I feel like an extra on the set of a classic old western as I drive down the long gravel road leading to the main lodge at Cibolo Creek Ranch. Off to one side, a dozen shaggy brown bison clop their way down a rocky embankment into a muddy pond. A vulture soars overhead, riding the heat thermals on a warm afternoon. Ahead of me in the distance, the coffee-colored adobe walls of an old fort rise against a backdrop of grayish-green cactus-spiked hills.
As soon as I step inside the foot-thick walls of that meticulously restored fort, I want to tug off my boots, sink into a leather couch, and stay a while. And the good news? I can.
John Poindexter, a wealthy Houston businessman, bid on this property at a courthouse auction in 1989. A third-generation Texan, he wanted to buy a ranch, and the dramatic
