Just before Friday nights dinner, we were treated to wonderful entertainment by Pistol Packin' Paula, a trick shooter, gun twirler, bull whipper and western dancer.
I had gotten a few pics of her off the Internet.
She went to Hollywood and went to stunt school to learn high falls, roof rolls, car hits and saddle falls. She even learned to be set on fire. Paula got interested in twirling guns and taught herself.
After graduating stunt school, she landed a job as a stuntwoman at Rawhide Western Town in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is where she began twirling guns professionally and became Pistol Packin' Paula, western performer. She is the only woman in the U.S. who twirls real guns. She twirls two .45 Cimarron revolvers.
Look closely, you can see her .45 in the air. I caught it perfectly. She also shot simultaneously both her pistols at two balloons. She faced the crowd and held her arms straight out from her side and shot the balloons that were placed several yards away. One to her right and one to her left! Pretty amazing!
Although her show did not include her horses this time, she does perform shows with her two horses Jake and Tonto.
She has won a couple of World Champion Gun Spinner title's. She has performed for many legends like David Carradine, Louise Mandrell, Melissa Gilbert, Howard Stern and several performers around the world.
She can snapped those bull whips over 700 mph to make them crack.
Here are just some of her many show credits: The Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno, Good Morning America, Wild West Tech on the History Channel, America's Got Talent, The Tropicana, Riviera, Hacienda and Star Dust Hotels in Las Vegas.
She plays Annie Oakley in special events and Wild West Shows.
On Saturday, April 11, was another overcast day, but at least the rain was holding off.
I got a chuckle out of this bumper sticker.
Here is one of my favorite shooters. He alias is Shotgun Hammond. He is in his 80's. Although he can't move fast, he usually shoots a clean match. He shoots his shotgun from the hip and hits the target every time. Everyone loves watching him do that. This match he just had 2 misses.
Here is our friend Mad Dog McCoy. He is a black powder shooter. Because the air was still and with the early morning fog, the air just wasn't moving and he had to wait for the black powder smoke to clear out before the firing the next shot. This unfortunately cost him valuable time.
Here is Lefty Rhodes shooting "Gunfighter" and using both guns at the same time, alternating on separate targets.
Saturday was better than yesterday for Lefty Rhodes, he shot clean today! So for the 2 day match, he shot 160 rounds and had 6 misses.
Now here are some fancy boots, spurs and spur straps. Notice the "DDD" on the right boot. The Cowboy model is Dirty Dog Dale.
When the match was over, we were entertained by trick roper Kevin Fitzpatrick, his paint horse Chief and his son Will.
Kevin and Will are from Bandera, TX. The town is known officially as the "Cowboy Capital of the World", and I have spoken often about this town in my travel blog. They are local celebrities and keep the cowboy spirit alive.
Kevin is a world champion trick roper, horse trainer and has performed all over the world, wowing audiences with his charm and skills, including a performance for the Queen of England. He has been hired as a full time tourism ambassador by the State of Texas. He performs at most of the guest ranches in and around Bandera.
His son Will performed with the bull whips and also did rope tricks. The crowd was just in aw with this father and son talent team.
Kevin chose a victim from the crowd. In this photo he told her when to jump and she made it through the lasso.
And there were more victims from the crowd.
Afterwards we gathered around them and he took every one's questions. He told us that his father who now in his 90's put these Mexican coins on Chief's bridle, breast plate and the stirrups.
I really enjoyed talking to Will also, he is a polite young man and you can see how proud his dad is.
After the show, we got cleaned up and headed off to the Awards Banquet that was held at the Farm Bureau building in Fredericksburg.
This is where everyone gets dressed up in their best "duds". I couldn't remember everyone's name, but the saloon floosie is Kathouse Kelli and she is from Australia! I loved her accent.
The cowgirl on the right is Cat Ballou, her SASS number is #50. Her husband is Tex and his number is #4. He was one of the founding members of SASS when it was started back in the 1980's. Ralph's number is #14206 and he joined in 1997. The numbers now are just over 100,000! I am sorry I can't remember the other ladies name.
Hawkshaw Fred and Hot Tamale
We had a wonderful catered dinner and then it was the awards. And look who won first place in his category of "Senior Gunfighter", why it is Lefty Rhodes! Out of 160 shooters he came in 15th place overall. Ralph was shocked because he did have 6 misses, but his times were fast. I guess the others had a few more misses.
Brushy Creek Bill, Crooked Bullet and Lefty Rhodes.
This is what Lefty Rhodes won. It is beautiful and will be cherished because of the history of this ranch. We are planning to hang it up on the wall.
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This inscription was on the back of the buckle |
Here is the grand daughter of Adolf Stieler. She is Becky Crouch Patterson. Her mom is Shatzie and she is in her 90's. Hopefully Becky won't mind me telling everyone this, but she is in her early 70's! I was shocked! Surely she is hiding the "Fountain of Youth" on the ranch. They are both lovely ladies and I sure did enjoy talking to them.
Becky's father and of course Shatzie's husband was Hondo Crouch. He was a Texas folk hero, humorists, writer, rancher, phiosopher, a poet, a music man and local celebrity. Hondo saw an ad in the local paper: "Town For Sale-Lock, stock and dance hall". The population was 3 and the price was $30,000. At the time, it was pretty much a ghost town. There was also a post office-general store.
Hondo inspired the hit song "Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas". He declared "Everybody was somebody in Luckenbach, Texas". He passed away in 1976, the year before Luckenbach Texas became a big hit by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.
Ralph and I have been there several times. Each day you can find someone strumming a guitar and singing either at the rustic bar or under the big trees. Each weekend there are music events.
Do you see the beautiful scarf around Becky's neck? She designs them and I bought one to hang it up in our rolling ranch house. It shows a cattle drive and cattle brands. I also bought one of her two books she has written. The history and life of Adolf Stieler, his family, ranch life and the generations that followed. It is titled "The Ranch That Was Us". The foreword is by Willie Nelson. The other book is titled "Hondo, my father", I will get that one eventually.
This is one of our favorite annual matches. We know many of the club members from over the years and being on the Historical Stieler Ranch and getting to meet Shatzie and Becky just made it that much more special. This is one of the reasons why we love our life!
Until next time..............Happy Trails......................
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