Stanley was impressed by how carefully Eduardo drove, obeying Stanley’s mother’s first rule. They left the city and were soon in a red landscape of cacti and low bushes.
Eventually they came to a small town. There was a main street lined with low buildings that looked like part of a set from one of the old western movies Stanley’s father loved. They passed a saloon and an old-fashioned-looking bank. Eduardo parked in front of a building with a sign that read BIG BILL’S DUDE RANCH.
A man with a gray handlebar mustache and a ten-gallon hat lumbered down the dusty porch and waved to them. “Welcome to Bandera, the cowboy capital of the whole doggone world! The name’s Big Bill. You bandits fixin’ to saddle up?”
“Yes, sir!” said Carlos.
“We need two horses to ride into the wilderness for an overnight camping trip,” said Eduardo.
“I have just the horses for you,” said Big Bill. He led Stanley, Carlos, and Eduardo toward a stable to the side of the building.
“Hey!” said Arthur.
“Hay is for horses, Arthur,” said Stanley. Their mother was always correcting Arthur when he said that. “Don’t forget your grammar.”
“That’s what I meant!” said Arthur, pointing to a bale of hay beside a hitching post. “It’s hay!”
“This here is Sam Houston,” Big Bill said, patting a brown horse with a white star on its nose. “Named after the first elected president of the Republic of Texas. Y’all know that before it was a state, Texas was its own country for a while? Real independent. Sam Houston here has a mind of his own.” Stanley laid his hand against the side of the horse, and Sam Houston gave a friendly shudder.
The man moved over and tightened the saddle on a black horse. “And this is Davy Crockett. You heard o’ him? The King of the Wild Frontier? He fought at the Alamo. Bet you didn’t know that the real Davy Crockett was a congressman from Tennessee.” He patted the horse. “Anyway, Davy here used to have a coonskin cap, but he ate it.”
Stanley grinned. “Thanks, Big Bill,” he said.
Their saddlebags were packed with supplies for the night, and Carlos and Eduardo rode together on Sam Houston, while Arthur and Stanley rode Davy Crockett. Stanley had not ridden a horse since their friend Calamity Jasper had taken him and Arthur looking for gold in South Dakota. He’d forgotten how fun and bouncy it was.
With Sam Houston and Davy Crockett kicking up clouds of dust behind them, Stanley and his fellow cowboys rode into the Texan wilderness.
Stanley’s flat legs were just starting to hurt from slapping against the sides of his horse when Arthur suggested they stop to drink from their canteens. As Stanley dismounted, the wind picked up. He held on to Davy Crockett’s reins as the wind blew him a few feet off the ground.
“It’s getting windy,” Stanley said nervously.
Arthur poked a finger in the air. “Good kite weather!” he announced. Since Stanley had been flattened, Arthur often enjoyed flying him on a string on weekends.
“How about parasailing?” said Carlos.
Stanley’s mouth went dry.
“Come on, Stanley,” said Arthur. “It’ll be fun.”
Stanley swallowed. The wind scared him—especially since it had dragged him out the car window—but he didn’t want to let his friends down.
“Okay,” he croaked.
Eduardo dug a rope out of one of the bags. Carlos tied one end to Sam Houston’s saddle and the other end around Stanley.
“Ready?” Eduardo called from atop Sam Houston.
With a grunt, Carlos lifted Stanley up over his head like a board, and they grabbed each other’s wrists.
“Whatever you do, don’t let go,” Stanley said.
“Whatever you do, don’t drop me,” Carlos replied with a chuckle.
“Ready!” they shouted together.
“Hi-ya!” Eduardo kicked Sam Houston into a gallop. Carlos jumped up as the rope went taut. Stanley shut his eyes tight, and they were airborne.
The air current lifted Stanley’s chest, and he pulled Carlos up with him. The boys floated higher and higher, until they were almost directly above Eduardo’s and Arthur’s galloping horses.
Carlos let out a high-pitched “yi, yi, yi, yi, yi!”
“I’m next!” cried Arthur from below.
This is fun, Stanley realized. He opened his eyes, and the view took his breath away. “It’s beautiful!” he called from his place high in the air.
The sky and the land both seemed bigger than they were at home. To one side there were rolling green hills spreading as far as Stanley could see. To the other, Stanley spied an endless expanse of prairies. The dimmest outline of mountains was on the horizon.
Stanley had learned in school that Texas was the second-biggest state after Alaska. It sure looks that big from up here, thought Stanley.
Carlos pulled one of Stanley’s hands, and Stanley banked to the right. Carlos pulled the other, and they swooped left. He pulled both and they dived.
“Yee-haw!” cried Stanley, swooping up again.
Suddenly Stanley saw a flash of black out of the corner of his eye.
“BIRDS!” Carlos screamed.
They flew through the flock as if it were a black cloud. Dodging a bird, Carlos loosened his grip.
“Carlos!” screamed Stanley. He bent his fingers, catching Carlos’s hand. Stanley’s left side dipped, trying to hold his friend. The ground rushed up. “We’re going to crash!” yelled Carlos.
Amid a thundering of hooves, a hand reached out. “I have you!” Stanley’s brother called. He pulled Carlos onto the back of Davy Crockett, and Stanley floated down onto the horse’s rump behind them.
“You saved us, amigo,” Carlos said breathlessly to Arthur.
Stanley reached over and squeezed his brother’s shoulder in gratitude.
“I think that’s enough excitement for today!” Eduardo announced from alongside them. “Let’s find a place to camp!”