It Takes A Team

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Wagonteamster

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3/4/10, Early, TX - We were off to a late start, but I had Bill and Doc pulling and they made up for lost ground.  After a 17 mile day, we’re camped tonight at the Roadside Picnic Area, about 3 miles south of Early, TX.

This morning, my host took me out for breakfast at the diner in Mullen (if I had bought a set of tires, I would have done the town). After filling the water tank on the wagon, it was about 10 am before we finally hit the road.

A few people stopped to talk with me, including Mike, shown in the picture above, who brought me a large sweet tea and some bottled water.

We’re still in Live Oak Country, but you can tell that the terrain is starting to get dryer. Ranches are getting a little bigger, and cattle, are now much more prominent then goats.

Pulling into the town of Zephyr, 3 year old “Spur Ritter” stopped by with his Aunt and Great-Grandma.  He decided that since he did such a great job riding the team from the wagon to the pen last night, he was going to help me out with driving the team too.  He’s quite the young cowboy.  He’s already ridden range sheep and a calf at the rodeo. You out to see him act out the part of a bucking bull - if he had horns, I might have mistaken him for the real thing!

They grow up quick with a cowboy hat on their head!

I had two very nice visitors at the Picnic Area before it got dark.  First, a nice lady from the Brownwood Newspaper stopped by for an interview. Then a lady, who lives near Lubbock, swung by and took some pictures and left me with a nice gift. She was excited to see us, as her husband plans on doing some wagon travel when he retires.

Cattle amongst the prickly pear and mesquite - a common sight.

Many of you have noticed that for the past few days, I haven’t been posting to the website on a daily basis.  Well, internet and phone service in this part of Texas is really - “Ruff” (as Clementine puts it).  This afternoon, I posted the blog for the past couple of days by grabbing a Wifi signal in the town of Zephyr (it was slower than a landline). Tonight, I magically picked up a 3-G broadband signal from the city of Brownwood and have great internet access.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the problem with internet and phone service will get worse as I continue to travel west.  If anybody wants a data card service for remote internet access, get Verizon, not AT&T. Since the I-POD came out, AT&T’s system has bogged down and they’re not pouring much money back into the system to improve it.

Settled in for the night at the picnic area.

Tomorrow, I’ll be moving through the city of Brownwood.  It’s a fairly large city and the weather is suppose to be good, so I imagine we’ll have a few stops along the way to meet some folks.  That’s okay with me - it’s the fun part of wagon travel.