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.

Madison WI – San Antonio TX

Cowboy Stadium
Flying through DFW recently our landing approach flew us right over the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. The stadium is the largest domed stadium in the world, has the world's largest column-free interior, and the largest video screen hung from 20 yard line to 20 yard line. It was completed on May 27, 2009 and seats 80,000, but is expandable to hold up to 112,000 through the use of standing areas. It’s a beautiful structure as you can see in the picture. Notice how small the cars look compaired to the stadium.

World Dairy Expo
My client and I spent the better part of a week at the World Dairy Expo in Madison Wisconsin. A crowd of 68,000 dairy industry enthusiasts attended the event. It's the international meeting place for the dairy industry. The expo offers the most elite combination of dairy cattle and exhibits in the world.

Fascinating modern dairy equipment and the newest dairy technology and innovations, including animal health supplies, milking systems, feeding products, forage handling and manure equipment plus embryos, semen and genetic research. Also America's top dairy cattle compete for honors in seven breed shows. The education seminars on dairy management and other industry issues were excellent.

My client and some of his associates met with many leading dairy producers and companies from around the world. Sometimes it’s challenging visiting with someone from Peru and then two minutes later visiting with someone from France, or Brazil, or China, or Turkey (the country, not the Texas town – however that could be a challenge too).

While there my client had an opportunity to do a little daughter-in-law shopping. Jamie is 24 and works as a model. She also has a younger brother. We didn’t get to meet him but my client is son-in-law shopping too.

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Here is a link to pictures of the expo (click Pictures - World Dairy Expo). My client is in one of the Tuesday pictures. If you find the picture send me an email and I will send you a Alice On The Road T-Shirt. My email is aliceontheroad@cebridge.net

Bellini Italian Restaurant
While in Madison we dined at a very unique Italian restaurant. Bellini's Restaurant is located in an old church originally built in 1897. The church's stained glass windows, altar chairs, and even pews have been kept intact and reused for the restaurant. The basement area of the church has also been updated to serve as an "overflow" seating area. Bellini's offers Italian/Sicilian cuisine. The Gargano family has owned and operated Bellini's for over 40 years now. One of my clients’ associates has been a frequent customer for many years and is a fond friend of one of owners.

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The food was fantastic. In fact it was so fantastic we ate there two nights in a row. The first night I had the Fantasia Pizza with shrimp, sausage, chicken, garlic sauce, crushed red peppers plum tomatoes, and mozzarella. The second night I had the Fettuccine al Giovanni a classic alfredo tossed with fettuccini pasta, proscuitto, and Italian sausage. This is a definite eat-at-again place. Visit their website click Bellini Italian Restaurant and then click on the stained glass window.


Forth Worth Fly By
We didn’t get to fly on the company plane this trip. Darn! Yep, the service on the other commercial flight is not what my client and I are use to. Just glad we finely made it home. On the departure from DFW we made a low pass by downtown Forth Worth. “Cowtown” is a fun place. Can’t wait to get back there.


San Antonio International

Farm & Ranch Expo
Our next event was in San Antonio Texas helping a valued customer with a tradeshow there. Our first evening in town my client, his customer, another friend and I drove to San Marcos to have supper with a ranch customer. We dined at Texas Reds. This award winning Texas-style steakhouse is housed in a beautifully restored historic cotton gin that will interest history buffs and novices alike. Click here to read the history.

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Texas Reds originally opened in Red River, NM in 1967 by Texan siblings, Bill Gill, Martha Gill Stephens, and John Gill. Over time, it evolved from being a small burger joint to a steakhouse, where people traveled from miles, even states away, just to eat one of Texas Reds famous steaks.

In 1991, Bill’s daughter and her husband moved to San Marcos to continue the Texas Reds legacy. Since then, Troy and Nancigail Miller have been serving San Marcos great steaks in a unique atmosphere. This is a must-eat-at restaurant if you are in San Marcos.


Piedras Negras de Noche
My client and I always enjoy dining where the locals eat. Often we will ask what they recommend. An established San Antonio native recommended Piedras Negras de Noche, near the old San Antonio Stockyards. Heck yes, this is what I'm talking about. Mexican food that is not the typical Tex-Mex "let's cover everything with orange queso" dish. It looks like a restaurant that took over an old Pizza hut building, off the highway in a shady looking area. But the food here is legit. It was true Mexican food. This was spicy good not just spicy hot (though it did make my eyebrows sweat).



Saltgrass on the Riverwalk
The Saltgrass Steakhouse is always a favorite. The one on the riverwalk is extra special because of the view. We dined upstairs on the veranda, outside, overlooking the riverwalk. It was nice to enjoy the pleasant San Antonio weather and watch all the people wandering up and down the riverwalk. The young lady that served our table was fantastic, very personable and recognized right away that we were there to enjoy the evening. It is so nice to meet smart, out-going, talented young people. I appreciate her letting me take a picture of her standing with my client.
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Saturday Night Date At Home
Got to ride back home on the company plane so my client could take his wife out on a date Saturday night. They went to see the “Time Traveler's Wife”. She commented that she can relate to the wife in the movie.

Various Pic’s From Recent Travels

Sulphur Springs Texas



Sulphur Springs Court House – Constructed 1895.
The town square in Sulphur Springs is a dramatically different place. A vintage J. Riely Gordon courthouse occupies the northeast corner of the spacious town square. This offset location is both by choice and chance. The previous courthouse was built on the east side of the original town square. When that building burned down in 1894, a decision was made to buy additional property east of the town square and build the present day courthouse on the northeast corner of the enlarged town square.The net result of all these events in Hopkins County is a spacious public square with plenty of room for parking and public gathering. Along the eastern side of the square there's a bandstand and a small yard with trees and benches. The parking lot and walkways on the square are paved with red bricks. This adds a vintage feel to the place, and also creates a dramatic approach to the county courthouse.


LouViney Winery & Bistro
While you are enjoying the fabulous downtown area of Sulphur Springs be sure to have lunch, supper, or an afternoon wine at LouViney. LouViney Vineyards & Winery LLC established and bonded as a Texas Winery in 2005 by Susann Briggs, Nancy Briggs, and Susan Jones. It is the first commercial winery in Hopkins and Wood County. The name "LouViney" is our mother's nickname given to her by her grandfather.


Ogallala Nebraska – Front Street
Gateway of the Northern Plains; that was Ogallala from 1870 to 1885. Hard-bitten Wyoming and Montana cattleman met in Ogallala's hotel and saloons with Texas Cattle kings and bargained over cattle prices. Gold flowed freely across the table, liquor across the bar, and occasionally blood across the floor as a bullet brought some unlucky cowhand to his death on the floorboards of "Tuck's Saloon."

Ogallala's early history was unspectacular; it promised to be nothing but a section house and water tank for the railroad. Then, in the spring of 1868 appeared three men to set the destiny of Ogallala. These men were the Longergan brothers and Louis Aufdengarten. The Lonergan brothers came to do construction work for the Union Pacific Railroad, but they found the plains to their liking, subsequently then became interested in Ogallala.

By 1876, Ogallala had changed from its infant days in1868. The stores were all south of the railroad tracks. The stores fronted what was called Railroad Street. Aufdengarten's general store was on the corner of the intersection of this street and the trail leading south to the Platte River. Along this trail extended the rest of the town. The town consisted of saloons with such names as "The Cowboy's Rest" and the "Crystal Palace." The last building on the street was the "Ogallala House" -the dining room was widely patronized because of its excellent fare.

The tempo of living in early Ogallala changed with the seasons. During the months of winter and early spring life was drab and dreary. Shortly after the first of June the town began to hum with activity as the first Texas trail herds started to arrive. During the three summer months business boomed -ten to twelve herds, each of two thousand five hundred head could be located south of town. The presence of a hundred or more trail hands taxed the facilities of Ogallala. Sleeping rooms and meals were hard to find when the trail hands were in town. Activities in Ogallala continued at a fever pitch until the end of August, by then the Texans were heading back to Texas. By November, Ogallala had settled back in quiet and peaceful repose.


Lobster In Nebraska
One of the restaurants we dined at in Nebraska had a steak & lobster combo on the menu. Just what I was hungry for. But then I noticed one of the painting hanging in the restaurant. It was a kitchen scene. I was confused by the two chefs and the lobster. Not sure what they were discussing, I decided to just order the steak.

Beaver Dam Kentucky

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Beaver Dam Inn - Funny name, good place to stay. However it's just another dam hotel!

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This was a really cool retro Denny's.

Bill Monrow – The Father of Bluegrass Music – Beaver Dam KY
Lots of new generation country musicians talk about their cultural roots, but not pioneering songwriter-singer-mandolinist Bill Monroe. Nearly a half century after being dubbed "the Father of Bluegrass" for his inestimable role in defining and popularizing that strain of country music.

Dallas Fly By
On the way home the “company plane” made a low pass over downtown Dallas. It means we are getting close to home. That’s a good feeling.

Fort Smith

Alice On The Road - My client and one of his customers attended a conference in Fort Smith Arkansas. They both particularly enjoyed the bidding auction fund raiser. In addition to winning the bid for the framed cattle trail map and the red long handle underwear (signed by Miss Arkansas Beef) the highlight was having their picture taken with the raining Miss Arkansas Beef and this years candidates.

Fort Smith

Fort Smith span the years 1817-1896. Soldiers, laundresses, Native Americans, civilians, federal judges and marshals, deputy marshals, jail guards, lawyers, and outlaws all played a role in the history that unfolded here.

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The groundwork for Fort Smith's role in U.S. and Arkansas history was laid early and deep, as the native tribes that originally peopled the area during the Stone Age established communities in what later became valued and contested lands.

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Early inhabitants of western Arkansas have been characterized as "bluff dwellers" whose civilization dates back to 10,000 BC. The bluff dweller culture was absorbed into that of invading tribes, and by the time that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto ventured into Arkansas in 1541, the most numerous Arkansas residents were of the Quapaw tribe.

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In 1682, French explorer Robert cavelier de La Salle claimed the area for France as part of the Louisiana Territory. In Arkansas and back east, relocation of native peoples soon began as early European settlers required more land on which to live, hunt, and farm.

The later 1700s saw an increasing mix of native tribes west of the Mississippi, not all of who were on friendly terms. Closer proximity naturally resulted in heightened tensions and conflicts, endangering not just the tribe members themselves but also the increasing population of fur traders and pioneers who were employing the Arkansas River Valley as a funnel into the southwest.

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After Arkansas became an official part of the United States as the District of Arkansas in 1803, the federal government perceived a need to intervene in intertribal hostilities on the western edge of the burgeoning country.

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A new fort was established in 1817 on the banks of the Arkansas River where it meets the Poteau River, on a promontory of bluffs called Belle Point; the fort was named for General Thomas Smith of the federal garrison in St. Louis. For the next seven years, Fort Smith military personnel arbitrated clashes between the Osage and Cherokee tribes, negotiated treaties, and also patrolled the borders of the United States that were contested by Spain.

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For twenty-one years, Judge Isaac C. Parker held the bench of the U.S. Court for the Western District of Arkansas. His tenure was unique in the history of the federal judiciary; while most U.S. district judges toiled away on civil cases, Parker heard thousands of criminal complaints involving disputes and violence between Indians and non-Indians. He sentenced 160 people to death, and for fourteen years he did so while the condemned had no right of appeal.

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(The Gallows at Fort Smith)

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Remembered in Western novels and films as a "Hanging Judge," Isaac Parker's real career and accomplishments in Fort Smith are far more fascinating and complicated.

Questions & Knowledge

One of the fun parts of traveling is asking questions. Why is that like that? How did that get there? Why do they call it that? You get the idea. Well here are some answers to questions I had on recent travels.

Why do they call it College Station?

The Houston and Texas Central Railway built through the area in 1860. In 1871 the site was chosen as the location of the proposed Texas A&M College, which opened in 1876. In 1877 a post office, College Station, was opened in a building near the railroad tracks, and the community took its name from the post office. A railroad depot was constructed in 1883; By 1884 the community had 350 inhabitants and two general stores. Faculty members generally lived on campus in housing provided by the university. College Station received electrical service in the 1890s; the population was 391 in 1900.

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College Station 1883

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Do the Arbuckle mountains, Wichita mountains and the Amarillo Uplift (aka Amarillo mountains) have anything in common?

Yes, they are all part of a mountain range that runs east/west. The Wichita-Amarillo and Arbuckle mountains are the furthest east part of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. The Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma, and part of the Arbuckle Mountains of southern Oklahoma, are the surface expression of the Cambrian Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen. The Amarillo Mountains lay buried 1,500 feet beneath the high plains.

The Arbuckle Mountains are an ancient mountain range in south-central Oklahoma in the United States. The Arbuckle’s date back to 540-440 million years ago in the latest Precambrian and earliest Paleozoic era, and reach a height of 1,412 feet above sea level. Click to read more.

Pictures of the Wichita Mountains (click on the pic's for a larger view).

The Wichita Mountains are located in southwestern Oklahoma. The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, a favorite for hikers and rock climbers in the region, is located adjacent to Cache, Oklahoma, Medicine Park, Oklahoma, and historic Meers, Oklahoma while just a short drive from Lawton, Oklahoma. The Field Artillery capital of the world, Fort Sill, occupies the southern part of the range. Click to read more.

Amarillo Mountains -- -- Folks here on the High Plains are being deprived of their view of the mile-high mountains that stretch across the central Panhandle.

But the Amarillo Mountains are buried deep . . . deep below the Rocky Mountain sweepin's that were brushed into our corner roughly 100- to 200 million years ago, say geophysicists and explorers who have spent years studying the Panhandle's hidden treasures. We would have to dig 2,500 feet just to see the mountain range's tallest peak, in northeast Potter County under the Alibates National Monument.

The submerged granite mountains, lined by shallow faults and vast basins of oil and gas, would be part of the Wichita Mountain range in Lawton, Okla.

About 300 million years ago, the Wichita and Amarillo mountains were forced up out of the earth by a fault that begins in Dallas and stretches into northern New Mexico. The Appalachian Mountains were formed about the same time. Click to read more.


Was the Spindletop oil well in the East Texas oil field at Kilgore Texas?

No, Spindletop was drilled at Beaumont but the oil field known as the richest acre in the world is at Kilgore.

Kilgore Texas

Home to the world’s richest acre. 24 wells on 1.195 acres of land produced 2,500,000 barrels of oil.

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In the 1940s, a drive through Kilgore was unlike any other excursion into East Texas. More than 1,000 wooden oil derricks -- perhaps the most visible evidence of the East Texas oil boom -- lined the town’s streets. During the Christmas season, lights were hung on many of the derricks. And one plot of ground was known as “the world’s richest acre.” Click to read more.

.(click on the pic for a larger view)

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Spindletop~ Beaumont Texas

There had long been suspicions that oil might be under "Spindletop Hill." The area was known for its sulfur springs and bubbling gas seepages that would ignite if lit. In August 1892, George W. O'Brien, George W. Carroll, Pattillo Higgins and others formed the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company to do exploratory drilling on Spindletop Hill. The company drilled many dry holes and ran into trouble, as investors began to balk at pouring more money into drilling with no oil to show for it. Click to read more.

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This week’s top pick “best place to eat” is Dieter Brothers in Lindsey Texas. Great Bar-B-Q!

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Dieter Bros. purchased the old Metzler Bros. Drive Inn in 1997. The original Metzler Bros. was established in 1947 in Oklahoma, and later relocated in Lindsay, TX in 1960. The business was operated by the Metzler family until its sale to the Dieters in 1997. After a period of remodel, the Dieter Bros, Pat and John re-opened the restaurant for business. Dieter Bros Restaurant is located 4 miles West of Gainesville, TX on U.S. Hwy. 82 in the small town of Lindsay TX. Click to read more.