I’ve been so blessed to live the life I dreamed of as a kid, which always revolved around roping for a living. I got to do it for decades, and it was quite the ride that came with the most amazing memories. As I look back, I can see pretty clearly now that the good old days when we rodeoed were actually pretty great.

I was always the night-driving guy, and it was perfect because Jake was a day driver. I took the graveyard shift, and could go all night until that sun started coming up. Then I was toast, and my eyes started crossing. But until then, I could drink a couple cups of coffee, think about the run I was going to make the next day and rock on.

I was a classic rock guy, and I still love it today. Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty,” Bob Seger’s “Night Moves,” the Eagles, Bad Company—Bad Company Rodeo played classic rock before, during and after every rodeo, and it was awesome. Those songs were the best of storytelling. At that time in my life, classic rock spoke my language.

One of my old buddies from growing up in Southern California, Shawn Howell, turned me on to all kinds of good music, which also included Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart and Elton John. There was great country, too, with guys like Hank Williams Jr., Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. I was raised on old country, and my mom played it over the loudspeakers at the jackpots at home.

When Money Went Further

The early end of my era was old-school rodeoing with no limits on rodeos, so we were going wide open. That was back before back-to-back and limited rodeos. There’s so much more money to win out there today, but in the bygone days, money went further than it does now.

I paid my place off in one year with my rope. I bought a piece of property and built a house on it. My goal was to pay it off pretty fast, but one good rodeo year where I also won some big ropings, and bam, no more mortgage. Being free and clear on my rig, my horses and my house was the best feeling in the world.

In a lot of ways, life was just simpler then. And a lot less expensive. We used to charter planes all the time. Back then, you could rent a 210 for $120 an hour and split it four ways, so it cost each of us $30. About this time of year, we went to several rodeos a day doing that, and drove courtesy cars left at the airport to the rodeo and back.

Sometimes those pilots went with us to the rodeo, then ate with us before we went back to the airport. When the timing was tight and we needed to hotfoot it to the next one, the pilot would stay with the plane, catch a nap, fuel up and be ready to roll when we got back from roping. At rodeos like Red Lodge, the airport was over the fence from the rodeo, with a ladder there for us to climb over. Then we were off to Cody or Livingston.

A Different Rodeo Roadmap

Back before rodeo limits, we went to about 120 rodeos a year. A free pass on United Airlines came with world championships, so it was rock-and-roll time.

I was one of the first guys to move to Texas from out West when we finally got team roping added at Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin. Before that, Arizona was the place to be in the wintertime, because our winters consisted of Odessa, Denver, Scottsdale, Yuma, Tucson and Phoenix.

Then you slipped over to California for Oakdale, Red Bluff, Clovis, Santa Maria and the rest of the spring run before Vegas and Reno led us into the Fourth of July. It was a whole different rodeo roadmap back then, with so much more of the action out West.

After Cowboy Christmas, we camped out in Colorado, where every little town had a rodeo, including Limon, Castle Rock and Sterling. We’d work time zones, and make rodeos in Kansas, Nebraska, Montana and the Dakotas before winding down the regular season in towns like Casper, Billings, Albuquerque and the Cow Palace in San Francisco, which back then took us into the first week of November. Those days are gone, but I feel blessed to have lived them.

—TRJ—