TJ and Levi Gray wake up each day, pick a spot on the map and say “let’s drive there.”
The brothers, aged 18 and 20, are professional bull riders. As such, they have the freedom most people dream about: driving on open roads with the windows rolled down, a new adventure each time the sun comes up.
“He’s my best friend,” TJ said of his older brother.
They have been attached to riding as long as TJ can recall. They started by riding sheep at the age of 3, then moved on to calves before braving the biggest animals of them all: bulls.
TJ and Levi come from a small town called Dairy, Oregon. Their parents, Jami and Tim Gray, spent time when their boys were young taking them on road trips to compete.
Now, the two brothers live out of a camper set up in the back of their pickup truck. They travel all over the country searching for rodeos to compete in, big or small.
TJ notes that their pickup truck “is nice because it has a shower and small kitchen.”
That’s significant, because his living situation this week doesn’t have either.
Most of the time, the brothers travel together in the truck and compete against each other in the same rodeo. Every now and again, as was the case on a chilly and windy Friday in Tucson, they’ll split up. Levi took their pickup to San Antonio to take part in a semifinal event in bull riding.
TJ stayed in Tucson with a spare van outfitted with an old mattress and a small refrigerator. Most 18-year-olds would compare the small cell to prison; for TJ, it’s heaven on earth.
“I couldn’t have dreamed anything better, it’s a lot of fun,” he said with a laugh and concedes, “it’s much better in the pickup, though.”
TJ gets all his meals at restaurants when he’s stuck with the van. He buys breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“If you’re making money, it ain’t bad,” he said.
Last fall, Gray enrolled in a junior college, but soon realized that juggling full-time school and full-time bull riding was a tough act. Rodeos are often weeklong events; add in travel time in the pickup and the length of the rodeos, and there’s little time for school.
So the 18-year-old made the tough call to follow his dreams. He dropped out.
“I’ll be a pro bull rider now,” he said, “and (I’ll) go back to school later.”
Bull riding has its bad days, of course. On Friday, TJ lost his grip on the bull right out of the chute and didn’t last more than 4 seconds.
“Everything just went bad, but nothing I can blame the bull on,” Gray said.
Over the next five days, TJ will slowly make his way to Fort Worth, Texas, where he’ll reunite with Levi. There’s another rodeo out there, somewhere.
“I look up to him a lot, he’s been a pro two years longer than I have,” he said. “It’s fun to see him after being apart awhile and then planning our next trip.”
