Howdy all y’all! This here’s Seth Axen in the armadillo state: Texas! Honestly, I have seen more stuffed armadillos, armadillo hackysacks, armadillo cardboard cutouts, armadillo t-shirts, armadillos, armadillo plush toys and armadillo-hide boots today than ever before in my life. As you have probably guessed, I still have not seen many of the things in that list.      Anyways, today was the Fine Arts competition. Jared (male soloist), Kayla and Brittany (female group), and Matt (accompanist) performed in the vocal category, and I must admit that they did an outstanding job! When we arrived, we immediately went inside to hear Jared sing. He performed a piece called “The Lord is My Light.” It was absolutely stunning!      We had to wait quite a while before Brittany, Kayla, and Matt had their turn, so we just sat around and passed around the journal. Consequently, there are two whole pages of doodles with random quotes interspersed among them. Soon, we were trading riddles and solving brain puzzles. I am confident that out IQ tests have improved by at least 17.3 points as a result of today’s activities.      When Brittany, Kayla, and Matt’s turn arrived, we reentered the room. They performed a small duet by Avalon called “The Glory.” Here, I must add my own comment saying that I positively adore this song now (primarily because of their amazing rendition of it).      Next, we returned to our rooms to get changed so we could go to the Stockyards. In my opinion, this place was a cross between England (with the cobblestones) and the old West (the building styles). We went straight to Billy Bob’s, so we could honestly say “We went into Billy Bob’s.” Next, we all rode a mechanical bull. That was hard because the saddle was really slippery. I believe the winners were Mr. Burkhead and Jared, but we were all winners in a way.      The Rodeo did not start for several hours, so we split up and went shopping in the many, many stores in that area. After donating a great deal of our funds to aforementioned establishments, we ate dinner in true cafeteria style and then went to the rodeo.      If you have ever attended a real honest-to-goodness rodeo, then you know how exciting they can be. Well, imagine an indoor rodeo stuffed full of over 1000 Varsity clubbers (and no one who was not in AWANA). At one point, they had a cowgirl ride out bearing the AWANA flag! In addition, they had two events where they selected about 30 people from the crowd and had them chase a sheep or a calf. I must admit that it was amusing to watch.      When the rodeo ended, we returned to our rooms. We wanted to party, but Mr. and Mrs. Burkhead told us not to. That made us sad, but at least we will be rested for tomorrow! And tomorrow is the Varsity Games competition!      Always yours,      Seth Axen