If you’re looking for a little adventure, take a walk on the wild side. Wild as in untamed, natural, one of the best times you will have anywhere! Texas has more than 70 guest and working ranches – complete with chuckwagons and cattle – and they just love to strut their stuff for “city slickers”.

Scenic Bandera, just northwest of San Antonio, is home to a number of ranches. Nearby Boerne features Western adventure and relaxation on the banks of the picturesque Guadalupe River.

These ranches offer you a wonderful opportunity to step back in time; while still able to enjoy most of the modern-day comforts we’ve come to love so well. And it’s not about sitting on a horse all day either (although I’m sure that’s an option if that’s your preference).

While you will certainly want to research all of the Dude Ranches, a great first experience can be found at the Mayan Dude Ranch in Bandera, Texas. Just outside of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country, the daily trail rides offer some of the most spectacular views to be found in Texas. But those views are nothing compare to the dining treats you will experience. From the Cowboy Breakfast cook-out to the Texas-sized steak at Hicksville (their little western town), you might find yourself having to unbutton that top pant button after partaking!

You can’t go wrong with this true Texas past-time. If you find yourself overwhelmed by technology and stress, this trip might just be what the doctor ordered. Have you experienced any of Texas’ working ranches? Do you have a favorite? Let me know, I’m always planning my next trip!

Until next time . . .

Paige aka PJsTravelinTexas

Boris, Elliott and Min from the Kango team are at the BIL Conference. BIL is an “unconference” that is community organized by the participants, free, and completely emergent. It is called BIL because it is across the street from TED, an elite conference that connects people from different fields to think broadly about trends and ideas that they normally don’t come into contact with. BIL aims to do the same thing, costs nothing, and anyone can come (but capped at about 200 because of the facility limitations). See the BIL wiki to get a sense of this emergent experience.

I’ve had a great time so far! We brought our own camp chairs, helped set up the room, posted the conference schedule on the Web at my personal Elliott Ng blog. Our biggest contribution was having Boris speak about semantic analysis of travel reviews, which is one of the underlying technologies of the Kango.