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British Columbia is beautiful all year round, but the winter months are often dreary, dull and rainy - with the odd snowfall and low temperatures.  We love to get away to warmer climates for a holiday and one of my favorite places to go is Las Vegas.  I don’t need a reason, but the Rodeo week is always one of the best times to go!

If you can get past ogling the the cute butts in the tight Wrangler jeans, the National Finals Rodeo is an exciting event to attend!

The NFR is held the first full week of December at the Thomas & Mack Center on the University of Nevada campus. It is a full week of rodeo, including bull riding, bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping and barrel racing, with huge prize money awarded to the champions.

I attended the bull riding event one year and enjoyed every minute - there isn’t a poor seat in the center and it’s intense, edge of the seat entertainment with lots of thrills and chills.

The entire city of Las Vegas is taken over by the cowboys in their boots, jeans and striped shirts. I loved watching them saunter down Las Vegas Boulevard with a hot chick on each arm. Check out the schedule, the leaderboard, the past champions and the latest news on one of the best ’shows’ held in Las Vegas.
When you are buying your National Rodeo Finals tickets be sure to join the fanclub and enter to win prizes. The top prize is a trip for 2 to The 50th Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. I hope to see you there!

Truth or Myth?

My cousin Bill, who prawn fishes out in front of his home in Agamemnon Bay (Dean’s Bay) told us of a plan he’s been hatching for about 6 years. Kent and I are always game for fun, so today we met up with Bill to bust a myth or prove a truth.

When Bill was running a water taxi business, a customer who had explored the deep water with a submersible around the Egmont area told him he’d seen a 6 foot wall of prawns at a 1500 foot depth. Apparently the mass of prawns extended further than the camera’s reach and was amazing to discover. Bill has wanted to set prawn traps at that depth to see for himself if it was truth or fiction.

Today, was the day! Bill had traps, baited and ready to go with 900 feet of line. Kent had 1200 feet of line. The water was calm, the sun was shining and we didn’t have anything else to do, so off we went to find a depth of 1500 feet off Captain Island. Setting traps in that depth requires a bit more anchor than we usually use at 350 feet. Bill started to let the anchor down, attached a trap then another anchor, then another trap, then another anchor and another and soon the line was peeling out with the very heavy weight. When the traps reached bottom we attached a buoy, threw it over and watched it as our boat floated away.

We enjoyed a beer and lunch in the lukewarm rays of the sun and drifted for 3 hours, laughing and chatting while we imagined thousands of prawns filling the traps.

Pulling such a weight from such a depth was not an easy job but Bill was prepared with a block on his aluminum boat. The end of the line was tied to a cleat on our boat and Bill hooked the line over his block then started to back his boat away, planning to slowly raise the traps. He ended up going in circles around our boat - the traps were stuck on bottom. Finally, while he pulled toward deep water, with us motoring ahead slowly (in and out of gear) so as to not break the line, the traps came free of the bottom and Bill and his boat moving slowly away, raising the traps, we could see progress. He and Kent were in constant communication via VHF radio and he’d ask Kent to stop while he removed an anchor.

This process took about half an hour and Bill was relaying the number of feet of line to go, finally saying to hold up - the first trap was surfacing.

I know I was holding my breath, imagining the feast of big fat prawn, the freezer overflowing and the excitement as we told of our great adventure… only to hear Bill say the first trap was empty…, then…. the second trap was empty… OH, the disappointment… we’d gone to a lot of work and put in nearly 5 hours, only to bust the myth.

If there are 6 foot deep walls of prawns at 1500 feet, they weren’t in the area we fished.

The good news is - we had a wonderful day on the water. Even a poor day of prawn fishing is better than working!

Saturday evening Crystal was in a 6 car pile up in the Deas Tunnel and was rear ended - hard enough to push the car right into the back end of a pick up truck and to cause her and MY car damage. She was in shock for a couple of days, has a sore back, muscle relaxants, a police report, doctors appointments, ICBC appointments, a story to tell - and me… I have a car which had very low mileage, garage kept, was in perfect condition, one owner and destined to become a ‘collector’. Now, I have a piece of s**t car… no, what am I talking about - actually I don’t even have a car - it’s in the wrecker’s yard.

Do I sound bitter? Maybe just a tad - this car was my 50th birthday present from Kent - 5 1/2 years ago and I was proud of the fact it was still in nearly perfect condition - other than one insignificant ‘rub’ which perhaps happened in a parking lot. Crystal and I had just talked about the fact I didn’t want mileage put on my car and it was safer sitting in the garage, but she REALLY, REALLy wanted to borrow it for a special date. It was Trevor’s birthday and she was driving him downtown and they were going out with a group of friends. I knew my car would be sitting in a secure garage overnight and she doesn’t drink and drive - so I let her take it. My mistake.

Sure enough, traffic came to a sudden stop in the tunnel, with the truck and car ahead rear-ending someone who stopped because someone else stopped ahead of him. Crystal was able to stop before rear-ending the truck in front, but the car behind was following too close, going too fast and slammed into the rear end of my car, slamming it into the truck in front. Lucky, it wasn’t an 18 wheeler or a larger car following her as my car accordianed with the impact and the damage to Crystal and Trevor would have significantly increased - never mind the car.

Anyway, Crystal took photos for the insurance company - and me as she knew I would blog it. Every fire fighter, ambulance attendant, and policeman in their BDU Pants were out in full force as any accident in the tunnel is always major, usually causing serious injuries, traffic snarls for hours and headaches (and lots of work) for the tow trucks.