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A cowgirl's kind of town: Paris

News Channel 8 file photo by PAUL LAMISON

Donna Byrne, riding her horse Jay as Tonto carries her belongings, has arrived in Paris, Texas, en route Amarillo.

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By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 26, 2009

The cowgirl made it to Paris; the one in Texas.

Donna Byrne and her two horses rested in the northeast Texas town over the Memorial Day weekend, preparing for their long trek to Amarillo.

Byrne, 44, started out from Arcadia in early February after losing her job on a small cattle operation. With $100 in her pocket, she saddled one horse, Jay, and loaded the other, Tonto, with her clothes and camping gear.

She's taken it slow, travelling 10 to 20 miles a day, often stopping for three to four days at a time.

She's made her bed along the roadside a few times, but most nights she's spent in the homes, barns and bunkhouses of people on her route.

Byrne spent some time in the hospital, in Tallahassee and Pineville, La., with a leg infection. Then she gave in to the urge to ride a bull in a Louisiana rodeo; she used to ride bulls in rodeos across Florida.

She's still sore from being tossed after 6 seconds. But she's feeling good mostly, she said last week, after spending the night behind a volunteer fire station in a town called Deport. "Things are quiet. That's the way I like it."

Members of a local Cowboys for Christ chapter recently found someone to give Jay and Tonto new shoes.

Beyond horse shoes, her latest worry is the rising heat.

When Byrne left Arcadia she set a goal of getting to Amarillo, on horseback. She's more than two-thirds there but she now faces a string of 90-plus-degree days.

She's trying to manage it by starting early each morning she travels and getting off the road by noon.

She's also relying on local television stations and papers to keep her story in the news so people open their doors to her.

When she gets to Amarillo, she hopes to find a ranching job; she picked it as her destination because it sounded like a good cowboy town. But she has no idea when she'll get there. She's in no hurry.

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

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