The Black Hills Roundup, South Dakota. Cowboys still remember the get-togethers in town after gathering cattle on the open range before fences separated ranch operations. Nearly 100 years later, Belle Fourche still celebrates its ranching and heritage of patriotism with its Black Hills Roundup celebration.

This year his producer was an attractive young Tomi Toyama-Ambrose and his camera guy was Herb Thomas. Both are regulars with Fox 8 of Cleveland, Ohio.

Neil's quest is to locate and professionally film interesting and colorful places that visitors to Ohio should put on their super bucket list. 

He has the talent to spot clever events and places. With that special skill his many followers soon take a drive to these selected locations and embed themselves into the kinesthetic sense of the shoot locations.

To add some special flavor to Neil's trips, I first met him driving down Muskrat Pike in a little boxy red and white convertible 1959 Nash Metropolitan. It was the cutest thing. It became a trademark. As the One Tank Tours became a consistent Fox 8 feature, Neil had to hire a parking lot guard for the little Nash convertible - over zealous fans wanted to cut off a piece of the upholstery or some part of the classic vehicle to take home as a keepsake. This time Neil showed up in a big SUV with plenty of room for camera stuff.

When Neil arrived he cased the place. He checked out the new stuff. He wanted Herb to ride the ranch bus and bounce over the Longhorn pastures filming the views and sounds of guests. The little producer jumped around working to identify angles, light and backgrounds showing me and Neil with Longhorn herds in the background. That was not hard. With the offering of a few pieces of cow candy there were cattle all over the place. The cow Jam Packed took a friendly nose sniff to part of an area near Herb's hip pocket and for a second I thought an expensive TV camera was going to fly into the air.

The One Tank Tour, Longhorns Head To Tail feature will air Tuesday July 26 at 10 AM on Fox 8 from Cleveland. If you miss it, check out www.fox8.com at a later date.

Neil, like myself, is old as dirt. The good thing about being old is that you have met a lot of good people over the years and know a herd of folks by their first name -- in the marketing and promotion business, there is nothing better.  

THE INTERNATIONAL TEXAS LONGHORN ASSN CONVENTION AND CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW is a stand alone event this year and will be much like a half dozen years ago with seminars, educational meetings and some new ideas for members to have fun. The interest is BIG! The volunteers working on the event are keeping the phones hot and busy.

Located in historical Bricktown, just across the street from
the Cox Convention Center.

Down Under: Annual Longhorns Show and Sale in Gunnedah 

LONGHORN lovers made the trek to Gunnedah on the June long weekend to take part in the Texas Longhorns Australia (TLA) annual show and sale.

TLA secretary and sale co-ordinator Geoff Dawson said show numbers were down slightly this year but judge Neville Barwick had commented that the quality had improved. Mr Barwick judged the inaugural show in 2014.

Mr Dawson said everything ran smoothly under the leadership of show co-ordinator Rodney Cooper from Kooroora Longhorns in Scone.

Grand champion female of the show was awarded to Kooroora Crystal, a 25-month-old heifer exhibited by Mr Cooper and his daughter Adelaide of Kooroora Longhorns from Scone.

Southern Cross Anzac, a 21-month-old bull exhibited by Don Constable of Southern Cross Longhorns from Galong NSW, was named grand champion male of the show.

Following the show, more than 50 TLA members and their families dined at the Gunnedah Services and Bowling Club before holding an AGM and general meeting. John Bastardi from Deepwater was elected the new TLA president, and Don Constable and Rodney Cooper were elected vice presidents.

Winter weather didn't keep the buyers away from Sunday's sale, with a roll-up of almost 50 Longhorns going under the hammer.

Mr Dawson said prices at this year's sale didn't reach the heights of last year's sale, however across the board it was a terrific sale from both the seller and buyers' point of view.

Top price for the sale was $4,000 paid by Greg Culell from Halls Gap VIC for a rising four-year-old cow bred by John and Jan Bastardi of Coolamon Longhorns in Deepwater. Top price bull of the sale went to grand champion male Southern Cross Anzac, a Rodeo Max ST (USA) Bull.

"At the end of the sale there was a 100 per cent clearance, which was a terrific result for all sellers," Mr Dawson said.

"Volume buyers for the breeding stock in the sale were John and Megan Hoare from Tasmania who made the long trip up from Tassie and purchased 12 head in total.

"And Wes & Hayley Offord from Queensland made the effort as new members to travel to Gunnedah and they returned home with a total of five head."

Mr Dawson said he was thankful to the Blackjack Camera Club for taking official photographs and operating a barbecue on the day of the show. Funds from the TLA barbecue and morning tea were donated to the club.

Preparations for the 2017 sale will begin as early as September 2016, with plans to once again hold the show and sale in Gunnedah.  READ ARTICLE HERE