Bucket List!

Today has been fun, but first I want to back up to yesterday morning. Rita, the woman from Las Cruces, New Mexico, visiting friends in Kerrville, who had called me on Sunday, about getting a private tour with her friends Monday morning, around 10:30 didn't happen.

Around 11:30, Rita's friend Carolyn called me, "Nancy, I am so sorry, but we have to cancel today's visit, because we had to rush Rita to the Emergency Room in Kerrville and everything is up in the air."

"Oh my goodness," I said. "Is she going to be alright?"

"We don't know. They put her on Morphine. Can we reschedule our visit for tomorrow morning?"

"Sure....." After we adios-ed each other I was very concerned about Rita's condition. When Tony and Brandon returned to The Cabin to eat lunch, I told them about Rita being in the hospital and maybe coming out on New Year's Day. "Tony, you know Rita mentioned that visiting our rescue ranch was on her Bucket List. What if she has already died and never got to see our rescue ranch?"

"She might have, Nance," Tony replied.

Early in the evening Kinky called me, "Nance, I'll be back at the ranch late tonight. How are The Friedmans doing?"

After we had discussed them, I told him about Rita. "Kinky, she may already be dead, but if not she might show up out here tomorrow."

"I doubt if she is dead, Nance." Then a few seconds later Kink and I chuckled about the funny/morbid situation, because weird things seem to happen out here. "If Rita and her friends come out tomorrow—I definitely want to meet Rita and her friends.

This morning, as I re-cleaned The Cabin, in case Rita and her friends showed up, I couldn't quit thinking about poor Rita, while Tony and Brandon did the morning chores outside.

Around 11:10, our dogs inside The Cabin, started barking, so I looked out the window and saw a silver car, that I didn't recognize, driving up to our trailer. "Tony, I think Rita is here!" I half-hollered, before going outside to greet whoever had driven up.

"Welcome to the rescue ranch," I said, to three women climbing out of a car that had New Mexico license plates.

"Are you Cousin Nancy?"

"Yes. Are you Rita?"

"Yes, I am, but my name is Ria, not Rita and I am still wearing my hospital bracelet, because I am still on Morphine."

"I'm sorry, Ria. I am hard of hearing and I thought you said, "Rita." Then I recognized her friend Bonny and greeted her. Then Bonny introduced me to her sister Carolyn. After we had all hugged each other Tony and I gave them a grand tour of the rescue ranch, as we talked about our dogs and about Ria's visit to the Emergency Room.

Apparently, Ria has been seeing all kinds of doctors and taking MIR's etc. trying to find out what is causing her pain in her neck with no results. And the reason Ria went to Peterson Regional Memorial Hospital was because she started having really bad chest pains and thought she was having a heart attack. Then she told us, "Fortunately, it wasn't a heart attack."

"I bet it is your gallbladder," Tony diagnosed. "Nancy and I have known a lot of people who thought they were having heart attacks and it was their gallbladder."

"They've tested my gallbladder and it is fine..."

When we ended the tour we invited the women into the The Cabin, so we could visit some more and drink some coffee. Twenty minutes later, I asked them if they would like to meet Kinky and they all said, "Yes!"

Then I called Kinky. "Kinky, I have three women here and I wanted to know if I could bring them over?"

"Is it Rita?" He asked. Does she look like she's on her death bed?"

"Yes, but her name is Ria not Rita and she looks real healthy to me. We'll be there in just a minute."

Our visit at The Lodge was a lot of fun. They got their pictures taken with Kinky and before we left, Kinky invited us to toast the New Year, with his Man In Black Tequila.

Carolyn and Bonny accepted his invitation, but I declined, because I swore off tequila, when I lived in Crested Butte, Colorado. "I'll have some, too," Ria declared.

"You can't, Ria, because you are still on Morphine," one of the sisters said. Then Bonny ran out to their car and retrieved Ria's medical records folder. "Ria, it says no alcohol." And Ria seemed disappointed.

After Kinky poured the sisters and his shot glasses, I said, "Let's toast to Ria not being dead and scratching us off her bucket list." Then they clinked their glasses together and Ria and I touched their shot glasses.

As they sipped the tequila I said, "Ria, I'm glad that you're not dead and please don't drop dead here."

When it was time for us to leave, one of the sisters suggested that Kinky autograph Ria's medical records and he signed it, "To Ria, I'm glad you're not dead, yet."

Later this afternoon, Kinky treated Brandon, Tony and me to lunch, in Kerrville and we had a good time and that is about it for tonight, because I am going to start writing on Part II of The Cowgirl Sisterhood: The Membership Drive.

Y'all have a great New Year!

A Bed Of Chocolate!

Yesterday was a great day, because late in the day, we went to Kinky's Man In Black Tequila bottle signing party at Spec's, in Kerrville and we had a blast. The gigantic liquor store was packed with all kinds of people, standing in line to get Kinky to sign their bottles of Man In Black tequila, along with a few guitars and one ukelele.

Before they sold out of Kinky's tequila, Tony and I took a lot of pictures of Kinky's and our friends. I love this black and white picture that Tony took of Kinky's tequila business partner Brian Kanof.

Dylan Ferrero and Little Jewford

Gerry Olert, Little Jewford and Kink

Jay Pennington, Big G and yours truly

Jay Pennington with Little Jewford

Max Swafford with L.J.

My favorite videographer, Gerry Olert and guess who?

Today has been good, but it is fixing to be great, because our dear friends Leisa and Rick, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper" from Port A, will be arriving here, around 7:30 and we can't wait to see them.

Earlier today, after I did some paperwork, I cleaned our trailer, vacuumed the walls and ceiling on the front porch and Outer Space and then Tony and I went out to my writing cabin to get it ready for our friends. 

While we were making up their bed I started laughing, "Tony, instead of putting a little piece of chocolate on their pillowcases, like they do at fancy hotels, we should get Ben's three, giant bricks of Miles of Chocolate out of the freezer and put them in the middle of the bed." Tony chuckled about it. "Rick would get a kick out of seeing a bed of chocolate—his bed of chocolate, and he would feel good about you paying off the kayak."

So, in about thirty minutes, we are going to go outside to put the three, frozen bricks of Miles of Chocolate on Leisa and Rick's bedspread—then T. will officially be the new owner of his kayak as soon as Rick sees it. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Unveiling Party!

Today has been a total blast. This morning after T. and me did our morning chores outside, we grabbed my old saddle out of the barn and took it into Outer Space, so I could start cleaning it up, because it has not been used for years.

After Tony had read the instructions on how to use Horseman's One Step cleaning and conditioning he told me to go get some rags, so he could help me clean it up, which I thought was very nice of him to do. And thirty minutes later, after we had cleaned and conditioned the old leather—my saddle looked a whole lot better. "The directions recommend cleaning old leather saddles several times, so tomorrow we will clean it again," Tony said. "We had better go clean up, so we can go to Kinky's Man In Black Tequila unveiling party."

When we arrived at The Main Liquor Store, in Kerrville, around 1:45—the parking lot was filled with cars and trucks and people were standing in line outside, waiting to get inside to buy Kinky's tequilas and get him to autograph their bottles and get their pictures taken with him.

Before we went inside to find Kinky we saw our friends Harley Belew of KRVL Classic Rock 94.3 REVFM and Big G (Gordon Ames) of Big G's Texas Roadshow on The Real Deal 93.5 and KOOK 1230 KERV doing a remote, so on our way over to say "howdy" to them we saw our dear friend Gerry Olert, the best videographer in Texas. Guess which one is Big G.

After  howdies, hugs and handshakes with Gerry, Harley and Big G, they surprised me, "Okay, Nancy, you'll be the first to do our Kinky Man In Black Tequila remote with us. Put these on." I started laughing, as I put on a huge set of headphones with a mic, that looked like something I would have worn when I listened to my music back in the 70's. Then Gerry grabbed his video camera and started filming Big G and me talking on air, in the parking lot, about our rescue ranch. So, T. stood behind Gerry and shot all of us.

After we had a fun visit with our friends, Tony shot me next to a gigantic Man In Black tequila poster. Then we went inside the crowded liquor store.

The unveiling party of the tequila, which was the first one ever, was so much fun. Everyone was laughing and having a great time inside and the two musicians playing, blew me away with their talent. While our friend Gerry walked around videotaping the extravaganza, we had a blast running into old friends and people who have adopted dogs from us and visiting with them. All in all, it was like a family reunion for us. Here are some pictures that T. took. The first one is with Max Swafford (in the middle) visiting with his famous musician friends, bass player Greg Forest and lead guitarist and singer Ronnie Leatherman.

Here is Kinky with his Kerrville Folk Festival friends, Rod Kennedy and Dalis Allen.

Here is Gerry Olert posing with Kinky

And here is Copper Love, Dylan Ferrero and me visiting.

Before 3:00, there was good news and bad news. The good news was they sold completely out of Kinky's tequilas and the bad news was they sold completely out of Kinky's tequilas, because the liquor store was still full of people wanting to buy an autographed bottle(s) of Man In Black tequila, but everyone seemed fine with it and they signed up and prepaid for a bottle. And that is when Tony and I said goodbye to our friends, because we needed to get back to the rescue ranch.

As Kinky walked with us outside to say goodbye to us, we had a wonderful surprise waiting for us when we walked up to Buttermilk—our dear friends that we haven't seen for several years, Dianne and Len, from Round Rock, Texas, walked up to greet us. After howdies, hugs and handshakes we had a fun time catching up with each others news and because they made me laugh so much, my back is still aching a little. T. took this picture of us laughing.

On our way home Tony and I talked and laughed about how much fun we had at the unveiling party. I wish that all of y'all could have been there.

Y'all have a great evening!