by Slim Randles 126 pp; 5 x 7 paperback (124 illustrations)
ISBN 978-1-936744-38-1 $15.95
2016 Southwest Book Design & Production Book Awards
Finalist, Guides and Travel/Recreation, The Complete Cowboy Bucket List by Slim Randles
PRIME TIME: COWBOY BUCKET LIST by Slim Randles
Ever fixed — not cooked, but fixed — a dutch oven dinner? Ever gone to barrel racing school? How about visited Annie Oakley’s birthplace? If you haven’t checked these things, and many others, off your bucket list, let me just say, “Get a move on little doggie.” Slim Randles can help you with the list in his new book, The Complete Cowboy Bucket List: 100 Cowboys Things to Do Before You Put Your Horse Up and Go to the House.Randles has had a 40-year career as an author and columnist. His Home Country column, which is syndicated all across the world to more than 4 million readers, lives in a small cabin in the middle of “nowhere at the foot of the Manzano Mountains.” He has written 16 other books in his career. He states in his forward to his Bucket list book, “So I chased wild burros in Death Valley, chased wild horses in the Coso Range, chases (in futility) after prize money in rodeos, and chased girls in college . . . Didn’t pay much, but it sure was fun.” Fun is what he says any cowboy or cowgirl will have with his newest book. The cowboy life, it seems for a guy named “Slim”, is ver rewarding. His bucket list offers 100 ideas to live out a pretty good idea of what is needed before, as he states, you put your horse up. “You realize, don’t you, that we’re the ones who are blessed with the companionship of horses and mules and each other,” Randles asks. “We’re the ones who get to hear … and tell … the stories in the bunkhouses and around the campfires. It’s a great life, all in all.” Randles asks his readers to dive into the book, and get some ideas, act on them. The end to his foreword in the book reads: “Have a good time. Learn something and pass it on. And save some room at the fire, will you?”
ABQ JOURNAL: COWBOY BUCKET LIST by Slim Randles
Here’s a book that’s for you folks who aren’t cowboys – or cowgirls – but have secretly dreamed of being one.
It reads nice and easy as if personable Albuquerque author Slim Randles were advising you to choose items you want from his bucket list.
The list is comprised of things to visit and things to do. It is numbered from number 100 down to No. 1. Each listing receives its own page; photographs accompany the text.
No. 100 is see Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos (River). Randles writes that the crossing was initially used for cattle drives by Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving as part of the trail from Texas to New Mexico named for them. The crossing is near a farm road northwest of Girvin, Texas.
For the last-mentioned item, No.1, Randles suggests the reader sign up for rodeo bullfighting school in Branson, Mo.
In between are activities that could occupy you for months, if not years. It could mean traveling from the East Coast to Hawaii, attending rodeos, visiting museums, joining a wagon train, going to cowboy poetry gatherings, buying a GOOD cowboy hat. Or maybe taking a horseback tour of Mongolia.
Or it could mean exploring bucket list opportunities on day trips from home.
If you’re a New Mexico resident, you can take advantage of the list’s large number of activities right here in the state.
Visit Folsom Man Site, where a black cowboy discovered archaeological artifacts. Take a tour of the southernmost hideout on the Outlaw Trail (today it’s on the WS Ranch) near Reserve. See Kit Carson’s grave in Taos. Go to the Lincoln County Courthouse where Billy the Kid killed two deputies. Check out Carlsbad Caverns, which were first explored by a cowboy.
Worn out yet? Randles wasn’t when he completed the list.
“I could have done 200 without breaking a sweat,” he said in a phone interview.
Randles grew up in El Monte, Calif., back when it resembled Albuquerque’s South Valley today.
“We had an acre. A lot of people did… I grew up with horses, got my first at age 14,” he recalled.
“I was a mulepacker in the High Sierras for eight years and as a hunting guide I used animals as well. …I was a packer, I trained horses, was a dude wrangler but I was never really a working ranch cowboy.”
Randles, a former Journal reporter/columnist, has been writing a syndicated newspaper column called “Home Country.”
For the sedentary, the back of the book has a list of “Cowboy Music” and a list of “Cowboy Movies.”
The book is part of Rio Grande Books’ bucket list series. Randles is currently writing a fly fisherman’s bucket list book.
Now Available at:
Treasure House Books - Old Town Albuquerque
Walgreen's at Juan Tabo & Montgomery, Albuquerque
UPS Store at 4th St, Albuquerque
Page One Books, Albuquerque
Avila Shops, Airport, Albuquerque
Bookworks - Albuquerque
La Plata Gifts, Albuquerque
Rio Grande Trading Co, Albuquerque
Sandia Tram Gift Shop, Albuquerque
Home At The Range - Bernalillo
Under Charlie's Covers Bookstore, Bernalillo
Chama Trading Post - Chama
Butler's Supply, Gallup
Richardson's Trading Post, Gallup
Little Shop, Los Lunas
Branch Coffee House, Los Lunas
Museum of Heritage & Art, Los Lunas
Studio 14 - Madrid
Tinkertown Museum - Sandia Crest
Garcia Street Books - Santa Fe
Museums of New Mexico Shops, Santa Fe
Op Cit Books, Santa Fe
Collected Works, Santa Fe
Silver City Museum Gift Shop, Silver City
The Book
The Complete Cowboy Bucket List book is Slim Randles’ view of the important things an aspiring cowboy or cowgirl needs to experience. Sure, there are other things but this is a good start. It has what you need to wear, what to see, what instruction you need, museums that honor the cowboy tradition, and even has what to hear. Cowboy traditions take place all over the world and a few are in the book. Being a cowboy or cowgirl is a state of mind and not just great cowboy boots. Though boots are important as is a hat, a gun, and a wild rag.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Slim Randles learned mule packing from Gene Burkhart and Slim Nivens. He learned mustanging and wild burro catching from Hap Pierce. He learned horse shoeing from Rocky Earick. He learned horse training from Dick Johnson and Joe Cabral. He learned humility from the mules of the eastern High Sierra. For the last 40 years or so, he’s written a lot of stuff, too, especially in his Home Country column, which is syndicated all across this country. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere at the foot of the Manzano Mountains. Slim received the Rounders Award in 2012.
SERIES INFORMATION
The Complete Cowboy Bucket List Book book is the third in the series of Bucket List books. The Complete Space Buff Bucket List Book by Loretta Hall, and The Complete Crab Lovers’ Bucket List Book and The Complete Green Chile Cheeseburger Bucket List Book by Barbe Awalt are all scheduled for release in 2016. The Basic New Mexico Bucket List and The Ultimate Hot Air Ballooning Bucket List by Barbe Awalt was released in 2015.
BOOK SIGNING EVENTS
October 10, 2015, 4-6pm — Page One Books, 5858 Eubank, NE, Albuquerque — featuring "The Complete Cowboy Bucket List," "The Basic New Mexico Bucket List," and "The Ultimate Hot Air Balloon Bucket List."
October 22-24, 2015 – NM Library Association Conference, Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid
Saturday, November 7, 2015, 9am-5pm – Grace Church Holiday Fair, Albuquerque
November 12-14, 2015, 9am-5pm – Western Music Association, Albuquerque Marriott Uptown
Saturday, November 28, 1-3pm – Treasure House, Old Town Albuquerque