A 92-mile trek

Along for the trail ride: Horses, wagons, red iPods and a space stop make for arollicking Rodeo tradition

Star, left, and Julie, right — the noble steeds that carried my covered wagon —cozing up during a brief break.
Photo by Whitney Radley
Left to Right: Trail Ride PR committee member Shelly Millwee, JenniferHernandez, Rosie Doucet, Alejandra Badillo, Lisa Olney, Destiny Davis and MiyaConnor.
Photo by Whitney Radley
The cavalcade merging with traffic.
Photo by Whitney Radley
Entering the NASA grounds.
Photo by Whitney Radley

At a parking lot along NASA Parkway in Webster on Tuesday, horses sidled up to the water trough instinctively while ladies and gentlemen queued up at the portable toilet trailer.

This is a place where cowboy hats and boots serve a practical purpose: It was a much-needed stop along the route for horses and riders who have been on the trail since Saturday morning, braving torrential rain and blistering cold, all in the name of tradition.

Dario Romero, an 82-year-old trail ride veteran, bobbed his head and waved his hands along to loud music blasting from the wagon's speakers.

Trail rides have been an integral part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo for 60 years, and the Texas Independence Trail Ride — a 200-member cavalcade making the 92-mile trek from Brazoria each year since 1961 — is just one of a dozen rides that will converge at Memorial Park on Friday to kick off the rodeo.

The cavalcade stopped and picked up a handful of female students from the Girls Inc. organization at Chinquapin Prep. Miya Connor (ninth grade), Destiny Davis (11th), Alejandra Badillo (12th) and Jennifer Hernandez (11th) were selected to ride a portion of the trail with a female trail boss: Rose Doucet, a small but spicy lady with spurs on her boots and feathers in her hair.

For my part, I was assigned to the covered wagon led by the Lee Road crew from Rosharon. To my left sat Dario Romero, an 82-year-old trail ride veteran who bobbed his head and waved his hands along to loud music blasting from the wagon's speakers, selected by Ruben Longoria from a little red iPod.

On the front bench, Sam Longoria held the reigns for Star and Julie, 4-year-old half sisters on their first trail ride. Friends and family members, including Sam Longoria's 14-year-old son, flanked the wagon, singing with abandon and encouraging the young, strong horses along.

By two o'clock, the clouds had burned off, and the day was perfect for an afternoon outdoors. Together we made the rest of the trek to the Johnson Space Center, stopping at schools and holding up traffic along the way.

There, on NASA's grounds, the cavalcade will dance, eat, camp and rest before the next leg of the route. Wednesday, they head to Pasadena.

unspecified series568664023

Unhappy holidays

Porch pirates swipe nearly $2B in packages from Texas homes this year

Porch Pirate Person in Glasses Steals Packages

Getty Images

The Grinch isn't the only one stealing Christmas these days.

’Tis the season for porch pirates. If past trends are an indicator, the Grinch will swipe close to $2 billion worth of packages delivered to Texas households this year, with many of those thefts happening ahead of the holiday season.

An analysis of FBI and survey data by ecommerce marketing company Omnisend shows porch pirates stole more than $1.8 billion worth of packages from Texans’ porches last year. Porch pirates hit nearly one-third of the state’s households in 2024, according to the analysis.

Omnisend’s analysis reveals these statistics about porch piracy in Texas:

30.1 million residential package thefts in 2024.
An average household loss of $169 per year.
An annual average of 2.9 package thefts per household.

“Most stolen items are cheap on their own, but add them up, and retailers and consumers are facing an enormous bill,” says Omnisend.

Another data analysis, this one from The Action Network sports betting platform, unwraps different figures regarding porch piracy in Texas.

The platform’s 2025 Porch Pirate Index ranks Texas as the state with the highest volume of residential thefts, based on 2023-24 FBI data.

Researchers at The Action Network uncovered 26,293 reports of personal property thefts at Texas residences during that period. The network’s survey data indicates 5 percent of Texas residents had a package stolen in the three months before the pre-holiday survey.

The Porch Pirate Index calculates a 25.8 percent risk of a Texas household being victimized by porch pirates, putting it in the No. 5 spot among states with the highest risk of porch piracy.

The Action Network included online-search volume for terms like “package stolen” and “porch pirates.” Sustained spikes in these searches suggest that “people are actively looking for guidance after something has happened. Search trends serve as an early warning system, revealing emerging-risk areas well before annual crime statistics are released,” the network says.

Tips to avoid being a victim
So, how do you prevent porch pirates from snatching packages that end up on your porch? Omnisend, The Action Network and Amazon offer these eight tips:

Closely monitor deliveries and quickly retrieve packages.
Schedule deliveries for times when you’ll be home.
Use delivery lockers or in-store pickup when possible.
Ask delivery services to hide packages in out-of-sight spots outside your home.
Install a visible doorbell camera or security camera.
Coordinate deliveries with neighbors or building managers if you’ll be away from your home when packages are supposed to arrive.
Request that delivery services hold your packages if you can’t be home when they’re scheduled to come.
Illuminate the path to your doorstep and keep porch lights on.

holidays porch pirates crime