Everything is Bigger in Texas

Everything is bigger in Texas, they say. It might be true. Odessa has a bunch of jackrabbit statues that are about four feet tall, spread around town. In the West Texas desert, there is not a lot of scenery, so folks create their own entertainment.

A lot of towns have things like the jackrabbits. In Amarillo, they have the Jackalope, which is said to be a mythical being. But in Odessa, it was bigger-than-life jackrabbits.

A real jackrabbit is about two feet tall. These statues are around four feet, and all are painted.

They tried to have jackrabbit roping, just like they do competitive cattle roping at a Rodeo. This was in 1932, and even then animal rights activists were opposing the event, “out of town do-gooders,” they were called.

Anyway, Grace Hendricks, a young cowgirl, won the event by roping a jackrabbit in five seconds on horseback, beating all the men and boys who competed.

The event was revived in 1977, and it gained national attention — or should we say national opposition from animal rights groups. Local legend has it that someone kidnapped the jackrabbits to try to stop the event. The jackrabbits escaped and came home at feeding time.

The event was held with competitors roping jackrabbits on foot. In 1978, the Humane Society managed to get a court order banning the event from happening again.

Maybe it was revenge, or maybe it's because there are a lot of them around here; someone came up with the idea of statues. There are about 40 of them, and you can get a list from the chamber of commerce. We found most of them.

At Big Bend

We made it to Big Bend National Park a little before dark. Planning some hiking and roads to drive through the park.

We drove through a lot of deserts today. The weather was nice, around 70, but I could imagine how hot it gets in July or August.

I am still pretty amazed that people were able to live here before modern conveniences came along.