Sometimes you have to “take life by the horns” literally. I did. During a recent night out, I rode a mechanical bull for the first time in my life. It turned out to be one of the most craziest and silly things I’ve ever done. Truly, it was the highlight of my week, perhaps month.
Parish and I checked out the Electric Cowboy off of Interstate 30 in Little Rock. This was only our second visit in over three years, which tells you how much we think about the crazy club.
We were actually heading downtown to hang out at a piano bar, when my husband nonchalantly said, “Do you want to go to the Electric Cowboy?” Being in a spontaneous mood and glad to be out of the house, I headed in the direction of the neon sign.
If you’ve never been to the EC – let me preface by saying it’s not a quiet place to meet friends and sip a martini. Trucks occupy a majority of the parking lot and there is a snack cart outside waiting for hungry, inebriated people.
Inside, a humongous dance floor is surrounded by bar maidens waiting to serve you. It’s a great place to go when you want to dance and you don’t care who watches you boot, scoot and boogie. The Electric Cowboy is also a fantastic place to people watch, because of the previous reason.
The mechanical bull resides within the wild walls of the club and for some reason I decided to jump on. Parish rode the bull first and I laughed so hard I thought I was going to need oxygen. My husband is not your traditional looking cowboy, not one bit! Watching him with one arm flapping in the air and the other tightly gripping the rope was almost too much. For $5 you had two chances to stay on the bull for as long as you could. I didn’t time Parish, but I think he stayed on for about 25 seconds.
After he fell off for the second time, he asked if I wanted to try it. I hesitated for a moment as I looked at the slowly rocking bull. Then I thought, “What the heck?!”
One of the operators had to help me get on the bull and explained the simple instructions: wrap your legs around the neck and hold on. Slowly, my new friend started moving back and forth and then around in a circle. Part of the experience includes waving an arm in the air and shouting “Yow,” and “Yee-haw!” I was laughing so hard I could hardly get any audible word out. Parish said I squealed the whole time.
All I remember is a 360-degree view of the club, Parish cheering and me flopping on the red blowup mat. I’m not sure how long I stayed on the bull, but it was worth $5 and then some.
After the first go around, I wanted to try again, but spending $15 for less than 60 second of entertainment seemed a bit much. My forearm was sore the rest of the night – but I’m a tough cowgirl and put up with the pain.
We reminisced about our rides the rest of the night and the following morning. I’m smiling right now as I write this column – proving that taking life by the horns can be a fun $5 ride.