Grand Rapids PBR Event Dear Diary

Disclaimer: This was written when the participants had not had a lot of sleep and at some points added alcohol to that mix as well. I apologize in advance.

Dear Diary,

Jesus was at the antique shop in Sauk City on Thursday! How cool was that!? Any way, current time is 12:02 pm, departure time 7:00 am, time spent in Illinois so far 4 hours! So we’ve almost died once on our way into a toll booth – Jamie was driving. I swear I didn’t see that truck….Toll booths are the DEVIL! Then we got “lost” but we weren’t really lost – MAPQUEST SUCKS! Then we had a serious Lightning McQueen moment and couldn’t find the interstate again, but we did eventually find it. Lunch at the Old Country Buffet in Tinley Park didn’t go so well either. First, Ashley had not one but TWO defective straws and I ended up wearing a bunch of swirl slop before I got any swirl ice cream. At 12:22 pm we crossed into Indiana! We are an extremely happy bunch of campers!

4:13 local time (Grand Rapids is an hour ahead of us), we’ve been in the hotel all of 8 minutes and hysterics have ensued. We were trying to get into the hotel from the parking garage and the sign on the door said “use room key to enter” so I did and was rejected ½ a dozen times, Ashley walks up to the door yanks on the handle and low and behold the door opens. So we meander towards the elevators and these guys from the PBR go in with us and while we were getting on I broke my flip flop. I leaned over and trying to have a private conversation with Ashley told her that “I broke my flip flop.” Not wanting to be excluded from the conversation one of the guys yells out “what the hell ya gonna do now!” and I had to be honest and say “I don’t know.” Then we got to our floor (3rd – same as our elevator buddies) and while I was trying to get off the elevator my bag tipped over and my concerned sidekick stopped me and tipped my bag right side up again. He’s my hero/the wind beneath my wings!

While I was running down to the truck for my camera and hair dryer (the stupid hotel one didn’t work!) I plowed into not one but two bull riders! One was Ashley’s close personal friend Tater Porter and the other was my now close personal friend Guilherme Marchi. My weekend is complete…….Almost.We left for the event at 7:00 pm and when we got to the arena our new close personal friend and my mom’s favorite bullrider, Wiley Petersen was signing autographs and taking pictures, so we got our pictures taken with him. I also got my 2008 PBR Cowboy hunks calendar! Again my weekend was almost complete right there too…….Almost. The event started right at 8 and as always Flint opened the show with a little audience participation with a guy named Bob (Aka “The Pretzel”). Ross Coleman was leading the round for most of the night with an 86.75 on a bull named Blue Chip. Side note: This bull has only bucked off one rider – Aussie Brendon Clark, who was given a lot of crap about it. He also tied Ross on to Blue Chip last night. There were only 13 qualified rides in the first round. The lead was taken from Ross by Chad Denton with an 87.50 on Semi-Automatic. Colby Yates and Matt Bohon bucked off.

After we came back to the hotel and after we ordered our Papa Johns pizza we chilled for a while in our room for a while and then went down to the lobby to meet Mr. Papa John. After we got our pizza we could not figure out how to get back into the hotel. It turns out it was after 11 and we needed our room keys. So we’re back in the hotel and on our way back up to our room when we came to these two rooms that were across from each other that each had a little ankle biter dog in it fighting it out to see who could bark the longest, when my hero from the elevator came by and started growling at the doors. A funny end to a “funny” day.

So during the day today….Waiting for what seemed like forever for the start of round 2. Ashley and I went and toured the neighborhood a little bit. We wanted to go to the art museum but it appears to be closed on Saturdays, then we went back to this pub called the Ottawa Tavern for some beer and fries. So after being rejected by the art museum I had the bright idea to go to the children’s museum right down the road. It would be something to keep us out of trouble for a while. It almost worked except for the million little two year olds running around the place. That’s when we decided to go to this mall about 15 minutes from the hotel and just hangout and kill some time. While we were in the mall I got the cartilage in my left ear pierced and we went and petted the Coach bags at the Coach store. Next year we’re gonna get a bag! We ended up killing almost 4 hours at the mall! Time flies when your having fun!

So yesterday I ran into Tater and Guilherme, today it was Cory Melton and Brian “Pee Wee” Herman and I smashed the crap out of there bags of chips. On my way back up to our room I found out the hard way that PBR Photographer Andy Watson and bullrider Rocky McDonald are in the room next door to us when they plowed into me. We were in room 310 and they were in room 312. Then Ashley decided it was time to go down and watch the guys go off to work. She saw Brendon Clark and Luke Snyder (who tied the record for the most consecutive events in Grand Rapids – 197 is the record set by JW Hart) take the skywalk. While I was checking to see if the internet was free I saw Adriano Moraes, Travis Briscoe, Guilherme Marchi, Robson Palermo, Renato Nunes and V. Oliveria. When we were getting in the elevator to come back up to our room to get ready for the event we found out that Ashley’s future husband Matt Bohon is also on the 3rd floor (room 325). Ashley is breathing again and her heartrate is getting back to normal.

Round 2, The night started off with more audience participation from a prison guard named Mike. I regret that I have to print a retraction. Matt Bohon did indeed ride his bull last night for 83.5 points. Mike Lee and Austin Meier cut in front of our seats on there way back to the chutes after their autograph signing at the US Army booth (both are sponsored by the US Army). We met the next generation of American GI Joes. Pyro that scared the hell out of me. Then we got to the bullriding, the first flight was not real eventful, a lot of buck offs. Second flight, Tater Porter got plowed over and bull fighter went flying through the air. Sean Willingham rode Mohegan Sun for 86.25 points. Then Aaron Roy took the lead. (end of sentence) Then during one of Flints routines during a television break the announcers put baby powder in his hat. Then Matt Bohon bucked off. (end of sentence) Allan Moraes was seriously injured when he was stepped on. Then came the guy who resembled Mike Lee but the real Mike Lee (please stand up) was being strapped to the back of a bull. The only three time champion Adriano Moraes bucked off again. Guilherme also bucked off his bull. Wiley Petersen rode his bull but was offered a re-ride which he accepted.

I’ll be right back….pitstop!

Flint came out in his camo outfit, and became the horse whisperer to the safety man’s horse. But the horse kept trying to bite him thinking he was hay, cause he really did look like hay. Wiley Petersen rode his re-ride and was offered a re-ride on the re-ride which he got a score of 83.50 on. Jason Bennett was hurt. Then “Lilly” (Aka Justin Mcbride…It’s what Ashley and I call him…He’s not our favorite) attempted is bull and ate dirt. He was also hurt during his ride. But because Jason was hurt and could not compete any further Lilly made the short round, which upset Ashley, but because he too was hurt and could not compete any further that made Ashley happy. So Steven Shelly made the short round, and ended up third at the end of the event. The curse of Grand Rapids prevails!

Halftime was uneventful. (end of sentence) Short round was eventful. Flint came out in his rent a tank and was going to “bomb” the building with it. LJ Jenkins rode Dr. Proctor for 86.50 points. Ross Coleman on the other hand came with in .3 seconds of a making a qualified ride on Red Ant. When he realized he had not made it he proceeded to headbutt (thank god for helmets) the ground and shout and angry expletive throughout the building. Agnaldo Cordozo won the event with an 82.75 on Mud Flap. He does not speak any English (he’s from Brazil) at all and it was his first BFTS event.After the event was over Ashley and I headed down to the Jeffery Steele fan booth were Travis Briscoe, Guilherme Marchi, Cory Melton and Dustin Hall were signing autographs. I got everyone’s autograph and a picture with Guilherme (we touched) and Ashley got her picture taken with Cory Melton (they did not touch). We had to come back to our room to calm down a little bit, then we decided to order another Papa Johns pizza (they do NOT have Cheddar Cheese in Grand Rapids Michigan!). We made a run down to the truck to get our six pack of Bud Light and our string cheese out of the cooler. On our way back to our room the bag we put it all in “peed” all over Ashley, apparently the string cheese had taken on water. When we got back to our floor we saw Rocky McDonald come around the corner, his key was not working to his room. So we got back to our room without any more catastrophes happening and put the beer on ice and Ashley cleaned herself up. A little bit later we decided to go down to the lobby to wait for Mr. Papa John. At the elevator we saw the Cowboy Holy Grail! An elevator FULL of riders, Adriano Moraes, Chad Denton, and Guilherme Marchi to name a few. Adriano is in room 330 and tried to kill us both with his luggage on his way out of the elevator. Meanwhile, in the lobby we saw Renato Nunes, V. Oliveria and Agnoldo with big check in tow, Brian “Pee Wee” Herman, Tony Stewart….I mean Mendes was checking out – he brought his own pillow with horses on it, Kasey Hayes and Tater Porter also.

Badgers beat Iowa 17-13. Denny Hamlin won the Busch race at Dover and Matt Kenseth was third. It took us 8 hours to get there and about 6 ½ to get back. That’s weird isn’t it?!