a place named for a cow

Visiting Hereford, Texas, a place named for a cow, I was forced to take lodgings in a small motel on the outskirts, because all other motels were full-up due to a cow-related event. The clerk gave me a room number but no key. I asked for a key. He said there were no keys, because "people busted all the locks." He did, however, walk me across the courtyard to show me my room. My room was not good. There was a brown blood-splatter across the television set and wall. I asked why. He said, "Meskins." The "air conditioning" was from a device known in Texas as a "swamp-cooler," a very apt description. There was no cable. The television set acquired two TV shows at the same time, one superimposed on the other. I watched both of them and was interested to discover that I could more or less keep up. The only phone service was through the desk clerk. He said I had to pay cash in advance to call long distance. When I walked back across the courtyard to give him the cash, two young cowboy types were sitting in the courtyard drinking tequila and arguing. I asked the clerk far it was to the nearest liquor store. He said it was 57.5 miles. "Dry county," he said. I drove it. Just as he said, the county was dry.

-Jim Schutze of Dallas, TX
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/