§ Ranch Hand Breakfast

Main House

On the Saturday BEFORE Thanksgiving, The world wide famous King's Ranch holds their annual genuine [authentic] Cowboy's Ranch Hand Breakfast. People from near by and far away come to eat the food prepared as they have for many many decades [for the workers and ranch hands, maybe a hundred years or close, I don't know]. Bud and I try to attend. Some years we've missed out. This weekend [Saturday, November 23rd] we were debating to go. The weather wasn't all that super. Damp and only 52° F...cloudy and in Corpus, threatening rain. The breakfast begins at 7 in the morning, and it's an outdoor event. Inclement weather is a factor for us going or not. By 8:30 a.m. we thought maybe we'd chance it. So in a short while we were out the door and on the highway.  The sky was clearing.  They stop serving at 11 a.m. And, we are about 40 minutes from Kingsville, Texas. When we arrived, the line of cars entering the ranch land was stop and go, at least 2 miles long!! Normally, driving into the ranch, the ranch road to the serving area takes about 3-5 minutes. This particular morning...35 minutes!! We had our breakfast finally, consisting of orange juice, coffee, sausage, refried beans, eggs, biscuits and gravy, and tortillas. It's yummy. Not healthy for us these days, but I guess a ranch hand can work off the calories and fat consumed each day out herding cattle, etc.

Lots of extra activities all around, calf roping, branding [the walking W], demonstrations with fire arms, blacksmithing just to name a few.  Also, country bands.  There are also booths selling ranch books [history, cook books, nature], coffee mugs, t-shirts and more.

Last year, 5000 tickets were sold...this year, 8000!!!

Here is our Saturday morning breakfast in the great outdoors!!!  In photos...

A view of some of the millions of acres




The Main House's Carriage House

§ City Slickers....Part II

... Our son will be with us for Thanksgiving thru Sunday, so I won't be online much until he goes home.   I have this post and another one pre-scheduled for later.   If you're celebrating the season, have a safe holiday.  And, a glorious weekend.  Now, for part II of King's Ranch Cowboy Breakfast....


....Part of the King's Ranch in buildings, animals, and sights. Along with the main house and guest houses [white] as we drove out of the ranch property to drive back home from the annual King's Ranch Cowboy Breakfast [part one HERE]

Again, if you missed part one...the cowboy breakfast, CLICK HERE

§ City Slickers meet Ranch Hands....

This past Saturday, before daybreak, Bud and I were on Interstate 69 corridor heading to Kingsville, Texas for their annual Cowboy Breakfast on the ranch [the world renowned King's Ranch]. We arrived about 15 minutes after the ranch hands opened the gates and all who arrived before us, were on the road to park and buy our tickets. It has been held every year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving for 28 years. It's been a long, long time since the two of us have gone. The day was partly overcast, but no rain, and mild temperatures. The attendance tally hasn't been posted on the news yet, but I know for a fact, there were hundreds of cars along the ranch road, sometimes at a stand-still...I figure just a rough estimate 3 per vehicle...probably exceeding 3000 came to dine with the ranch hands, the longhorns, and enjoy the ranch atmosphere. There were several lines forming once we walked uphill to the fire pits and serving lines. All along the ranch road, the famous Walking "W" brand formed in iron can be seen.

The breakfast served, cooked over open fires, was biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage, tortillas, refried beans, orange juice and coffee. Definitely not the healthiest of meals, but considering this is a traditional ranch breakfast for the hard workers, those worked off the calories and fat in no time laboring with chores; like rounding up stray cattle, branding, feeding livestock, etc. etc. etc.

During and after breakfast, there was country entertainment, displays of ranch work, volunteers sharing some of the ranching expertise, and most all the ranch hand employees were dressed in period style. Of course, for us City Slickers, it's a novelty...but they're dressed in everyday clothes for the most part. By the way, King''s Ranch has its own school and fire department.

We stayed around to watch some of the calf roping in the arena, and walked some of the near-by grounds looking at the quarter horses, the stables, the headquarters, the longhorns, etc. before departing for home. We made a couple of short stops on the exit to take photos of the main ranch house and more out buildings along the way out. I'll post those in another blog soon.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:   Today, King Ranch sprawls across 825,000 acres of South Texas land, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. As the home of 35,000 cattle and over 200 Quarter Horses, King Ranch is one of the largest ranches in the world today.

King Ranch Overview

Website: www.king-ranch.com
Headquarters: Houston, TX
Size: 501 to 1000 employees (plus their families)
Type: Company - Private
Industry: Animal Production & more
Revenue: $100 to $500 million (USD) per year

§ Off to the Park and Ranch...

Since the day was overcast, and the extreme heat of the daylight hours wouldn't be too sweltering, Bud and I took a drive to Kingsville, Texas. I wanted to go to Dick Kleberg Park in hopes of seeing a Green Jay along the trail. Of course, luck would have it, at the time we arrived there, there were hardly any birds at all. We saw flycatchers, a grebe on the lake, one black bellied whistling duck and several mockingbirds, but no jays. We also heard several golden fronted woodpeckers, and a couple flying away from us. Afterward, we then stopped at King's Ranch visitor's center on the property of the ranch, seeing wild turkeys and three of their massive, well-known cattle [a Santa Gertrudis and a Longhorn...plus what appeared to be a hybrid]. We also perused the gift shop 'cause that's what Bud wants to do...looking for any special historical books on the ranch or Old West life. Then, leaving the ranch, we stopped for lunch and headed home....getting back just before the cloud cover broke loose and dumped another 1/2 inch rain!!!

Dick Kleberg Park....






King's Ranch...


visitor's center



Longhorn, Santa Gertrudis [linked], Hybrid and same longhorn chewing its cud.

Seeing these juicy steaks on the hoof, I started getting hungry. If you're a vegetarian, sorry...the only thing grown in the ground around the ranch is cotton...I don't even know if cotton is edible...hope you brought your own brown bag! Steak and potatoes for me!!!!! Dinner bell is a'chimin'!!!!