Capital Campaign Underway and the Value of Cowboy Boots

Read below the story of an itinerant preacher and wannabe cowgirl and her boots.

So a funny story about getting these photos.  Milton was so tolerant of me yelling out, 'Wait, stop, I want to get a picture', and when we were driving away from the luxurious Kenney, Texas on a dusty road I saw this church.  Being an itinerant preacher who loves churches and with an eye for photography I yelled out once again, "Wait, stop, I want to get a picture".  So Milton pulls over, in fact he pulls right into someones driveway that posted a LARGE sign, "No Trespassing".

Of course, my mind quickly went to, 'OMG!  I'm going to be shot dead here in my tracks here in Texas for trespassing all because I wanted to take a photo so I said, 'Are you sure Milton? Sure?  Really?'  Well he assured me, go ahead, we'll wait.  So I grabbed my camera and got out.

Now it was hot on the range that day.  Very hot.  And this Connecticut Yankee itinerant preacher chose style over practicality.  Bad move.  I had on skinny pants with my fake snakeskin flats with knee highs.  I walked out from the truck and into the grasses.  I got closer, and stood still to make the adjustments for the light.  It was then that I felt my ankles being pricked.  I looked down but didn't see anything and decided to move closer, that maybe the 'no see um's' wouldn't follow me.

But no.  Another prick and then another and then there were so many that my ankles were stinging so I ran out of the field onto the road that I wasn't supposed to be on in the first place.  When I looked down my feet and ankles were covered with burrs.  I couldn't move.  I tried to take a step but it was excruciatingly painful.  So I motioned Milton to drive the truck further down the road to me.  Hell, at that point I didn't care if we all were shot dead in the middle of Texas because we were trespassing.

And so he did.  He just smiled and said nothing.  My cousins were yucking it up in the cab of the truck.  I grabbed onto the truck and had to lift up my pant legs to take off my knee highs, it was the only way to de-burr my ankles.  And did I say it was painful?  I got back into the truck and said, 'Now I know the value of cowboy boots' and again, he just smiled.

My $50 Payless cowboy boots were at the ranch and not on my feet, what was this wannabe cowgirl thinking?  And now I know the value of cowboy boots, I will never leave the ranch without them!