First time I've logged in here in ages. First thing I did was search my old friend's name and I see I'm a little late for reconnecting with Art one more time. I first met Art when I was a young boy in the 70s, on the Vanham Ranch near Uvalde, TX. He was on a lease with a group from the Texas Highway Department, which is where his father and my grandfather worked together for some 40 odd years. They lost the lease about the time I was becoming old enough to hunt. I wouldn't see Art again for decades.....and what a treat it was when I did. He invited my father and I to visit him in Terlingua. I spent the next several years hunting with him and my father in one of the most remote parts of Texas. Although the mulies were sparse, those were some of my most cherished hunting trips. Listening to him and my father tell stories in hunt camp was a far greater treat than any trophy on any hunter's wall. To those who knew him here, you can be assured his enthusiasm for sharing knowledge in the field was as great as it was here. He loved sharing his experiences with others. I'm thankful for being a beneficiary of that. One minute he was telling me how I might find the aoudad on the back side of the mountain, the next minute it would be stories about folk music and Alan Damron. I was shocked the time he mentioned one of my favorite authors, Friedrich Hayek. First and only time to date I've heard anyone pontificate about the Austrian school of economics in hunt camp. When we would return from hunt camp to his house, there were rustic conditions. Showers from a water well he dug himself with his own backhoe in the middle of the desert, creek crossings and mountainside roads he maintained with his own grader. A living room flush with native american and cowboy artifacts. And in the corner, one little piece of modern technology....his computer. The first thing he would do in the evening after the gear was stowed away from our trip was log onto his computer. I'm sure he was checking the highroad. While playing on the CB radio on the Vanham Ranch in the 70s, I never would have imagined there would be a day when those men at that campfire could tell their stories from a remote location through the "world-wide web". Although I'm an infrequent visitor here, I appreciate this resource. Thanks to all who participate and especially the admins that keep it going. And thank you, Art, for being Art. You are missed, my friend.
