Summary: A simple, late summer day quickly turns more complicated than any of the Cartwrights could have imagined potentially changing one Cartwright’s life forever.

Rating: PG Word Count:  3466

Summary:  Adam gets some bad news but decides to use those circumstances to do a good deed.  That whole situation turns out to be far more complicated and dangerous than he had imagined until it affects his whole family. 
Rating: T  Word count: 18,031

Summary:  In the last of the series, the story is all about Adam, Hoss, and Joe.  There’s a hunting trip with their dogs, a hero who emerges after a case of mistaken identity, and then the plot for their sweet revenge.  Some of this material was originally in the previous story, but when I edited it out, I saved it to create this story.  You may notice how it overlaps part of what happened in that story.
Rating:  T   Word Count:  10,703

Summary: Adam gets involved in two cases for the government, but his new career leads to his father having some very bad luck.  The whole family has to come together to resolve the issues.
Rating – T  Word count – 15,685

Summary:  What was Adam thinking as not only Bill Enders challenged his story, but his family, friends, and townspeople all doubted his version of events leading up to Toby being murdered? A companion piece for the episode, it makes sense only if you are familiar with The Ride.
Rating: PG  Word count: 2,105

Summary:  After more than five years since Adam was forced to leave, his family has a lot of questions, but it will take time and some luck to get the answers they want, and then they may find they don’t like all the answers either.
Rating: T  Word Count: 41,355

Summary:  Joe makes a serious mistake and Adam agrees to help him fix things only to find that he puts himself into a greater problem as others make too many mistakes as well.  Adam needs more help than Joe did, but that help is slow in arriving. 
Rating: T   Word count:  35,315

Summary: The final story of the trilogy of stories:  Trial of Jessica Hardy, Buried Alive, and now, The Empty Casket.  The first two stories told of Adam’s disappearance after being taken as a hostage by a woman bank robber, and then his return after months spent drugged in a mental hospital. When Buried Alive ended, Adam had left Carson City following a frosty reunion with his family that had left him feeling that for everyone’s sake, he should have died as Jessica Hardy, AKA Leslie Richter, meant for him to do.  This story picks up in San Francisco, where he has gone, hoping to find something about himself that is worth saving.  He meets someone who just might understand what he’s feeling, and recognize what he’s planning to do. Can this other “man in black” save Adam from himself? 

Rating: K+

Word Count: 28,000

The winner of the 2021 Ponderosa Paddlewheel Poker Tournament Stories was Questfan!!! All stories have now been attributed to their authors and can be accessed via the links below. Words/phrases were assigned to a standard 52-card deck. Participants in the tournament were dealt five…

Summary: Little Joe takes out a girl who’s family recently moved from New York. Can he help her to find good in Nevada? And what does a pale moon have to do with anything?

Rating:  K+ Word count:   2116