Bar J Wranglers

Thursday night went to see the Bar J Wranglers and their Chuckwagon show. Two of the guys in the group are brothers and sons of the man who started the group. They’ve been putting on these shows for 34 years and they are amazing. The father had a dream of creating a western show where folks could experience what it was like in the old west, complete with chuckwagon food.
The gates open at 5:30, seats are assigned according to your arrival time. You are assigned a table so then we put our jackets on our seats and went to check out the rest of the ranch. They give wagon rides, have a walking path, gift shop, song shed and lots of open areas to hang out in. There was a
cowboy cook outside making Dutch Oven biscuits. They had bottles of honey there that you could pour all over the biscuits. He did a great job of keeping up with the crowds.
We went down the walking path, where they had some cute scenes recreated of local lore. Some interesting history in these parts and the early pioneers had to endure much hardship.
They have an awesome system for serving everyone their meal. The building holds close to 700 people. They put these shows on seven days a week, from Memorial Day weekend until the last Saturday in September. Over the course of the summer 75,000 – 80,000 people come through this facility. Wow ! They can put everyone through the food line in 20 minutes !   I had BBQ sliced beef, which was so tender you could cut it with a fork. Baked potato, beans, chunky applesauce, biscuit and spice cake for dessert. Coffee, lemonade or water came with it. Tin plates and tin cups were a cute touch to make you feel like you were out on a cattle drive, having supper along with 700 other cowboys.
Dinner finishes up around 8:00 and that’s when the show starts. Take a listen…




They are so good….great side splitting humor, sprinkled in with wonderful harmonies and old time songs. They played no-stop for almost two hours. We bought a CD for my mom and all of the guys signed the CD for her. Anxious to see if she likes it.  What a great night of entertainment….would definitely recommend this to anyone coming to Jackson, Wyoming. Be sure to check out the Bar J Wranglers Chuckwagon Show !

Smokin’ and Dutch Cooking…

Last night we went to Teddy and Bertie’s campsite, which is across from Bobbie and Jim’s. They have a whole bunch of family in the area for the holiday weekend so last night was Teddy’s turn to cook. They have such a great campsite, right along the stream.
Teddy made three different types of smoked ribs. An apricot habanera, a BBQ one and one with a spice rub on them. I tried one of the spice ones and one of the BBQ ones. He used apple wood in his smoker to smoke them with. Teddy does a lot of the cooking for cowboy crews when they go out on the range for the roundups. Along with the ribs he had cooked some cut up brats in his “kow”…wok spelled backwards. It looks like a giant wok with horseshoes welded on the sides for handles. They cook almost anything in there…eggs, meats, potatoes, sopapillas, etc. It’s seasoned really well so things don’t stick to it. Easy to clean and ready to go for the next time.
Chris, another cowboy cook and friend, tended to the sweet corn over the fire. Wrapped in foil with butter and salt, he kept turning it to get it evenly browned inside. It was really good. After dinner, Teddy took out the Dutch Oven to cook dessert in. There is a whole way of cooking with a Dutch Oven over open coals. I never realized it was such a big thing till Bobbie and Jim told us about it. I even found an app for it on our tablet that tells you how many briquettes to put on the top of the pot and how many on the bottom to get a certain temperature for baking, roasting, etc. The Dutch Oven itself comes in different sizes and has a flat lid to hold the hot briquettes on the top. Teddy made a peach cobbler using some fresh peaches he had brought from his freezer and put those in the pot first. He had put a disposable aluminum pot inside the Dutch Oven so he wouldn’t have to wash it afterwards. Then he took a box of yellow cake mix and dumped that on top of the peaches. He then took a can of creme soda and poured that over it. He put the lid on, set it in the hot coals and scooped some coals onto the lid. About 20 minutes later, he took it out of coals and checked it. It wasn’t quite done on the one side so he put a couple of pieces of the hot wood pieces on top of the lid and let is set for a few more minutes. He then opened it up, stirred the cake into the peaches and we ate….Oh my, was it delicious ! So nice to make new friends on the road…