Sol Cranfill
Published in Editorial Redding Record Searchlight

If you hear shots being fired Wednesday morning, do not be alarmed, and get out your wallet.

The bullets won't be real, but the pancakes, sausage, coffee and milk being advertised will.

In a revival of an old gun-blazing tradition, shots will be heard 'round Redding as 25 to 30 businessmen dressed as cowboys will garner publicity for their annual Redding Rodeo Week pancake breakfast.

Rodeo Week this year is May 14-19. On Saturday of that week, the Asphalt Cowboys will serve the biggest breakfast of the year in Redding to thousands of hungry people on the portion of Market Street known during Rodeo Week as Roaring Gulch.

Wednesday, starting at 8:30 a.m., the cowboys will sit for about an hour atop wooden horses on a trailer and fire blanks toward the sky. They will follow a route from their Auditorium Drive clubhouse near the Redding Convention Center to the Discovery Village shopping center on Dana Drive and back to the clubhouse.

"We used to do it years ago but we kind of dropped it," said Duane Tomei, Asphalt Cowboys publicity chairman.

After blazing through town, the cowboys will fan out and attempt to sell tickets to "virtually every business in town," Tomei said. The breakfast tickets are $3.

The Asphalt Cowboys will also serve breakfast at Kool April Nites on Saturday. Those tickets, for $4, are available from any Asphalt Cowboy or by calling their clubhouse at 244-1117.

Reporter Sol Cranfill can be reached at 225-8217 or at scranfill@redding.com.

Sunday, April 15, 2001