured here.....If you weren't baptized you went in one of the side doors, which was called the "door of Life"..note the cross above the door...And if you were attending a funeral service, you entered the mission chapel by a door directly across the sanctuary from the door of Life, called the door of "Death"..and here is a photo of that door...note the skull and crossbones above the door..
This next photo is the where the priest stood to speak to the people..it is in the chapel also...
..Here is the choir loft, which you got to by steps in one of the side rooms...
The front double carved wood doors are always wide open during the day...Here is a picture of one of them....They are really beautiful!! This next one is one of a sculpture found in one of the alcoves of the sanctuary... This last photo of the mission grounds is all that remains of the stone quarters where the Indians lived..if these stones could talk!!...
Well, I have created a mixture of cowboys, parades, and church pictures this time! I can't help myself..as I said, I just love this place. I will close with one last photo..I probably neglected to say that the couple from Falcon Lake (the park we stayed at by the Rio Grande) were also here at the Goliad State Park when we got here...I finally got them to pose for a picture so I could formally introduce you to them..Here are Harald and Judy Paetrow, from Minnesota....If you recall from the blogs I did from Falcon Lake, Harald is from Germany and is a very talented photographer of birds and butterflies..(so you see by the camera which is permanently hanging around his neck.) We really enjoyed seeing them again. They left here a few days ago to start home toward Minnesota..
OK, I have officially created one of my most confusing and longest blogs..I just had to share with you more of this wonderful part of Texas...I will not blog again until next week. We are leaving Tuesday for Georgetown Lake, North of Austin..Later...