As spring began to come Dad began to get that far-away look in his eye. On about April 10, 1918, Dad put Mama and Louise on the train for Eden, Texas. After the good-byes, Dad began to load the old Model T. "Boys, we're going back to Texas!" he said. We were excited about it, too, as we were longing for Texas. We left Douglas early and cut across northeast to Chiricahua, Arizona and Apache, and crossed the state line at Rodeo, N.M. and then on into Lordsburg, N.M. Then we went to Deming, N.M. It was a long drive for a first camp. We found the roads a little better on Highway 80 as two cars could pass without getting out of the road. The next day we made it to Anthony, N.M. Those days you traveled right along the Rio Grande. The next morning we would get to see Texas, again. We crossed the state line near Anthony, Texas, a town of about 25 or 30 thousand. We camped for the night near McNary, Texas.  The next morning we were up early and headed for Van Horn, Texas.
     We made Van Horn about noon. We kind of ate on the run and went right on east. We got to Davis Mountain Station and there our road became worse, as we left the main road Highway 80. We took off on Highway 290. I don't remember if it was 290 then or not. We got to Balmorhea Springs for a nice camp for the night. Bill and I were surprised to see that much water coming out of the ground. The next morning we pulled out east for Ft. Stockton, Texas. We got there about noon. Dad pulled off on Second Street where there was a saloon. He went in, I guess, to have a drink. A drunk came out and started pestering Bill and I. He kept on and on and finally I got mad and took the 30-30 out and cocked it. The fellow ran back in the saloon and told that a kid had pulled the 30-30 on him. I guess Dad figured things out as he came out and wanted to know what the hell was going on. I told him and Bill backed me up. He almost kicked my butt! He said later as we were driving alone he shouldn't have pestered us. He told me that was dangerous, but I told him I was just scaring him. He said, "You shore did!"  We went on to the Pecos River to spend the night near Sheffield.
     Next morning we went on to Ozona, Sonora, and to Eldorado. Dad pitched camp and visited around town with old friends. The next morning we went to Menard and on into Eden for our reunion with Mama and our baby sister. Boy, that was some trip. Dad traveled a little faster without Mama along. We traveled 647 miles in seven days.
     After resting up, Dad made a trip back to Eldorado and went to Alexander Neighborhood and leased the same farm and little ranch we left, the old Hoover place. It was about two miles from the Ramsel place and about one and a half miles from the old A.H. Green place. The oldest Ramsel girl, Odela, was married to Stewart Evans, one of the brothers we went to Bluewater, N.M., to homestead land with, and it ended up the Indians were still too mean and wild. Had we homesteaded there we might be in the middle of the uranium mines. Anyway, now Bluewater Lake has been built and is a wonderful vacation and fishing lake. Well, if the dog hadn't stopped to crap he would have caught the rabbit!

     Dad's feet started itching again after living at the old Hoover place for nearly two years. Dad had accumulated about 3500 sheep, about 20 cows, a good team of horses, and a good wagon. We still had the old Model T Ford. Dad planted the little dry land farm in cotton, but a siege of grasshoppers hit us that year and ate the cotton about half up. Bill and I killed them every day and Dad put out poison, but to no avail. We made a few bales of cotton. We ran some of the sheep at the farm and the most at the Charley Speck Ranch, near Kaffer Neighborhood. In the meantime Uncle John I. Smith, Dad's brother, had made a trip to the Big Bend country to try and lease some land. He had goats, which you had to herd. We herded the sheep, too, at Speck Ranch. The coyotes were bad at the farm, so Dad moved the sheep to the Speck Ranch.
     Uncle John I. had leased the Y E Mesa country while out to the Big Bend. W.G. Gulihur, who was married to Dad's sister, had lived at Barnhart, Texas, and ran a lumberyard for Mr. Howard Cox. Gully had gotten out to the Big Bend and bought five sections at Santiago Peak. They built a road up on the north side to the first table and built a small house. He brought out goats, also. He and Aunt Emma had four children: Fred, Murel, Vera, and Alma (Pud).
     On December 1, 1920, Dad had everything ready to start to the Big Bend. The wagon and team, two horses--Nigger and Dilcie--and the cattle, were all at Speck Ranch. We left Alexander Neighborhood for the Ranch. The wagon was covered with bows and a wagonsheet, which made a real covered wagon. By now we had another sister, Oma Lee Smith, who was born August 18, 1919, at Alexander.
     We left the Speck Ranch on December 1 for the Big Bend. Bill and I were on horseback. Dad drove the wagon and team and Mama and the girls were in the Model T. We headed for Ozona, Texas. We would make about five miles a day. Everywhere we could, we cut straight across the country. In about four days we arrived at Ozona. We spent the night at the Deland's house. Mrs. Deland was a sister of Uncle Tom's wife, Aunt Emma. Ozona was a real little ranch town. They had electric lights, and I can remember the big electric plant engine making such a big boom, with its exhaust. It was a big, one cylinder engine. The first day out of Ozona we could still hear the engine. The next day, after breaking camp, it wasn't many miles until all was quiet.
     We went three or four days, just driving the stock. On the fifth day we began to get into the high hills. Bill and I saw a little nipple mountain and we raced our horses to the top. Dad caught us and was mad, fit to kill. He made us walk all the rest of the way to the Big Bend. He was tough old fart.
     It was about the 16th of December when we arrived at the Pecos River. That was some experience, bringing the sheep off Lancaster Hill, down into the Pecos River Valley. We camped on the Pecos that night. There was just an old wooden floor bridge, one car wide, across the river. We tried to coax the sheep onto the bridge, with no success. Dad finally got out a sack of cottonseed cake and tolled the sheep across the bridge. We arrived at Sheffield and camped for the night. We stayed two nights in Sheffield as Dad was trying to get permission to go across the Blackstone Slaughter Ranch. He had a lot of trouble, but they finally allowed him to go across. We cut across about six miles out of Sheffield. Their cowboys really put the sheep across their country in a hurry. We had to cross Big Canyon, which was some gorge for us boys. I was nine and Bill was ten and a half. Dad brought the wagon across the canyon and Mama had to go into Ft. Stockton and out toward Sanderson to make contact with us again.
     We had to stay and rest the sheep a day, after the canyon crossing. We headed on west toward Marathon, through the Allison and West-Pyle country. We came into the Dick Arnold country and then to the Peters country. We finally got to the Kincaid Ranch on my birthday, December 25, 1920. Mr. Guy Combs let Dad graze and water the sheep for about three days.
     While out at the Kincaid, Bill and I had a real thrill. We saw a bunch of horsemen coming. When they got to us, the men were wearing six-shooters and had rifles on their saddles! I remember one of the men was Mr. Tom Shackelford. His son later married my cousin Murel Gulihur. They were hunting a lone wolf.
     We arrived in Marathon on December 31, 1920, after thirty-one hard days.  We got to sleep in a house for the first time since starting the trip. After resting, we crossed the railroad by the depot, on January 1, 1921. We headed south to the Post and camped. In those days there were only two fences between Marathon and the Y E Mesa. We went on down and camped at Combs Headquarters, and then turned down Maravillas Creek to Maravillas Gap and another camp, still on the Combs Ranch.
     The next day we camped in Santiago Gap. We were nearly to the end of our journey. The next night we were at Y E Mesa. We had a lot to do, and we had to make a good camp. We put up tents, and then took the wagon through the Santiago Gap. The car was left at the Gulihur place on Santiago Peak, and all the things in it were carried to the camp on a packhorse. Mama and the girls rode horseback over to the camp. We had to build a corral out of brush for the sheep. Bill and I had our job to do: we had to herd the flock of sheep. We didn't get to go to school the rest of the term. The coyotes and panther were so bad that the panther would come in the corral at night and kill sheep. Bill and I had to each stay on opposite sides of the herd and the coyotes would still slip in and kill.
     About May 1, 1921, we were fast going out of the sheep business, as it was terribly dry and Bill and I had to cut sotol for feed for the sheep. Dad went into Alpine and called the bank in Eldorado that he would have to ship the stock back to them as they held the note on them. Dad rented an old adobe house across the street from the old Lock Hotel, the present site of the City Drug. The house was the old Beauregard House. It was right back of the old French Hotel, the later site of the Montgomery Ward store. Dad got the stock to town and loaded it on the Santa Fe RR, then the Kansas City and Orient RR. Then Dad went to work on the 06 Ranch for Herbert Kokernot. He lived at the Leoncita Ranch. Mama hired Miss Bessie McCou to catch up Bill and I on the school we missed. I started to school in the third grade in September, 1921, where the present grade school is.
     After we were in town for about six months we moved to the old Atchison Ranch, owned by Jackson and Harmon Ranch. It is where the 06 Headquarters is now. Bill and I walked to school from there for two years. As we went to school we went by the Fulcher house, and from there we went on with Clint and Stanley Fulcher. On further down we went by the Cotter home, and there we got with the Cotter girls. Josephine was in my same class and we were friends.
     Well, it seemed like we were on the move again. Dad went to work for Jackson and Harmon Ranch. The T W Ranch southeast of Alpine was headquarters for them. At T W there was a big spring that just bubbled out of the ground. The ranch watered about 30 acres of alfalfa. My first job was to drive the old mule around the baler to bale hay, at the old Lake ranch east of Alpine. The ranch had a lot of land there planted in alfalfa.  The lake had water in it all the time as it rained a tot in those days. Jackson and Harmon got hold of the first baler that was gasoline engine operated, and it was some machine. Bill and I punched and tied the bales of hay. We got paid 50 cents per day. The Jackson and Harmon Ranches began to sell, and the first place to sell was the old James Ranch, now the Altuda Ranch. Mr. John Harmon lived there. W.T. Merriweather bought it from them. Mr. Merriweather gave Dad a job running the ranch for him.
     We moved from the Atchison ranch to the James ranch. We had to drive the old Model T to school. We never were tardy in the two years we lived there. We did miss school when it snowed. They were building the first road to Marathon on the north side of the railroad. The old road went out of Marathon toward the post, then west to the Dick Arnold place, then right up the south side of the railroad to Altuda. There they had two bump gates, you just bumped them with the car and they swung open, and you had to hurry before they closed. When you crossed at Altuda you went on the right side of the railroad until you came to Bird Mine Draw, where you had to open gates. Then you went on to Strobel Switch and cut back to the left, then up the hill and over by the present Alpine City Dumpground, down to the stock pens. Then you went right by the cemetery and on to the crossing east of the Sul Ross Stadium.
     While living at the James Ranch Bill and I trapped for fox and skunk for spending money. In the summer Mr. Merriweather would let us help round up stock at 50 cents per day.
     About October, 1925, Dad was on the move again. Mr. Walter Negley leased the U Up and Down Ranch, and he and Dad put goats on the upper ranch right under Mt. Livermore on the north. We moved into Alpine in the old Siebert Home, south of Jackson Field, now the Pallanez home. That is about as close to school as I ever lived. I was getting up to be a pretty good-sized boy by then, about 15.
     One time that Thanksgiving I and two other kids went on a hunting trip to Mt. Ord. I rented an old octagon-barrel 30-30 from T.A. Beard Store. Benson Cook and Finis Bennett and I went out to Mt. Ord to hunt whitetail deer. We went up Wood Canyon as far as we could and made camp. The next morning we started up the north side of Wood Canyon. We were walking along on top of a bluff, and an eagle flew along under us. Finis had a 16 gauge shotgun, and he fired at the eagle. In a few minutes a big panther ran out of the canyon. When he was up pretty high about 200 yards away, I killed him with the second shot. We spent the day getting him to the car. We went back to Alpine to show my kill. Everyone was really excited.