This is one of those RMT episodes that dealt with a natural disaster of sorts, albeit with a few plot twists (other similar episodes like this I recall are "Blizzard of terror" and "Hurricane!"). This one involves a young confederate soldier returning war-weary to his home in Texas. He'd gone to the War between the states along with his father...but the father was killed in combat. The son is saddened that his mother has remarried...even though his father was killed he can't fully forgive her for taking up with another man for that time. His mother would like him to stay close to home but he can't bring himself to do so. So he joins a cattle drive and heads out on the range. He sounds like one of the youngest of the grizzled bunch that will be on the drive, but can also take care of himself. He learns also that there's an adversary on the drive...another cowboy who may not be the nicest of sorts. I'm not a film connoisseur, but I remember surfing on cable television one night and seeing a John Wayne film wherein he played a boss on one of these cattle drives and there was indeed a stampede. I don't know how the cinematographers did it all, but they caught the "mood" of the cattle (and their cowboy attendants) perfectly on a night when they were apparently easily spooked. One unfortunate cowboy went out an camped out at the edge of the group, and was trampled to death by the runaways...the camera angle caught exactly what he would have seen in his final moments on earth, and it was frightening. This episode seems to have the same elements, albeit in a radio version. It also has one of the few what could be termed "off-color" jokes I've ever heard in the RMT. Paraphrased not long after the young man from Texas joins the drive, at chow time: COOK: "Would you like me to throw a couple of them 'prairie oysters' on the grill?" COWBOY: "Sounds good to me." Pleaaghhhhh..... ops: Reply With Quote

A young man returns home from the Civil war where he witnessed his father die in action and finds that his mother has already remarried. In bitter disappointment he leaves and joins a cattle drive to the North. Typical western: the good young natured cowboy, the ill-tempered older cowboy, the mediating trail boss, and a cute single widow. Too many plot lines to hold things together. Fear of stampede, breaking in new horse with antsy cattle, marauding Indians, fidelity to marriage vows, interpersonal conflict with cowboys…

This one tries to fit way to much stuff into a western tale: attacking Indians, romance, stereotypes, and ghosts. All based around a cattle drive.

Once E.G. Marshall said that country music was invented just to calm down the cattle, I kept thinking of Fred Gwynne as Garrison Keillor's character on Prairie Home Companion's "Lives of the Cowboys" sketch, Dusty (or is it Lefty?) the yodeling cowpoke.

I agree with Ron that there was a bit too much going on in this story. I think I know what Ian Martin wanted to get across, but I think he had to throw other things in there to fill up the time. It was an okay story, but definitely not one of the better ones.

I look forward to the Fred Gwynne episodes but he was not the leading role and didn't have much to work with, so this episode was disappointing for me. I agree with the other comments that too many story lines were crammed into one episode, plus the cattle drive theme was a little stale since it was used about 20 episodes ago.