March 28, 2010
Just finished a dozen new True West Moments over at the National Ranching Heritage Center. We had a spotty day yesterday with high winds and overcast skies. Only got six segments in the can, including four out at an abandoned county jail in Clairemont, Texas, about 70 miles east of Lubbock. Had to tape on the downwind side of the two story structure and even then my new hat blew off on the very first take. Caught it. Whew!

Hey, Flying R, had on your custom hatband and it looked mighty purdy. Thanks.

After a lunch of Texas style bar-b-que in Dickens (north of Spur, Texas, great name!) we motored, caravan style, back to Lubbock and tried to tape at the Ranching complex, but the light was spotty with heavy overcast skies, and the wind was bitter cold and finally, the teleprompter battery went dead so the producer, Jeff Hildebrandt called it a day at about four.

The locals recommended Josie's Mexican food on University, so we all headed over there for dinner and had a nice meal (had the chicken fajitas with homemade tortillas. Ay-Yi-Yi!) and we had a nice time, with the crew members from San Antonio, telling us their favorite celebrity horror stories. Let's work backwards: the guys they liked to work with are Tony Parker of the Spurs and Tim Duncan (although he can be shy), George Strait and Henry Cisneros (a Texas politico). On the other side of the fence, well, let's just say Tommy Lee Jones, is a handful, but then I've heard that before from others. Val Kilmer also sounds like a challenging assignment.

Made me wonder what they will tell on me at future shoots:"That damn BBB he wouldn't shut up about Billy the Kid!"

Got out to the Ranching Heritage Center at 8:15 this morning and ripped out three right off the bat, then broke for lunch (Emily from the NRHC took us to Spanky's, a Texas Tech hangout). Weather really improved in the afternoon with a cloudless sky and higher temps and the wind even died down to a gentle roar. (a local Lubbock-ite told me to watch for dangling chains. If the chain is blowing straight out, it's going to be a mild day. Now, if the chain links start breaking off. . .you can expect real bad weather.)

The Ranching Center has painstakingly moved and refurbished a wide variety of ranch buildings, including Los Corralitos (Little Corrals) a very early, 1783, ranch house with no windows and 33-inch-walls. Yep, windows were too dangerous in Commanche-Apache country, but they did have a couple gun ports. Amazing. I really enjoyed the grounds, and walked the whole dang place after we finished taping at 3:30.

Flying back to Phoenix in the morning with a stopover in Albuquerque. Should be back in the office by three.

Jeff goes in the editing bay on Tuesday and I would think these new ones will start running in about 60 days.

"That cowboy would ride a goat into a stampede."
—A Cowboy compliment