Bob Gordon (Nevada Bob) was born in Alaska in 1939. As a young Navy man, he traveled the world. Stateside, he met the love of his life, Carol Newton, a tall, black-haired beauty and the heroine of this ironically titled memoir. They married, and Bob became a Seattle cop. After being fired for improper conduct—around the time his astronaut cousin Richard Gordon was orbiting the moon on Apollo 12—he vowed to change his ways. Bob moved Carol and their four kids (eventually, there were seven) to Oregon, marking the beginning of an adventurous, hardworking life. After Carol died in 2020, Bob wrote and recorded a song for her for his fourth album, Long Train to Nowhere. Today, Bob continues to write and record country music, travel, and enjoy the love of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

This tongue-in-cheek titled memoir celebrates the highs and lows of a spirited, challenging life. Nevada Bob Gordon, a husband, father of seven, Navy man, police officer, cattle rancher, gold mine assayer, hydrocarbon well analyst, and now author and country music singer, recounts his family’s peripatetic life in the Western US. Over the course of 58 years of marriage to Carol Gordon, the love of his life, Bob and his family lived hard on the land, surviving dozens of not-to-be believed incidents and brushes with death. Carol was his mainspring, every inch the capable, unflappable woman standing with her man through thick and thin, while their kids became self-reliant, sharing their parents’ tough, ultimately triumphant life.