2023 National Finals Rodeo Trophy Buckle we bought my wife for her birthday at the end of this month. When she's not wearing it, I will.
Now, I have got two very nice Team Roping Trophy buckles, but they were bought from Montana Silversmiths, not won. I was good as a "header" in Team Roping, but not that good. There always seemed to be a Team at a rodeo that was better. IOW, a faster time, with no penalties. I didn't rodeo full-time, like the guys you might see wearing Championship buckles do. I had a full-time job working in electronics. In fact, none of the guys I knew in Steer Wrestling, Calf Roping (now called Tie-Down Roping) and Team Roping (IOW, Timed-Events) done it on a full-time basis. We all just hit the southern part of the Sierra Circuit, now known as the California Circuit, on weekends. Basically from Ventura and Santa Barbara down to San Juan Capistrano. Which included: L.A. Equestrian Center, Glen Avon/Jurupa, Norco, Chino, Orange County Fair and San Bernadino. Enough to keep us busy during rodeo season.
Sorry if I write stuff here that, basically, only Yovonne, John and Don are interested in reading/commenting on. But, "it is what it is", as the old saying goes. LOL
I put a post on Nextdoor website about why we don't like living here and I was somewhat surprised that there are others here that don't like living here either. But, for one reason or another, they all have to stay living here. Job, family or ?
At iHop this morning and I noticed an older man that kept looking at me from his table. He ended up walking up to our table and said "What year was you on the "Robi"? I was wearing my USS Robison DDG-12 baseball cap and "Robi" is what older (than me) called the Robison when they were on it. Come to find out, he got off of the Robison two years before I enlisted in the Navy and reported to her in San Diego. He was a Machinist Mate, which was a whole lot dirtier job that my rate was. Sometime during his Navy stint, he was stationed on a Sub also. He is only the 2nd guy that I've met/talked to that had been stationed on the Robison. Very nice talking to him. Then, outside the restaurant, as we were leaving, we met a guy that had worked with the Las Vegas Rodeo Committee, a number of years ago, for the National Finals Rodeo. I told him about my past history with PRCA and the event I done. He knew a few of the people that we knew. However, even though we met a few people that know/knew about PRCA/Professional Rodeo, it definitely isn't enough to keep us living here after August.
Getting an early start to packing. Packing up numerous pictures we put up and have a used large Lowe's Wardrobe Box set to put clothes in closet into. Checking out apartment complexes in Carson City/Reno/Sparks to visit when we are there. Don't necessarily look forward to going back into living in winter weather, but , at least it's not nearly as "winter" as it was in northern Colorado and a whole lot less people up there.
Signed a 1 Year Lease the day after Labor Day last September. Looking at apartments online in all three areas: Carson City, Reno and Sparks. Will be going up there in May or June for a week, when it's warmer. A high-speed train, going from Los Angeles to Las Vegas just got the money to go ahead with building train/track. Here is the article: $2.5 billion in bonds approved for Brightline West high-speed train to Las Vegas (msn.com) That means tons of people will be taking that train to visit Vegas. Traffic is bad enough now, can't imagine what it's going to be like after this train starts up. And, on top of this high-speed train, more and more Upper-Class hotels/casinos are being built. The latest two, Durango and Fontainebleau are enormous and extremely for the Upper-Class/High-Class young folks. Just take a look at Fontainebleau website: Welcome to Fontainebleau Las Vegas - Fontainebleau Las Vegas
I don't like mega-cities. Washington DC has (or had) a height limit on buildings, so there were no skyscrapers. Even at that, I feel closed in when I'm there. Your best bet is to: 1-Stock up on water. Lots and lots of water. Put it around the walls near the support beams so it does not crash through the floor. 2-Pray for a drought. Vegas is not sustainable. That will keep the numbers low.
All of the areas around Vegas are quickly becoming "mega", but for the working folks, that's what they need. Guess, when getting thoughts about moving, a person/persons have to do more research than what we done before coming here. A visit is highly recommended, but we financially just couldn't do that. From being in Vegas a number of times, we could tell that it was getting bigger and bigger, but never thought that Henderson was getting that way also, but we were definitely wrong. Big city young folks are moving to Henderson right and left due to jobs and weather. Only places we see folks our age and older are iHop and local casino/restaurants.
So where are the other older folks moving? And I agree that it's impossible to gauge what a place is going to be like by internet research...or even by a short visit. You have to actually live life there doing the daily routine things before you really know.
Due to most older folks here owning a house, they don't want to move. They don't go to, what they call "insane Vegas". They absolutely love the summer heat here, that can get up past 100 easily from June thru August. IOW, just like what we did most of the time during winters in Colorado, they stay at home with A/C on during those months. That is, unless they have to go out for doctors appts. or whatever. But, we have heard some tell us they would like to move, but they can't afford to be Snowbirds and have two homes. They may also have family here, so they simply tolerate the heat, increasing population and traffic. They do complain, but that's all they want to do is "complain".
Look on the bright side. High speed trains mean they won't be driving their cars. On the dark side, there are all those illegals who can move quickly.