Another year at Houston's annual rodeo has drawn to a close, and we survived another visit. As always, the rodeo was home to some truly bizarre and not remotely healthy choices, including a wide variety of truly mediocre bar-b-que, a selection of unremarkable hamburgers, a plethora of items impaled on stick, and an assortment of things we never thought could be fried.

In other words, business as usual in Rodeo food.

We're Texans. We enjoy haute cuisine, but we love a great burger or a slab of BBQ just as much. And when the burger isn't up to snuff, or the BBQ is mass produced instead of lovingly smoked, we console ourselves with the necessary accompaniment to fast food in Texas: Dr Pepper.

But we were surprised by one small fact that has been overlooked in the numerous reviews we've read:

We couldn't find Dr Pepper at the Rodeo.

Apparently Coca-Cola has an exclusive with the Rodeo, and that extends to the supposedly independent concession stands. We searched the midway, and all we found were Coca-Cola products.

Why is the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo giving an Atlanta company an exclusive, locking out the Texas-based Dr Pepper?