The season can change in a New York minute

It was a disappointing start to the Built Ford Tough Series. It's not like I rode that bad in Baltimore, but I didn't ride that good either.

I rode one of my bulls right to the whistle and I slapped my other one, but the good news is it's the beginning of the season and I still have that fire rolling.

One bad weekend doesn't ruin an entire season.

Now we're going to New York City for an event at Madison Square Garden and, yeah, it's exciting. Right now I'm on my way to the airport.

I'm going to get a chance to go on the Rachael Ray Show. I know it sounds kind of weird, but I'm actually excited about it.

I also know that I'm going to a New York Rangers game on Wednesday night. I don't actually know what I'm going to do there, but it's for some PR so, I think, I might even get to talk during the intermission.

I wasn't actually going to be there this early, but I got a call asking if I could be there early enough to go to the game and then about 30 minutes later Rachael Ray's producers called me to come in early to record some extra stuff.

Between going to Rachael's show and the Rangers game that's pretty exciting. The game is a pretty cool deal because I'll get a feel for what Madison Square Garden is like with that much energy in it.

Then on Thursday morning I'll be with Randy Bernard and J.B. Mauney to ring the bell and open the New York Stock Exchange.

To have all that rolled into one weekend is pretty big and that's not counting how well I'm going to do at the event. I have a feeling it's going to be a great weekend.

I've never actually been to New York City, so it's a first for me, and I'm really excited about having a chance to ride in Madison Square Garden -- every great sports hero has been to The Garden and competed there, so that's a great highlight for me.

I was talking to someone the other day and they were asking me what I thought about the 2009 season and I said, "I think this is going to be a great year."

It's definitely going to be the best year that I ever had, but it's not going to be as good as 2010. I say that for the same reason that I say today is not going to be as good as tomorrow.

I'm definitely excited and ready to see what this year has in store.

I've got the fire coming off a World Finals in which I did extremely well at – not as well as I would have liked to – but, I mean, rolling into Madison Square Garden I kind of feel the way I did rolling into the Finals.

And it's something that I've been looking forward to. It's only the start of what's going to be a great year.