A buzzard circles lazily in the cool, crisp air. Two mean-looking cowboys saunter down a dusty street lined with old clapboard shops with wooden sidewalks. The air is still and the sound of their boots crunching the dry, crusty dirt is amplified by the trees that loom nearby. At the end of the street, a man with a silver star on his chest and his thumb hooked in his belt, steps out of the shadows. "Boys. What'cha doing in my town?" this man says softly.
The cowboys stop and loosen their guns. "You must be the sheriff" the taller, meaner-looking cowboy spits.
"I am the sheriff" the man with the star says. "And I'm also the judge." Pause. "And I also own the hearse!" The sheriff pulls back his long duster to reveal his gun, his ample girth, and grins a no-nonsense grin.
The tall, mean cowboy ponders this, looks at his partner with the worn chaps and ten-gallon hat, and then looks back at the sheriff and observes "you know, you also look like you own at least a part of the donut shop!"
With this, the crowd that had been watching silently, explodes with laughter. It's just another gunfight - not a typical gunfight but one filled with jokes and laughter - at the Flying J ranch. The Alto, New Mexico based wild west chuckwagon has been pleasing customers nightly since 1982 with gunfights, chuckwagon dinners, lore of the old west, and entertainment by the Flying J Wranglers.
The Flying J Ranch is the nightly testament to the hard work and commitment of James and Cindy Hobbs to the history of New Mexico. James' grandfather founded Hobbs, New Mexico, so his New Mexico roots are planted deeply. "Something we wanted to accomplish with the Flying J was to help people experience New Mexico" James notes. The chuckwagon and the trail drives of the late 1800's are a large part of the history of New Mexico. The first chuckwagon was built in 1866 by Charles Goodnight to use on the Goodnight-Loving trail drives which ran through New Mexico, very close to where the Flying J Ranch sits today. So exposing people to the lore, food, and music of the chuckwagon era helps keep New Mexico's history alive. Cindy Hobbs notes "It is essential to the business concept. We want this to be as authentic as we can. We want the people that come to the Flying J to come away feeling like they know a little bit about the West". James goes on "we want to take them back 120 years. The cowboy was the original American free spirit. The cowboy was doing what he loved to do - being out under the stars and enjoying the west. That's what people are coming out here to do - camping out, looking at the stars and just connecting with the outdoors. We try to do that with the music and the western flavor of the Flying J."
Western music is a large part of the Flying J experience. Each night after the food has been served and the dishes put away, the Flying J Wranglers provide the music that is the backbone of the ranch. Initially starting out with four members, the Wranglers have evolved over the years through the Hobbs' music contacts. While there have been different band members over the years, the Wranglers currently have six accomplished musicians in the group. Cindy Hobbs won the Western Style Female National Championship in 1991 and Marilyn Trotter is a three-time New Mexico Fiddle Champion. James Hobbs and Colin Campbell, who plays guitar, sings tenor and is the Old West historian of the group, have both played at the White House. Together with Roy Black, who plays bass guitar and is Bonita City's sheriff and Randy Jones who plays lead guitar, banjo, and mandolin, the Wranglers are a potent band that are greater than the sum of their parts.
The Wranglers have represented New Mexico through State Department tours in Japan, Germany, and Italy and have played the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. State legislative leaders continue to push to make "Song of New Mexico", the Wranglers' signature song and one of James' compositions, the New Mexico State Western Song. But what sets the Wranglers apart, aside from their musical talent is that they are involved in every part of the Flying J. "Our musicians must be willing to serve - they must be willing to be part of the whole experience" notes Cindy. That is why you will find Colin parking cars, Randy, Roy, and Marilyn selling tickets, Cindy cooking biscuits and working in the gift shops, James doing a little bit of everything, and all of them serving food to the customers and refilling drinks. "There is no wall between the entertainers and the people" continues James. "That's what is unique about the Flying J."
When you enter the Flying J, you will find small western gift shops, horse-back rides, a sundry shop for cold drinks, and a gold panning experience all meant to help transport you back to the New Mexico of 120 years ago. After the gunfight, you find your reserved seat at one of the large tables in the show barn where you are instructed in the finer points of a chuckwagon meal. "Hold your metal plate by the small section" you will hear one of the Wranglers instruct from the stage. "Because the plate is metal, we'll put cold, chunky apple sauce in that section to keep your hand cool from the hot food in the other sections." This is an important instruction! At the door to the chuckwagon kitchen, you are given the all important metal plate and a roll of utensils, "best put in your back pocket so you have two hands to hold your plate and your drink!" You have a choice of beef or chicken - 'free range chicken' because it was cooked on the 'free stove that James' mom gave him' - then you get beans, a large baked potato, that cool apple sauce, a piece of spice cake, and to top it off, a large homemade biscuit. After this filling meal, the dishes are cleared, the lights go down, and the Wranglers sing songs that celebrate the West. Mixed in with the songs is plenty of humor for the whole family and trail drive lore. By the time the last song is sung and the last joke is told, the sun is down, the mountain air is cool and crisp, and you have lived the total family experience that is the Flying J Ranch.
Even though over 30,000 people now enjoy the Flying J Ranch every year, the Flying J had a tough beginning. Partnering with another couple, the Hobbs established the Flying J near the tourist area of Ruidoso in southeast New Mexico. Visitors to the Flying J now may find it hard to believe, but the Hobbs started with just one building that could only hold 400 people and a small ticket booth. But even this was too much at times. "There was one night where we sold eight tickets" James remembers. Cindy continues "one night, it was so slow I remember saying 'Why don't we just bring the customers over to the house? We can feed them over there!'" Within three years, the Flying J was on the brink of going under and at one point, the Hobbs thought that they had lost the Flying J because of financial problems. There was little money coming in and the other founding couple decided to sell their half to the Hobbs. "It wasn't much of a buying out deal because there wasn't much to buy out" James remarks. "Besides we owed too much money to leave town. Somebody had to stay."
Part-time jobs for both Cindy and James were necessary from the beginning just to help the Flying J Ranch and the Hobbs' young family survive. Besides singing locally as a duo, Cindy worked as a waitress and James did everything from working in one of the local grocery stores to doing plumbing and delivering office supplies. In addition to the part-time jobs and three young children, the Hobbs also did everything behind the scenes at the Flying J from taking reservations to cooking the food. "Our kids learned to count by wrapping potatoes in the kitchen" laughs James. But the Hobbs note that all of the hard work and those part-time jobs paid off in other ways. "The community saw that we were working really hard, that we weren't fly-by-night operators. And as we became part of the community, we got a lot of support from the community which helped the Flying J take off." But even though the beginning was rough, James points out that "all the while, we were putting on a good show and people were going away each night happy. And even today, that's what we want; people to leave happy."
After surveying the small western town, the tall, mean-looking cowboy turns and asks "why did we come here anyway?"
"I had to renew my library card" answers the cowboy in the ten-gallon hat.
"I didn't know you could read."
"Yep!" ten-gallon hat cowboy says proudly. "Hooked on Phonics worked for me!"
The crowd roars. It's another perfect night amongst the pines at the Flying J.
Getting there and ticket information
The Flying J Ranch is located in Alto, just north of Ruidoso, New Mexico. To get there, take Hwy. 48 north from Ruidoso and go 1.5 miles past the turnoff to Ski Apache. Advance reservations are recommended and can be made at 1-888-458-FLYJ. You can find more information about the Flying J Ranch, including music by the Wranglers and the Ranch's famous biscuit mix, at www.FlyingJRanch.com.
The Flying J schedule is Monday-Saturday, from Memorial Day to Labor Day and open on weekends after Labor Day until the first of October.
Chuckwagons of the West -
Bar J - Jackson Hole
Flying W - Colorado Springs
Bar D - Durango
Circle B - Rapid City, SD
Flying J
Triple C - Tucson, AZ
