In the late 1950s, sixteen-year-old Scooter was transplanted from the quiet, normal life of a teenager in South Texas to the wilds of West Texas to manage his family's largest farms and ranches on the Rio Grande along the Texas-Mexico border. These lands were known as vegas in Spanish. Never did he imagine he would spend endless hours on horseback working cattle-mean Corriente cattle! Nor did he foresee being stranded overnight along the Rio Grande or battling the legendary Chupacabra. Not to mention racing floodwaters to save the herd, regularly avoiding being trampled or skewered by the cattle, being attacked by avispa, and quelling a border war. Or being the patrón and overseeing braceros, vaqueros, and pastores, and along the way finishing high school.