PBR Finals - The Las Vegas Experience I

(I will be doing a seven part series of the seven days in Las Vegas for the PBR finals. Each day in Vegas will be posted for the next seven consecutive days).

It's been another great year of Professional Bull Riding and this year came to an end with the PBR finals in Las Vegas. If you've never been to a live Built Ford Tough Series event, you have been missing out. With that said, the finals in Las Vegas is even better. The heightened intensity is evident at each night and each buck off or ride. Things are different here. From the opening to the arena set up to the multitude of signings, drafts, draws, press conferences and fan events. There are things to keep a fan busy from sun up to sun down. When you get back home, even as a fan, you need time off for a vacation, to just relax.

Well, our week started before the sun came up on 10/18 as we left the house for the airport. Our bags were packed, man were they packed. Four checked bags and a carry on. We drove to Dallas, got on the plane and had a layover in Albuquerque. Apparently the flight from Albuquerque was over booked, so we volunteered to get bumped. Southwest Airlines gave us two vouchers worth $438 each, to catch a flight just 2 1/2 hours later. Will we use the flight vouchers to go to another event or a vacation? Ahhhh, choices, choices. We had planned to go to a show the first night, but waited to see how we felt when we got to Vegas.

We finally made it to our final destination, Vegas. If you've never been to Vegas, you haven't missed much .... if you look at it during the day. There is desert all around, some mountains, and then BAM, odd shaped buildings that look weird against the desert back drop. With that said, at night the town becomes electric!! There are lights everywhere and it is dazzling. The "hotels" are huge and if you dare try to just walk down the strip, from one hotel to another, what seems like a city block is more like a mile (at least that's what your feet will tell you). We have been to Vegas a number of times, and every time we've been, something has changed and a new experience is found. This trip was no exception.

We got our rental car, a 2010 Dodge Charger. It was candy apple red and I was young again driving in a red "sports car". Ok, well, maybe not young again, but it was fun to drive.
We made our way to the hotel, South Point Hotel and Casino. This was our second time to stay at South Point. The hotel is about 10 minutes south of the strip and you don't want to stay here unless you have a rental car. The hotel is big, has nice large rooms, a bowling alley, movie theater, an arena and of course gaming and restaurants. The main complaint about the hotel is that it is always smokey in the casino and I just never have any luck at the tables there. But hey, what can you expect when you get a four star hotel in Vegas for $44 a night (Priceline).

By the time we got to the room, we were both pretty tired and decided not to go to a show. A PBR friend had text us about having dinner with them at the new PBR Rock Bar and that sounded like a good idea. We relaxed for a few minutes, changed and before heading to eat, decided to go to the first signing which Cord McCoy and Travis Sellers were the riders at the Luxor hotel. We made our way over there and since we have gotten to know both Cord and Travis pretty well, we spent quite a bit of time talking to both. Cord is of course getting married next month and Travis recently got married. If you have never met Cord, you have never met "Mr. Congeniality". He plans on riding bulls for as long as he can, but this guy should go to work in the PR department for the PBR as soon as he gets off his last bull. Last year we met Travis Sellers for the first time and ever since then we've had a running joke with him about who he greets first, me or Tammie. Tammie was talking to Cord and Travis saw us, came running past Tammie, nudging her in the back to come shake MY hand. Hey, he knows who's buying the tickets. LOL

Many that know my wife, know that she takes pictures of the riders and puts books together and has them sign it. Travis was so impressed with Tammie's finals book, he showed it to a PBR guy that works with national sponsors and said they need to work with her. Sorry, got sidetracked there, but I am so proud of Tammie's work that I had to put in a plug for her. (PBR are you listening?) Also, during our discussion with Travis, he said the day before he entered his wife in a bikini bull riding riding contest (mechanical bull of course) and she WON!! He said that the $200 that she got was good money for riding on that bull. lol

It was time to move on and pick up our PBR buddies and head to the PBR Rock Bar to have dinner. We made our way to the mall that the restaurant and bar are at. As with anything in Vegas the mall is huge and we were wondering around trying to find the place and came upon Adriano Moraes and his wife Flavia. Several months ago we had the pleasure of having lunch with the both of them and getting to know them on more of a personal level instead of just seeing them at signings or on TV. The six of us finally found the restaurant and made our way in. There were riders on one side of the restaurant and PBR personnel on the other side. One of our friends works for the PBR and we sat on that side. The resturant/bar is a neat place to go, especially if you are a bull riding fan. The food was good and in good portions, at a reasonable price (anything in Vegas restaurants is still more expensive than your local food establishments). Got the opportunity to see and talk to several riders and some PBR big wigs, including Sean Gleason, the PBR COO (no that's not coo, it means Chief Operating Officer :) ) We talked about the PBR comment section and some of the funny and outlandish things said on there. As I have said to others, the PBR brass knows what I write on this and other blogs and the comment section and doesn't have a problem with it. If I didn't love the PBR, I wouldn't be in Vegas. :) Flavia spent some time at our table and we got to know about her and her children even more.

It was getting late and remember the day started for us in the dark of morning driving almost 2 hours to the airport. Plus there is a two hour difference in time and our bodies were feeling it. We dropped our friends off back at their hotel, the Hard Rock Hotel and made our way back to our own hotel. I passed by the crap tables and for a moment thought about staying up just a little longer to gamble, but since I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open, I decided to just head up stairs. I laid on the bed, closed my eyes and dreamed I was riding a bull. Ok, not true. I closed my eyes and didn't dream about anything. I was out faster than a rider coming off of Bushwacker out of the chute.