Learnin' the Real Texas

To put it plainly.... we showed up in tennis shoes. When you're in Texas - the real Texas, you don't show up anywhere in tennis shoes!! Everyone at Billy Bob's Texas in the Fort Worth Stockyards was kickin' it in their boots. Boy... it was certainly obvious where we were from.
Our morning started in the rodeo - definitely the first time I've anchored a show knee-deep in rodeo dirt. We cooked burgers and steaks with a chef that once won an Iron Chef America Challenge. Seems like a natural progression - Food Network to KOMU News Today! Tim Love was a natural on television... the lights went on, and he went on. Unbelievably charismatic, and so genuinely kind. You'd have to be to get up and do a Missouri morning show on 3 hours of sleep. Chef and rock star!
The thing I am most impressed with concerning the real Texas is the hospitality. The people we worked with today would literally give you the shirt off your back if you asked. So cliche, but so true. After we did our morning show, we had a few hours to kill so the management at Billy Bob's Texas opened up their back room and let us crash on their couches. Like I said... amazingly hospitable. Definitely the real Texas.

Morning and Noon Shows LIVE from Ft. Worth

We had a good day at Billy Bob's Texas in the Fort Worth Stockyards area. Our guests included Mark Dunlap, who makes gazillion dollar boots at Leddy's and Tim Love, of Love Shack and Dirty Love Burger fame. He has another restaurant called Lonesome Dove, a cookbook, and has appeared on Iron Chef.

Pam Minick, the boss lady at Billy Bob's, gave us the royal treatment. She even let me print out scripts on her office computer. She is a class act who ropes steer in her spare time.

The noon show was equally eclectic, with two champion bull riders, Marty Travis (a manager at Billy Bob's), and the "unofficial mayor of Fort Worth" -- with handlebar 'stache and all.

We saw about 30 Mizzou fans at Billy Bob's, including some folks from Fulton who were excited to see Megan and Lauren! That was a real treat. For the record, more Mizzou fans showed up at Billy Bob's than fans of that other team. ;)

By the way, I noticed that most of the cowboys around Ft. Worth iron their jeans with creases down the front and back!

We did some shopping in the Billy Bob's store when all was said and done and grabbed a burger at Tim Love's Love Shack restaurant around the corner from Billy Bob's. Chef Tim gave us a tour of his Lonesome Dove restaurant nearby, from the wine cellar to the swanky private rooms where celebrities are known to hang out.

After spending most of Sunday in the hotel, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed our day in Ft. Worth.