Was It The End Of A New Dream Or The Beginning Of A New One?

 As she walked out the door of her apartment  the next afternoon she walked through a spider web that instantly covered her face. "Yuk! Spiders everywhere! What is this? A spider family reunion? Get off me!" She swatted it with both hands, did a little dance that resembles one that had no music. She rubbed the silken sticky mess off her face and yelled at the spider she couldn't see with a voice filled with anger, frustration, and a bit of fear. "What is going to happen to me? This is probably some scammer trying to get all my money. She grinned and thought, "Well, they can't get blood out of a turnip, so on to the house of the Big Mac,  I can only afford a burger and fries., but I could eat two big Macs. I'm really hungry. I can remember hearing that in the old days a burger was only fifteen cents. Boy not anymore. I got a burger, medium fries and a glass of water and it cost over three dollars. Oh well, that must be why they called them the good old days. I'll eat this quick then to the library to see what a dude ranch is all about."

It seemed like miles of walking in the chilly weather, but thankfully it was on the way to the library. It had been a twenty block walk in her worn tennis shoes and she had quickly worked up an appetite. As she wiped the grease off her fingers on the napkin she had taken from her tray she passed a hot pretzel vendor that made her realize that a burger and an order of fries had not done the trick. "Oh those look and smell so good maybe later depending on what the lawyer has to say."

After another ten blocks and huddling into her too thin coat she finally walked into the library thankful for it's warmth and several available computers.

After getting the password she thought of what to search for first. She looked at her phone which was fast fading away. It said she had only an hour before she needed to start on her trip to the lawyers' office. It would either be the end of a new dream or the beginning of a new and wonderful life.

She typed on the search line Dude Ranch history. As she scrolled through the different websites she was amazed. Dude Ranches started in the 1880's in North Dakota of all places. She chuckled to herself, "Why would anyone want to go to a place colder than here? Then she saw a picture that really confused her. It was a picture of Theodore Roosevelt. She had heard about him in history class, but hadn't paid much attention. Evidently he loved dude ranches. He bought a ranch close by the very first one owned by the Eaton brothers. He loved it so much that he wrote to many of his friends and relatives. Soon people were crowding the railroads wanting to go west. The east was beginning to be crowded and one could hardly see the sun for the smoke of all of the new industries being built.

The ranchers were very hospitable to the people they called the "city slickers" and gave them free room and board. They offered free horseback riding, fishing, hunting and often let their visitors help with the chores on the ranches if they wished. The visitors loved the fresh air and the beautiful sunsets in the evening. Some of the dude ranches treated their guests like family and had competition games like target shooting and prizes for the biggest fish caught. They also loved to play pranks and tricks on their city visitors.

In the 1920's dude ranches became very popular in Texas. "Ah ha! Yup that's where I'm going." She couldn't wait to read more and more stories of these ranches. 

Then she started reading about how the dude ranches were losing money. In one year the Eaton Ranch had served 2200 free meals. The Dude Ranch Association was developed and made rules that made the ranches more profitable. They started by charging ten dollars a week and could only have one hundred twenty five guests at one time. "Wow! I can't imagine having to feed that many people, let alone all the horses and cattle. Ten dollars a week? I just spent three dollars and didn't get full. I wonder how many people they had working for them. It doesn't say. Maybe if this is all true and my Uncle Bill, or whoever he is, owned a dude ranch then I will be rich."

 As Aaliyah read on she felt a deep sadness. The dude ranches were hard hit by the Big Depression in the '20's and 30's and all but disappeared. The ranches often were thousands of acres and hundreds of horses and cattle lived on them. During this time terrible blizzards hit some of the ranches and many went out of business. She also read that many of the ranchers never married or some that did had children that wanted nothing to do with the ranches. They moved away and the ranches were sold or left forgotten. Some dude ranches were started in California and New York. The guests wanted to play golf and go swimming in heated pools. They wanted to eat in nice restaurants and have beautiful views from their rooms. They no longer wanted to  clean the barns and dress like cowboys. Folks started to buy RV's and visited state and national parks instead of the dude ranches. It said that some of the dude ranches added tennis courts, saunas and offered square dance lessons just to attract the tourists again. "Oh man, I have to hurry, but this doesn't sound good for me. If I inherited anything it's probably his bills. I have enough of my own."

But she was determined to go to the lawyer's office to see what this was all about.