Blacktop Cowboys - Hardcover

Phillips, Ty

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312330367 ISBN 13: 9780312330361

Verlag: Thomas Dunne Books, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

"Blacktop Cowboys" chronicles the 2004 rodeo season through the eyes of several steer wrestlers trying to make it to the rodeo's version of the Super Bowl, the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas. This is a sport that requires a riding cowboy to fly out of a gate, jump off his horse, and pull a 600-pound calf down to the ground - and to do it well, this all takes less than five seconds. The main two characters of "Blacktop Cowboys" are Luke Branquinho, a young carefree cowboy on a quest for his first title, and his best friend, Travis Cadwell, an aging veteran trying to make the NFR one last time. "Blacktop Cowboys" offers a true and intimate portrait of men having the time of their lives while living on the road in pursuit of the dream to be the best.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

TY PHILLIPS is an award-winning columnist and features writer for The Modesto Bee. He lives in Hickman, CA. This is his first book. In addition to raising sons, brewing beer and singing in a rock band, he currently is writing his second book.

Aus dem Klappentext

At any given moment, there are thousands of rodeo cowboys traveling throughout North America in elaborate truck and trailer rigs. Each year, many of these cowboys cover more than 75100,000 miles on the road and in the air. They are men with colorful names like Speed and Jet, Rowdy and Howdy, Rope and Cash. Now they all will grin and tell you they do it because they re too lazy to work and too scared to steal, and that rodeoin s somewhere in between. Of course, it goes much deeper than that. Truth is most rodeo cowboys are born, not made. They are branded at birth for life at two speeds: 85 mph or a standstill. And it s a hell of a ride. from the Introduction

Blacktop Cowboys chronicles the 2004 rodeo season through the eyes of several charismatic steer wrestlers trying to make it back to rodeo s version of the Super Bowl the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas. Steer wrestling is an adrenaline rush like no other, one that entails riding likeas fast as lightning into an arena, sliding off a horse while taking hold of a 500-pound steer, and then wrestling the animal to the ground. The best cowboys often accomplish all of this in less than four seconds.

Blacktop Cowboys follows Luke Branquinho, a young, carefree cowboy on a quest for his first title, and his best friend, Travis Cadwell, a veteran trying to make the NFR one last time. Amid the choking dust of the arena, the broken bones and long drives on lonely roads, are the undying dreams of these cowboys to be the best of the best in one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Blacktop Cowboys is is also is a tale of the ultimate road trip endless nights of beer drinking and carousing with buddies, rowdy rodeo gals, too much Copenhagen overload,, and thegood ole boy hijinks of men being boys.. Blacktop Cowboys offers a true and intimate portrait of men having the time of their lives while living on the road in pursuit of a dream.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter One 

The Road to Denver
 
Norco, California
Sunday, January 18
 
Luke Branquinho unzipped his pants and began pissing into a fresh pile of horse manure. A bubbling green liquid oozed atop the parking lot dirt in small streams, a spent mixture of alfalfa hay and countless Coors Lights. The bleary-eyed cowboy stood beside a Ford F350 pickup in a halfhearted bid for privacy. He steadied himself by gripping the truck's bed with his right hand. His left arm hung limp by his side.
 
A couple hundred yards away, small groups of people made their way from the grandstands at Ingalls Arena. The remnants of the California Circuit Finals rodeo crowd followed a strip of asphalt that snaked its way down a steep hill and led to their cars. Children, many dressed as cowboys and cowgirls, talked to their parents in excited tones about the wondrous things they'd just seen, far too young to have any idea what cowboy life really meant.
 
As Casey Branquinho sat in the driver's seat of his truck, waiting on his brother, a woman walked over to the rig. Her son, Levi Rosser, had just won the bulldogging event and twenty-six hundred dollars. Still pissing, Luke turned his head toward her and smiled.
 
"Hey," he called out, "tell your son congratulations for finally getting some this weekend."
 
"He didn't get some this weekend," she said.
 
"Well, maybe he's a queer."
 
"He's not a queer," she said. "He's just kind of private."
 
"Maybe he needs me to come over and counsel him."
 
"No, Luke, that's really the last thing he needs," she said, touching Casey on the arm before turning to walk away. "Good luck in Denver, guys."
 
Luke finished his business, wiped his hands on his jeans, and walked to the passenger side. He opened the door and poured himself into the rig. He leaned back into his seat, winced a bit, and began massaging the flesh behind his left shoulder with his right hand. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his last silver can of pain relief. He popped it open, took a long drink, and then set the can in a cup holder and resumed the massage.
 
A few hours earlier, Luke had been in prime position to win several thousand dollars. He had bolted into the arena, slid off his horse, and grabbed his steer's horns. But when he reached out for the animal's nose, he felt his left shoulder give and he let go of the steer. The pin from a surgery years earlier was all that kept the shoulder from coming out completely.
 
Casey shifted the truck into gear and looked over at his brother.
 
"How's the shoulder?"
 
"Sore."
 
"Yeah," Casey said, nodding as he guided his truck and a forty-foot trailer through the parking lot.
 
Before long, the dirt and gravel gave way to city streets that emptied into the endless hum of Interstate 15. Outside, the setting sun struggled to push light through the smoggy air that hung above the mountains east of Los Angeles.
 
Ontario. Victorville. Barstow.
 
The brothers spoke sparingly. Dark circles of exhaustion hung beneath their eyes. The 2003 rodeo season officially ended that January afternoon in Norco. And the off-season lasted all of about two hours: long enough for Luke to get drunk and for Casey to ready his horses for a long drive. The 2004 Wrangler ProRodeo Tour winter opener was set to begin in Denver the following day.
 
Settling in for the trip, both men reached out for their cell phones. Luke's rang before he could dial a number. He looked down to see who was calling: It was his old buddy and traveling partner, Travis Cadwell.
 
"Hey Trav. . . . Just out here rodeoin' buddy. How 'bout you? . . . That's good. . . . No, we're just leavin' Norco now. . . . Well, I was fixin' to win the steer wrestling, but my fuckin' shoulder came out. . . . Yes it did. . . . You're a dumb skinny fucker, you know that? . . . Yeah, exactly. Whatever. . . . No, Levi won it. . . . I don't know. . . . When you gonna break out, at San Antonio? . . . Tucson? . . . All right. Hey, I got another call, I'll talk to you later."
 
Luke pushed the wrong button and lost the call. He gave up, leaned back in the seat, and closed his eyes. Casey turned up the volume on the radio to hear the Carolina Panthers put the finishing touches on their NFC Championship Game upset over the Philadelphia Eagles.
 
"This is the deepest penetration for the Eagles today," the announcer said.
 
Luke looked over at Casey with the dumb grin drunk people wear.
 
"I got some deep penetration last night."
 
"With who?"
 
"I can't remember," Luke said. "I think I drank too much."
 
Luke's phone rang again. Recognizing the number, he quickly took another drink of his beer and put the phone to his ear.
 
"Hey there. . . . What? . . . Fuck! You're naked? . . . I want to see you naked. . . . Can I see you naked tomorrow night? . . . Well, that sounds good to me, too. . . ."
 
Suddenly, Luke dropped the phone to his waist and exhaled in frustration.
 
"These fucking phones!" he screamed.
 
He looked over at Casey again. "She was, fuck, she was about to talk dirty to me, too."
 
"Who is that?" Casey said.
 
"Lindsay," Luke said, dialing her number.
 
"Lindsay?"
 
"Arizona."
 
"Oh, yes," Casey said, smiling and picturing the pretty young brunette woman.
 
Luke put the phone back to his ear.
 
"So, I get to see you naked? . . . You'll do a little dance for me? . . . You will? . . . Yeah, we'll dance. Well, you'll dance and I'll watch. . . . Stay naked 'til I get there. . . ."
 
Casey shook his head and laughed. Then he looked at Luke.
 
"Her nipples would be hard if she was naked in Denver," Casey said.
 
Luke looked over at his brother, paused for a moment to imagine the sight, then returned to the phone call.
 
"Casey says your nipples would be hard if you were naked in Denver. . . . They are? . . . Goddamn it! . . . We're about fifteen hours away. . . . Okay. . . . I'll see you tomorrow night."
 
 
Mountain Pass. Las Vegas. Cedar City.
 
As the cowboys rode north, the temperature moved south. By 2:15 a.m., it had dropped to eighteen degrees. The edges of I-15 disappeared beneath the banks of blackened snow. Roadside sagebrush fluttered in a frozen wind. Skeleton trees, their fallen leaves long covered by snow, glimmered in the dim light of a setting moon.
 
Casey spotted the neon sign of JR's Truck Stop and pulled off the freeway. After filling his tanks with $150 worth of diesel, he parked in a vacant field, near a parking lot of truckers sleeping in their rigs. Another truckload of cowboys--Brad McGilchrist, Levi Rosser, and Austin Manning--pulled in and parked behind Casey's rig. The men unloaded their horses, covered them in blankets, and led them around in circles to walk off the miles. The early-morning soundtrack alternated between hooves digging into gravel and men spitting Copenhagen juice onto the ground. Every minute or so, the distant headlights of a freeway car threw light on the lonesome silhouette of a cowboy walking his horse at night.
 
Casey's trailer door swung open and Luke stood in the doorway, scratching his head and rubbing his eyes like a miner emerging from a hole in the ground. He'd managed some sleep in one of the trailer's beds, but every bump in the road had ravaged his sore shoulder and jarred him awake. Sober and somewhat rested, it was his turn to drive. He climbed into the driver's seat and the insulin-dependent diabetic checked his blood sugar numbers. They were fine. So he chewed up a couple...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Thomas Dunne Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2006
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312330367
• ISBN 13: 9780312330361
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar