Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 02/21/18 > Rain in the forecast means it ...

alt The temperature was pushing eighty and the wind was whipping up from the southwest on Tuesday, and what we hope will be the last cold front of the winter is pushing in from the north and should hit our area about the time this post hits the platform.

So, what does all the talk about weather mean? It means it is rodeo time in Houston; more specifically it is Trail Ride time for the rodeo, which also means we are in for some cold wet rainy weather for a few days. It never fails here in Southeast Texas, when the trail riders take to the trail for their annual ride to Houston there will be some nasty weather along the way, this week’s forecast weather appears that this trail ride will be no different.

Passing through Tomball on Main Street Tuesday afternoon I came across one of the trail riding groups that is doing the ride to Houston for the Rodeo. This group is from the town of Plantersville, Texas which is due north of Tomball approximately 25 miles away. This trail ride from Plantersville to Houston is a five day ride that will cover approximately 57 miles.

The official name of this trail ride is the Sam Houston Trail Ride, named after the late Sam Houston. He is a legendary Texan and namesake for the city of Houston, he was also a two term President of the Republic of Texas before Texas joined the United States. He was in command of the Texas Militia at the Battle of San Jacinto in which the Texans defeated the Mexican army to win Texas’s independence from Mexico and that battle would establish the Rio Grande River as the border line between the two nations. The interesting fact about Sam Houston as President of the Republic of Texas was that his two terms as President were not consecutive terms; he was the first and third President of the Republic of Texas.

There are eleven different trail rides that head to Houston at this time of year and the total number of trail riders exceeds over 1,000 participants. All the trail riders final destination is Memorial Park in Houston where they will converge at on this Friday afternoon and camp overnight in preparation for the Livestock Show & Rodeo parade in downtown Houston on Saturday morning. The parade draws a spectator crowd each year in the vicinity of 100,000 people along the parade route through downtown Houston. The trail ride has been an ongoing event of the Houston Livestock Show since 1938 and is the kickoff event for the largest rodeo in the United States which covers twenty days of rodeo performances.

Traffic challenges are a part of Houston everyday life, the trail ride adds to those challenges in the towns on the trail, as was the case in Tomball on Tuesday. People are very patient when it comes to being held up in traffic because of the trail riders, the trail riders are helping to preserve a part of Texas and Houston history.

alt So, if you find yourself in the Houston area in late February you might just come across a trail ride, be patient and get your camera out like I did; these shots are not the best pictures as I was not expecting to come across the trail riders Tuesday. They should give you an idea though of what the trail ride is like, and give them a “thumbs up”, yep that is my thumb in one of the pictures.