Muddling Through
It goes without saying that a few things could have been done differently at the 2009 Cattle Baron’s Ball. For us, one of those things would have been to turn around and head back to Dallas when we pulled up to the hour-long valet line in the pouring rain at the Wynne family’s Star Brand Ranch in Kaufman County. However, in our minds, we knew the CB ladies would pull this off. “Surely,” we thought, “they will have hired a gang of umbrella-toting male models to chaperone people from their cars, across a bridge erected over the mud, into newly erected tents stocked with clothing changes and equipped with drying stations for our wet hair.” Alas, we were wrong. We trudged through the mud, two girls, one umbrella, our boots sinking in quicker than we could say “slip and slide.” “Are you just getting here?” asked one harried partygoer who passed us heading for her car. Not a good sign. We slogged over to the Andrews tent, which seemed to shelter every guest at the party. Around us stood abandoned stages, a Western town of some sort, and unmanned troughs full of beer (and rain). Under the tent, some were in high spirits. A circle of people surrounded the mechanical bull, and we spotted Rachel and Chris Trowbridge dancing and singing along to cutie country crooner Julianne Hough. Others looked less happy, as the rain persisted beyond the perimeter of the warm tent. A few minutes later, we went outside to the usually glam Kohler restrooms just in time to see a woman take a muddy tumble down the steps. We looked at each other. “Time to go!” we said. On our way out, we noticed a strange sight: limos sunk into the mud up to their axles, and frustrated drivers rubbed their foreheads. We giggled at a couple of well-dressed ladies ripping apart a bale of hay to make some traction, but we clammed up when the valet told us we were on our own. “Good luck getting your car out,” he said. Luck wasn’t enough. Our Escalade proved no match for the mud. “I’ve never seen anything like this in 51 years of being a valet,” said our valet in shining armor. He was wonderful but unable to get us out. We abandoned the car and literally hitched a ride back to civilization.
Looking for more pictures of the 2009 Cattle Baron’s Ball? Click HERE.
