I arrived in Fabens, Texas in early June and called the people at Sunset Ranches to meet with the man that was supposed to take me out to the property to look at it. I parked at the truck stop there on I-10, exit 49 and had some lunch while I waited for Jim Barns to come by and take me out to the land. This was one of those 'old' truck stops that you knew had been around awhile. As it turns out, it has been there since the 40's and they just recently have filmed a movie out here featuring that truck stop. Anyway, Jim arrive around 4:00pm and I must admit, he didn't look like I expected. I expected this tall guy with a cowboy hat, boots, jeans, you know, the whole look you would think someone from 'Sunset Ranches' to look like when they showed clients their property.

Well, Jim arrived in a pickup truck that looked like it had been in Desert Storm! He was a somewhat short man with very little hair and no hat, somewhat 'heavy', wearing shorts, sandals and a tee-shirt that had a picture of a bull on it with the caption, "Some people just don't play nice". What a picture he presented! And I thought that I looked bad! He said that I could just call him 'Bumper'. I thought to myself, that fits. We jumped in his truck and took off heading North into the desert. One of the first things that I noticed was how dusty his truck was. There was as much dust in the truck as there was outside of it. Looking back I have to laugh because mine is just about as bad. I do clean it out once in a while though.

We drove on a hard road for about seven miles, then the road changed a little bit. As we crossed into Hudspeth County there was a big X on the road. I didn't realize it then, but I think that 'x' is there to tell you that you are entering the 'twilight zone'. We went on for another three or four miles and turned off onto a dirt road. Now I don't believe in driving so slow that a turtle can pass you, but Jim was taking this dirt road at about 60 miles an hour and talking all of the time. We came to a cattle guard and he slammed on the breaks and we slid across it and there we met a big bull coming out of the brush. He said, "You have to look out for these things out here, you never know when one might walk out in front of you". Now that really gave me a lot of confidence in his driving. As we drove along at his 'break neck' speed, he would point to this or that and say that these were signs to look for when I came back to my property. I was having a hard enough time looking at where we were going, let along trying to figure out what he was pointing at.

Soon we turned up an old ranch road and he came to a stop out in the middle of no where. "Well", he said, "here it is!" I looked around at the vast expanse of desert with its rolling hills and said, "where what is"? "Your land", he said. He pointed to a 'street sign' off in the distance and said, "that is the NW corner of your property. You should be able to find the other markers from there".

Now if we had gone back the same way that we came out, then I don't think that I would have had any trouble finding the place again. BUT we didn't. The next thing I knew, we were speeding off in another direction and soon the road ended, but he just kept on going! He said, "It looks like the road has grown over a little bit", with a big smile on his face. We continued on through the desert on one 'road' after another until we came over a little rise and pulled up to a blue trailer. He said, "I have to meet someone, you don't mind do you"? "No", I said, not having a clue where I was.

He looked around a little bit and said, "well, he must be at the other place". So off we went again until we came to a very interesting 'ranch'. We came to an old trailer with a very interesting 'yard'. There was a 'coral' out back with a couple of the mangiest looking horses that I think I ever did see. Jim blew his horn and an old man came out of the trailer as Jim said, "this is Cowboy Dave, I have to help him put up a water tank on that tower over there." Pointing to a tower that looked to be about ten feet high with what looked like a 300 gallon water tank sitting beside it. "Need some help?" I said getting out of the truck and wondering what I was getting myself into. I wasn't what you would call in great physical shape back then. "Sure", he said as Cowboy Dave came ambling up to us.

Now Cowboy Dave 'looked' like a cowboy! He was dressed in an old faded pair of blue jeans with a long sleeved shirt and vest, with cowboy boots that looked like they were made back in the early 1800's and he even wore spurs. His hair was a little long and combed straight back. He walked up to us like he had been riding on a horse for too long and sticking out his hand, palm side down, said, "howdy!" I found out later that Dave is part Apache Indian and has been a cowboy all of his life, working on ranches and riding in the rodeo. He is an interesting character and has become a frequent visitor at Grace Ranch, always willing to tell you one of his 'stories'.

I still don't know how we did it, but we got that water tank up on the tower and said our goodbyes and drove away. It was getting dark and I knew that it was going to be interesting driving back out there. Even though it was getting dark, that didn't change the way Jim drove. By the time we got back to the truck stop, my faith in Jesus Christ had increased four fold. As he left the truck stop, he said that he would come out and check on me the next day to make sure that I was ok and would bring the paper work with him for me to sign, saying that I had looked at the property and accepted it.

The next day I got up and made some coffee as I tried to make up my mind whether or not I was going to try and find my way back out to the land. I think that at this point my Faith had begun to wane a little. After drinking a pot of coffee, I decided to fill the truck with fuel and get some gas for my generator that I had on a small trailer that I was pulling behind me. Finally after much consideration, I headed out into the desert.

Now I have driven all over this country and been in some pretty interesting places. Much of the time, without a map, but by the 'seat of my pants', so to speak. But for some reason, this seemed a 'little' different. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was a little nagging apprehension in the back of my mind.

Driving out on the hard road was not a problem. I crossed over the big 'x' and kept on going. Soon I came to where the hard road ended and the dirt road began. "Wait a minute, where did that 'other' dirt road come from?", I thought to myself. "Let's see," I thought, "San Philippe is the road I am supposed to take, but which one is it?" Neither of them had a sign on it. "Well", I thought, "I will take the one that looks the most traveled on". As it turn out, it was the right one.

The further I went the more that 'funny' feeling grew. Things just didn't look the same, but wait a minute. That was one of the problems, everything did look the same! Once you've been out here for awhile you can notice all of the subtle differences, but when you first come out here, well, everything does just look the same.

I continued driving down San Philippe until it came to a 'T' in the road. "I remember turning left", I said to myself, "but am I supposed to take that San Philippe to the right?" I took San Philippe to the right and that was just the beginning of my mistakes. As I continued down the road, it began to get very narrow. Just barely enough room for my rig. Then I saw where the road had a big gorge down the middle of it, like a river had come through there at one time. (Later I found out that is exactly what happened!) I had to straddle it and hoped that my trailer didn't fall in. I came to the top of a hill with nowhere to turn around and I had the trailer behind me. I remember thinking that I wished I had left it at the truck stop.

Well I don't know how I did it, but I managed to get the thing turned around and headed back the other way. When I looked off towards the right I saw what looked like the trailer that Jim and I had stopped at the day before, looking for Cowboy Dave. I thought to myself, "If I can get over there, I will be ok." After about an hour, it felt like twenty, I found the trailer, but no one was around. I remembered passing it on the right with Jim, so I thought if I passed it on the left, I would be heading in the right direction. I remember thinking to myself, "This would make a great commercial for GMC going over these hills, 'roads' and all carrying this camper, a 21' 6" Lance truck camper and pulling a trailer". Once I got down in the valley, I couldn't remember where to go. It all looked the same to me and I must admit that I was beginning to get a little panicky. Now it was beginning to get on towards dark and I believed that I could get lost out here and no one would ever find me!

Off in the distance I got a glimpse of some power lines and I knew that they had to be the ones that ran through part of our property. After a few wrong turns and a couple of dead ends, I finally came upon some cattle pens that I recognized. That's when I knew that I was close. "Good, panic gone", I said knowing that at least Jim would find me. As it turned out, he never came back that day. He was busy over on another part of the ranch and just figured that everything was ok. After another hour and darkness setting in, I finally found our place.

That first night on the land was very interesting. The quiet was really quite deafening! At one point I started my generator just to hear the noise! That night was one of the longest and strangest nights that I have ever spent anywhere. I remember thinking to myself, "this is crazy! What am I doing here? A man could DIE out here and nobody would ever know it!" I remember saying, "Well Lord, its just you and me!" That's when it hit me! It WAS just Him and me! There was no cell phone, no electricity, no people, no NOTHING out here. Truly I thought, "A person could die out here and nobody would know about it for a long, long time."

That night I thought about a lot of things and a lot about my relationship with Jesus Christ. How dependant I had become on so many things in this world and all the time, thinking that I was depending on God. What a moron I was. I had been a minister for over twenty five years, and for the first time I realized that I really didn't depend on The Lord as much as I thought I did. I made up my mind whether I stayed here or not, that this was going to change.

As I sat in the camper, thinking and praying on these things, the sun began to come up. I was parked in such a way that I had a perfect view of it as it came up over the mountains in the distance. It was then that I remembered when I was out in San Diego, California, the Promise that God had given to me. I began to feel at 'peace'. It was then that I knew that not only did I want to be here, but that God wanted me here as well.

Now, looking back over the past year and a few months, I know that I wouldn't trade it for anything. Out here, you don't take things for granted and you know that you have to rely on your Heavenly Father for everything. Even though in my eyes we have it pretty easy and good out here, I can almost imagine how some of the early settlers felt when they arrived. I can also begin to appreciate the strength that they had and to realize that the faith it took on some of their parts was of a higher caliber than what I am used to seeing today.

I hope that you will come and visit us out here some day and find a little bit of it for yourself. Then take it with you wherever you go.

Richard D. Eutsler, Sr.

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