About three hours before the championship round of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, tie-down roper Ty Harris reached out on social media.
“Anyone have room on a plane or a rig headed from San Antonio to Tucson short round?” asked Harris, a seven-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier.
Saddle bronc rider Wyatt Casper offered an funny response: “Kade Bruno has a Dodge that can fly lol.”
It was more than a comedic answer; it was a solution. When their competition ended inside Frost Bank Center, Harris grabbed a backpack and a piggin’ string and loaded into the passenger seat of Bruno’s white RAM pickup, along with young cowboy Jack Mitchell, who was on hand to help Bruno along that nearly 900 miles of Interstate 10.
“We just jumped in the truck after San Antonio’s short round and put the pedal down; I guess the white Dodge did fly,” Bruno said with a laugh.
They were just two of a dozen cowboys and cowgirls who made the short rounds at both rodeos. Four of those walked away with the La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros titles: bareback rider Jess Pope, tie-down roper Shane Hanchey, barrel racer Emily Beisel and steer wrestler Stetson Jorgensen. Bruno won the short round and moved up to share fourth in the bronc busting average.
Before grabbing Harris as hitchhiker, Bruno had reached out to Jorgensen and Pope to see if they’d have interest. Both had flights arranged, so they pulled the plug rather quickly.
“After the Florida run, my wife, son and I drove out to Tucson so Kellie could run barrels Tuesday morning in slack, so they were already in Tucson,” Jorgensen said. “It didn’t matter what I did in San Antonio; I was going to fly back. Kade was trying really hard. He said, ‘You don’t have to drive or pay for fuel or nothing; just sit over there.’
“I said, ‘Man, I’m going to go to my hotel room and get a good night’s rest, and I’ll see you in Tucson in the morning.’ ”
Many seemed to have skipped the 12-hour jaunt on the interstate, opting for flights. For his part, Harris put in the miles with Bruno, and the two found easy conversation.
“Talking with Ty was really fun,” Bruno said. “Throughout my years of rodeoing, I’ve only ever given a ride to a handful of timed-event contestants, and it’s usually so busy in the summer that we don’t have time to visit then. It was cool to be able to sit down with somebody like that and visit about different events and different aspects of rodeo.”
Harris didn’t stay in the pickup for the return trip to Texas. Instead, he caught a flight for Houston, where he was to compete in Monday’s opening night. That’s when Mitchell’s part of the trip came in handy.
“When we left San Antone, I took the first six hours, and Ty took the next six, and I saved Jack for the ride home,” Bruno said. “Right after the rodeo, I went to sleep and had him drive the first eight hours and made it home in pretty decent time.”
It served as just a little taste of what contestants will experience during the busiest times of the summer run.
“Yeah, it’s a little early (in the season) to catch flights, but thankfully we didn’t have to charter anything,” Jorgensen said.
Big money is on the table, so getting a seat is important by any means possible.
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Photos by Fernando Sam-Sin (La Fiesta de los Vaqueros in Tucson)