Viva Las Vegas!

Good-bye, Dave Johnson!

Hello, Las Vegas!

Dave Johnson has been with WIBW TV for a while now -- more than four years. He made folks in northeast Kansas eager to get out of bed in the mornning. Before the announcement was public, I was among the email recipients who got the news that Dave's last day was Thursday. Broke my heart!

I've joined Dave and Amanda and Drew, and sometimes Josh Mabry, many times. Always Dave was a gracious gentleman, and just plain fun.

He will be missed. I did not make it to Thursday's party because my services were needed in Winfield at the Walnut Valley Festival, but Monday's appearance with Dave and Stephanie Ramos was bittersweet knowing it would be our last together. While in Winfield, the question I was most often asked was, "Hey Dixie, where's Dave going?" (These people obviously do not tune in every day, but hey . . . .)

The upside of this transition, of course, is that Dixie Lee is lobbying to be his first guest in Vegas!

TV in Sin City will never be the same. Good-bye, Dave! Eat your veggies!!!

Even though I live in Kansas, lots of folks in Missouri love me. That's because folks in Missouri value fine cookin' and know a right smart about quality kissin.' So when my dear friend, Dan Hadley, invited me to Lone Jack, Woodrow and I loaded up the cast-iron skillet and headed out. It was Woodrow's idee to make French toast with bacon inside it or "Dixie Lee's Pig in a French Blanket."

This soldier boy, portrayed by Greg Higginbotham, who also portrays Frank James, "volunteered" to fry up the bacon since he has extensive experience with sow belly. At one point, he needed reinforcements, so John Mackie stepped up to the plate. Cole Younger (portrayed by Dave Bears) was our waitress, er, waiter, and made sure everyone in the audience sampled this tasty treat.

Dixie Lee will return to Lone Jack, thanks to Alinda, the boss, for the 150th anniversary where Frank James and Cole Younger will be her able assistants.

Doesn't Greg look nice in that see-through apron?