February 13, 2009
When we moved out to Cave Creek in the 1980s it was remote and the desert between here and The Beast (Phoenix) was all wide open space.

Not so anymore.

Yesterday, Lee Anderson and photographer Allen Patrou set up a True West cover photo session down on Dynamite Road. When Lee sent me the time and details he included this Google map:

Notice the housing and commercial construction encroaching all around the photo shoot site. Now, here's a photo I took of the photo shoot:

We are looking southwest towards Desert Ridge ( a huge shopping mall development at the 101 and Tatum, just built within the last five years). But, by the angle of the shoot, it looks like wide open desert. Ha.

So when you see the September cover package on the mythical vaquero riding through wide open vistas you can chuckle and tell passersby, "Hey, wanna know the inside skinny on this cover?"

They probably won't believe you, but you have my permission to tell them the truth.

Speaking of wide open spaces, here are my sketches for the other night, straight out of my mind. When I get tired, I do these abstract, loosey goosies:

"The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult."
—Sir Winston Churchill