It’s been a few years since I was in southeast Texas, but I’m back.

It’s time for the Waller County Fair and Rodeo, which is in its second season as part of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. It’s a pretty big draw for the first weekend of the 2013 season and will feature dozens of National Finals qualifiers and several world champions.

How important is rodeo in this part of the country? Of the nine days of the fair, there is a rodeo-type event happening eight. On Tuesday night, there was a calf roping, which was won by two-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier Cory Solomon of Prairie View, Texas, which, as it happens, is in Waller County.

Solomon bettered a field that included Justin Maass, the top-ranked tie-down roper in the PRCA. Fair officials are plenty excited about this week’s festivities, and they should be. Fans from all over this area just northwest of Houston will get one heck of a rodeo to close out the celebration.