July 8, 2002:

I hope you all had a fun and safe Fourth of July week. I did. I’ve been spending a lot of time here at the ranch since retiring in May, which has been great, and I took off the last few days to spend some time on the road with Jewel. She’s pretty well healed up from her little wreck here in April, and is back to touring full time.

I’ve been busy dealing with a lot of PBR business lately, and things are really going great for us. We have a lot of exciting TV news on the horizon, including some network television, going back to hour-and-a-half-long shows and only one-day delays.

I’ve got a special event coming up that I’m really looking forward to, and you’re all welcome to participate if you can get to Greeley, Colorado on August 7th. The Mike Cervi Jr. Memorial Extravaganza will be held that day at Island Grove Park. It’ll include a celebrity rodeo, dinner, silent and live auctions, and entertainment by Grammy Award winners Asleep at the Wheel.

This should be a really fun event, and it’s for a good rodeo-community cause. It’ll raise money to fund scholarships at Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences and the CSU Rodeo Team in Mike Jr.’s memory. Mike was a promising young team roper and cattleman who died in a private plane crash last year. He was the son of my old friend and PRCA stock contractor Mike Sr., and the husband of two-time World Champion Barrel Racer Sherry Cervi.
Several of my old cowboy friends, including Jim Shoulders, Larry Mahan and Roy Cooper, are going to be there. Other Western celebrities who plan to try to be there include Reba McEntire, George Strait, Tom Selleck, Red Steagall and Baxter Black. If you’re interested in tickets, which are $250 for individuals, $2,500 for tables of 10 or $3,000 for seating at a celebrity table, call Susan Lane at 303-849-5189 or email Cervi@aol.com.

Other than that, we’ve been getting a lot of rain here at the ranch, which should make for some good grass for the cows. I hope all’s well in your part of the country. I’ll keep you posted on what I’m up to again soon.