Back in the 1990s, Tony Alvis, Roger Miller, and I hung out together. In fact, we darn near bought a 12 acre piece of land in Cody, Wyoming together. We spent a whole week day dreaming about building a combination barn, artist's studio, and cowboy camp. Ultimately we couldn't muster the dinero to do the deal, but I often think about what could've been.
I met Roger in 1989, at the first High Noon Show and we where instant pards. We hung out at cowboy gatherings in Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Wyoming. When Roger bought his little ranch in Cody, he insisted I buy a horse and keep it there.
Buying that horse was a pretty interesting cowboy experience......Roger and I bought a fifth of Canadian Whiskey, a bag of ice, and some paper cups in Cody, and headed for the horse trader's place -- 35 miles up the North Fork of the Shoshone River -- about an hour long drive.
To make a long story short --all the horses looked pretty good--by the time we got there. Roger said, "I like that one," so I gave it a try and bought a paint mare on the spot.
Roger and I then hustled back to Cody where we bought some fence posts and a roll of barbed-wire. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Roger just bought the place, and he didn't even have a corral yet. Roger darned near worked me to death over the next few days. When the horse trader delivered the mare a week later we had a one acre pasture full of knee deep grass for Amigo, my mare, and Roger's mustang, Star.
Roger crossed over the Great Divid in September 1998, and not a week has gone by without my thinking of him. Now, That Tony has gone, I've got two old pards to think about.
Because you just don't to expect to lose your pards, I never seemed concerned with getting good photos of them. I wish I had. Here's what I have of Roger.
