Christmas Trees!

Yesterday I got back to Big Foot Ranch, at 2:00. And yes, I would have gotten back here sooner, but when adios-ing Alpine, after topping-off Roy's tank, I got behind a huge hay-hauling truck and I had to follow it all of the way to the first rest stop, on the other side of Fort Stockton.

It was great to be back home and after hugging all of our dogs and Tony. I made me a quick sandwich and then I went over to Carol's ranch to tell her all about my "research trip" and fact gathering mission, for my third novella—The Cowgirl Sisterhood: Ghost Riders In The Sand, Part III.

We were sitting out on her beautiful deck, watching the big fish swimming around her lake, when I told her, "I loved my cabin, at the Terlingua Ranch Lodge and I was lucky to get it, because they only had three vacancies left. Because there was this Christmas Tree convention staying there and the place was packed with friendly Christmas tree people..."

"What?" Carol asked me, followed by a chuckle. "Why would there be a Christmas tree convention, in the desert?"

"I don't know. I thought it was sort of weird too. Anyway, Jim Keaveny asked me to please tell you hi and he and...."

An hour later, Scout barked and he stood up on the deck. Scout is Carol's old, sweet, lovable black Lab that has the gigantic paws. And he and my Roy are famous, because our two, old Labs are in my Cowgirl Sisterhood novellas.

Anyway, Scout barked because he saw Tony driving up the driveway. So when Tony arrived, Bill came out on the deck to join us. And we had a fun visit. We talked about our awesome keyhole gardens, how much we love the hilarious Duck Dynasty show and then we changed the topic to fire ants and then to bees.

Tony and I took turns telling Bill (Carol already knew the hilarious story) about Tony's and Chet O'Keefe's over night trip to Port Aransas, many years ago, when they went down there to spend the night with Rick, at the lighthouse, on the island.

They went down there so they could bring back Rick's bees and bee equipment, because Rick was moving to Nicaragua. Rick was giving away all of this to Tony, so Tone could take over Rick's hobby and become a beekeeper too. And to say the least, "We were all laughing so hard my back began to ache, so we came home.

And speaking of Rick, our mutual friend Ronnie Namour, the music scene writer for the Island Moon, who came up with Rick, last Friday, to visit us, sent me the article that he wrote for the  Island Moon newspaper's May 24th Edition.

I loved reading his humorous story about his and Rick's Hill Country adventure and Ronnie even mentioned Tony and me and Kinky's CD release party, in his fun to read article. Here's the article, but I think that you will have to enlarge it to be able to easily read it:

Well today has been great. I slept like a log last night and I didn't crawl out of bed until 9:00 this morning, because the dream I was dreaming involved Christmas trees. And once again, the first thing that I did when I got out of bed was to hug our dogs and Tony, because I was so glad to be back home. Then I drank two cups of delicious Donut Shop Coffee.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

P.S. I just got off the phone with Carol. Tomorrow night our dear friend Stephen K. Morris will be playing, at the Medina Highpoint Resort. Carol & Bill and Tony and I are going. So y'all come on out, too.