Life in Texas really doesn’t get much better than on a ranch. I have always envisioned long empty fields with plenty of cows, but Jordan ranch was beautiful, authentic, and showed plenty of signs of hard work. With 2,000 acres to work with, there is a lot that needs to be done! 
Bill’s parents were amazing to say the least. We stayed at a duplex just off of the main house and spent our days eating and joyriding around the ranch. 
The workshop held beautiful vintage vehicles, work equipment, and plenty of animal skins and bones. The tree just outside the workshop was decorated with different skulls form aligators to longhorns. Longhorn skulls are impressive, and I wondered what it would be like to see one in real life. 
My first morning on the ranch, we all went out on what I can only call a golf cart on steroids. We checked on some hog traps…apparently there are some wild hogs that come and tear up the ranch and trample on things. Unfortunately for them their lives were quickly coming to a close. Later that day, the guys shot the pigs and gave one to a friend to cook up and make goodies, and the others went into the lake for the alligators. Yeah. Alligators. 
I was a bit nervous to watch them shoot the hogs, but I figured, “Well if I eat this stuff, I better be ok with killing it.” Bill is an incredible shot so it only took one bullet each. They kind of looked like the ducks in duck hunter. Just freeze up, and wiggle as they drop dead. 🙁 Poor guys… After a quick tour, we went to pick up some of William Sr’s friends. Who just happened to be testing out a new plane and flew into the nearby airport (yeah…believe me, I still don’t understand the amount of money/lifestyle these people live). Anyway, it was a sweet little plane. 
The ranch proved to have some amazing sights besides death. The lakes, the treehouse, the horses, and my favorite: the longhorns!!
Yes the animals you see above were shot by either Bill, his dad, or his brothers. It was a little creepy at first but it was also awesome to be able to see the animals up close and touch them. Even if they weren’t alive anymore. They definitely looked like it!
The ranch was full of amazing cars, trucks, and even a fire truck! 
This is was Bill Sr’s latest toy. The exact same car he had in college. It was pretty amazing!! 
My favorite part of the ranch was the longhorns though. My breath was taken away when I saw these creatures in person! The massive size of their horns, these gentle giants have no idea how dangerous they are to humans! I was in awe.
I found the longhorns to be eerie as well. When you rolled up in the 4-wheeler, they just stared at you. Believe me, it’s a lot creepier than it sounds. To have 30 giant longhorns just staring you down at once…it’s scary. Bill helped me get this awesome video of the cows following us in the four wheeler one day. I sat in the back end, which was folded down with my legs hanging off…I quickly learned this was a poor decision, because I almost fell right out of the back! I felt like I was on a safari, it was so amazing!
Eventually, I tried to get as close as I possibly could without getting gored by a horn.
It was not an easy task…
Of course aside from purchasing awesome cowgirl boots, I wanted to ride a horse. I’ve been around horses my whole life, my best friend growing up had a horse that was walking distance from our houses and I used to volunteer at a horse thearapeutic riding center in my post-grad life so I was no stranger to them. I’ve made it a point to ride horses anywhere I travel (most recently in Turkey), so when Bill told me his aunt kept some horses on the ranch, I was ready to ride into the sunset!
Little did I know it was a little more than what this little cowgirl bargained for. Bill’s Aunt Joanne was a GENUINE cowgirl. Like she could probably spit into some kind of old fashioned metal milk jug and it would ricochet into a million directions. Does anyone know what I”m talking about? ANYWAY…one of the horses didn’t agree with me so I was put onto Sport. Who, despite his name, was supposedly the laziest horse of all.
This was a lie.
Despite how graceful I look in this photo above. Scout decided to sprint off into a full on GALLOP. And play with the other free roaming horse. The horse bucked up with me hanging on for dear life, but dear Aunt Joanne swore that I would be fine. So what felt like forever later…we finally made a circle back to the stalls where I was antzy to get off. I have never been scared riding horses before, but THAT was terrifying. Those things are WILD.
Bill’s family was so sweet though I couldn’t get enough of his parents. I remember sitting on the front porch my last day with his Dad, Bill Sr. and we were rocking back and forth and his dad said in his heavy southern accent, “So…whadya think of Texas?” Of course I responded with “Oh I LOVE it. I actually am surprised with how much I like it. I think the ranch is really what makes this amazing for me.” And he said, “Yup….Well it ain’t all bad down here.” For some reason that sticks out in my mind. It’s true. My last thought about Texas was, “Well..actually…it just ain’t that bad.” I never thought I would love Texas, but after being on the ranch…I really do. 🙂
Joe (Bill’s brother), Bill Sr., Bill
Joe’s ridiculous Zombie truck
Bill and his parents right before we left.
