Birthday Greetings

Congratulations on another one!

My client asked me to post this picture for you. I can’t understand why anyone would send someone a picture of a cotton stripper for their birthday.



Now how about something you can really use - humor, wisdom & advice.

“Middle age is having a choice between two temptations and choosing the one that'll get you home earlier.” ~Dan Bennett

“Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair.” ~Sam Ewing





“In childhood, we yearn to be grown-ups. In old age, we yearn to be kids. It just seems that all would be wonderful if we didn't have to celebrate our birthdays in chronological order.” ~Robert Brault

“The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left.” ~Jerry M. Wright





“Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle.” ~Bob Hope

“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.” ~Larry Lorenzoni

“They say that age is all in your mind. The trick is keeping it from creeping down into your body.” ~Author Unknown

“Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.” ~Jennifer Yane




A simple celebration, a gathering of friends;
here is wishing you great happiness,
a joy that never ends.

The Bucket List

The “just for me” issue of Texas Monthly. You can build your own Bucket List cover at TexasMonthly.com. Kind of cool (fun, disturbing, neat, weird, fantastic, vain – you choose the correct adjective).

Busy December Start

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The first week of December is always busy. This year was no exception.

Monday found us back on the company plane headed to Denver for meetings. Didn’t have a chance to dine at any of our favorite places but we did enjoy staying at the Marriott South at Park Meadows.

Flying back to Amarillo on Tuesday evening we got to see a beautiful moon rise.



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Enjoyed the Amarillo Farm & Ranch tradeshow Wednesday morning. That afternoon we had a pleasant drive to Albuquerque for the New Mexico Stock Growers Convention.



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They had an auction fund raiser at the convention. My client and one of his customers made a few purchases and got their picture taken with the New Mexico State Fair Queen and the lady that is the out going president of the New Mexico Stock Growers Association. A fun time was had by all.

A great time to give thanks!

My client and I really enjoyed being back in the home office this week. Time spent with the feet propped up catching up on paperwork is always good.



We are all richly blessed and its good to take the time to count our blessings and praise God who makes it all possible. Hope you enjoyed the holiday with friends and family too.

McCook Nebraska and Garden City Kansas

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Travels this week took us back to Nebraska for a farm & ranch trade show in McCook. The two highlights was a great steak at the Lamplighter Cafe and pig races at the trade show.

On the way back we passed through Oakley KS and saw the Buffalo Bill sculpture. This magnificent sculpture of Buffalo Bill about to bring down a buffalo is on highway 83. It was created by sculptor and painter Charlie Norton.

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In 1868, William F. Cody -- "Buffalo Bill" -- was making his living as a contract buffalo hunter, feeding the crews laying tracks for the Kansas Pacific Railroad.

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This twice life-size statue is truly impressive.

Later that week we were back in Garden City for a night. My client took a customer to supper at Sammy’s Sprits and Steakhouse. This is a great place to eat and I highly recommend it next time you are in Garden City Kansas. The wait staff was super good and the owner even came out to visit with us.

WRCA Rodeo Finals – Amarillo TX

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The Working Ranch Cowboy Association rodeo finals were great this year. If you missed it, you will have to make plans to go next year. The WRCA is committed to preserving the heritage and lifestyle of the Working Ranch Cowboy. This is not your typical rodeo, its where ranching and rodeo collide!

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Wednesday Baxter Black kicked the 4 day event off with an enthusiastic performance with his stories and poetry.

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Events include: bronc riding, stray gathering, team penning, wild cow milking and calf branding.

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Congratulations to Sweetwater Cattle & Tom Drummond Ranch of Foraker and Pawhuska, Okla.

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There is also a fantastic trade and trappings show. To read more about WRCA and see more pictures click here.

This week there are two restaurants of the week.

One is Famous Dave’s in Amarillo. Its more of a Kansas City style bar-b-que and wonderfully done. The young lady that waited on us had an exceptionally good personality. This is another “must eat at” place. Here’s the link.

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A fantastic young lady took very good care of our dinning needs and request.

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The second one is Tacos Garcia. This is my favorite Mexican food place. Anytime my client and I are in Amarillo we have to have at least one meal here. If you haven’t eaten here, you’ve got to get here soon! Click here for the link

3 days and 1,004 miles in Northeast Texas.

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Early November is a great time to be in Northeast Texas. Various meetings took my client to Sulphur Springs, Fort Worth, McKinney, Clarksville and Paris.

The most unique town was Desert TX. Located on highway 121 between Melissa & Trenton, the community was named after the creek of the same name and settled around 1890. If the people that named the creek knew how dry it is farther west they would have named it Lotawater. Anyway click here read more about Desert TX.

The restaurant of the week was Rick’s Chop House in McKinney TX. Fantastic menu that in addition to a cowboy cut bone-in ribeye they have elk, salmon, sea bass and mountain trout. Rick's Chophouse is located in the historic Grand Hotel on the western quadrant of McKinney's town square.

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The Grand Hotel and the Grand Ballroom is beautifully restored. Looks like a neat place to spend the weekend with your significant other. The downtown area is very active and full of other delicious looking restaurants and boutique shops. This would be a wonderful place to spend an afternoon, shopping for the ladies and watering holes for the guys. Click here to read more about Rick’s Chop House

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Driving down the road I often see things that make me ask my self “why is that there”? On the road to Paris there is a small airport with a grass landing strip and to my surprise there is an old passenger plane beside a old hanger. I would like to know the whole story on that plane. I would really like to have seen them land it there on the grass runway.

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I love the Eiffel Tower in Pairs TX. Complete with cowboy hat, it’s the perfect monument for the town. The one in France may be bigger but is doesn’t have the hat.

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The best place to have breakfast in Paris TX is The Road House restaurant. Wonderful old style dinner complete with a dinning counter with round swivel stools. I understand their lunch and supper are great too. I’ll have to check that out the next time I am there.

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The road home took us past some points of historical interest. Did you know there is a road in Texas paved with GOLD? US 81 and US 287 in Montague County are paved with gold. When 39 miles of these roadways were paved in 1936, sand taken from a local pit was mixed with paving material. The sand contained gold but in small amounts. According a roadside historical marker, the gold in the sand was valued at 54 cents per ton, or $31,000 in these sections of highway.

Also Montague County was once a network of trails. One of the first area roads forged by white men was the Chihuahua Traders Trail of 1840. Blazed by merchants hoping to open a trade route from Mexico to St. Louis, Mo., this road crossed present Montague County and left tracks for later travelers. In 1841 came the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition; though it failed to open regular commerce between the Republic of Texas and Northern Mexico, this delegation also left a road and enforced the claims of Texas to Western territories.

In 1849 U.S. Army Capt. Randolph B. Marcy charted a "California Trail", using parts of older routes. This soon grew into a thoroughfare for forty-niners and sturdy pioneers who came later. In 1858 the famous Butterfield Overland Mail Line came across the county; and in the 1870's, as Texas was building her image as a cattle empire, Montague County was crossed by two feeder branches of the Chisholm Trail. In 1882, the county's first railroad followed much of the Texan-Santa Fe Trail. Today Highway 82 partly traces Marcy's route and other roads parallel many of these early trails.

As for cattle trails the “jumping-off point" on the famous Chisholm Cattle Trail, (1867-87), Red River Station was a main crossing and last place on trail to buy supplies until Abilene, Kan.--350 miles north. Red River Station is located straight north of Belcherville TX.

During the cattle drive era of Western history, millions of animals swam the turbulent river here en route to Kansas railhead and markets. An abrupt bend in the river checked its flow at this point, creating a natural crossing which had been used for years by buffalo and Indians. Even so, the water was wide, swift, and sometimes clogged with sand bars. Frequently cattle were so jammed cowboys could walk across on their backs.

Besides a cattle crossing, the station was an outpost of the frontier regiment, which patrolled Texas' northernmost border during Confederacy (1861-65). During cattle era, a town began here, its ferry serving drovers, soldiers, freighters, and settlers returning from Indian captivity. Local cemetery (1 mi. SE) contains many graves of these Texas pioneers.