EPISODE 12: ARKANSAS, OKLAHOMA, TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, UTAH, and NEVADA

While the song may be correct that one may not be able to pick very much cotton when those cotton balls get rotten, it is not true that Texarkana is only about a mile from Louisiana. It is more like 36. Here is a sign in Texarkana that I found fascinating. The Arkansas banner signifies that this side of the street is in Arkansas while the other side of the street has Texas banners. “Dang-good” is one thing, but “dang-buenos”???


Dang-buenos

I headed into Arkansas a bit to see that place called Hope. Here are some pictures from Bill Clinton’s hometown.


Downtown Hope


Clinton home


Bubba sign

On the way into Oklahoma by the Arkansas town of De Queen I saw a sign for a town that could rival Seattle -- it is called Process City (inside joke for those of you who work in Seattle urban planning).

The main reason I went to Oklahoma was that it is my state number 49; when I realized that I started looking for signs for the ferry to Alaska which is now the only state I have not been to – strange since it is so close.

On the way to Oklahoma City I saw signs for Tulsa. I was tempted to go there because of my favorite Asleep at the Wheel song, “Take Me Back to Tulsa (I’m too young to marry)”; but I decided it was too far out of my way.

The reason I came to Oklahoma City (and nearby Norman) was to see if I could locate the widow of Lt. Barker who served with my father; she wrote a very nice letter to my mother (which I still have) shortly after my father was killed. (“Damn this war anyway.”) I spoke to her on the phone a couple of years ago and found out that she and Lt. Barker divorced in the 1950’s or 1960’s. I know Lt. Barker survived the war but no one knows exactly what happened to him during the war. He died about 20 years ago I think. She also told me that her daughter had died a few years ago.

When I tried to call Mrs. Baker before my trip her phone was disconnected. So when I got to Oklahoma City I had to do some detective work. I found her address and asked the neighbors if she still lived at her old address, which is in shadow of the University of Oklahoma stadium in Norman. It turns out that she moved to a nursing home about a year ago and then into the Alzheimer’s section very recently. However, the neighbors gave me the wrong name of the nursing home so I had to return and talk to a woman who lives across the street who was more accurate in her information. She also filled me in on some of Mrs. Barker’s life. She was an assistant to the Director of Athletics for the Sooners for many years. However, Lt. Barker was something of an enigma to her neighbor too.

In any case, this neighbor gave me the correct nursing home and told me how to get there. When I arrived they were glad to let me see Mrs. Barker who still has some of her faculties, although she is not too happy with having to live in a nursing home. She remembered my mother and father but could not recall any details about that time of her life and became frustrated when she tried to remember. So I just had a little visit and did not press her for any information about those days. I told her that the main reason I came was to thank her for the nice letter to my mother,

Since Norman is so close to Oklahoma City I decided to at least pay a quick visit. I recall being upset as a kid when Oklahoma City annexed half of the state to beat out LA as the largest city in area in the country. And it IS big but I kind of liked its honest growth, big square buildings downtown without trying to be impressive like Charlotte with its weird shaped modern buildings. The other thing I liked about Oklahoma City was the fact that old Route 66 ran right through town and there are a couple of neat remnants like these:


Retro McD on Rt 66


Got milk

I thought that since I was in Oklahoma City I should see the memorial related to the terrorist attack on the former federal building. Here are a few pictures from this memorial, which I thought was well done. Each chair represents a person who was killed and the smaller chairs represent the children. I also liked the informal part where people leave mementoes to those who were killed.


National Memorial


Symbolic chairs


Informal remembrance

On the way to Texas I saw the town of Geronimo on the map and thought I should check it out since that is what the paratroopers shouted when they jumped out of a plane. In my birth announcement that my mother drew she shows me wrapped up in a blanket being dropped by a parachute and I am shouting “Geronimo”. The town is a dusty little place of a few homes, a post office, and a community center. Here is the sign.


Geronimo

Then I drove though little Grandfield, another dusty wide spot in the road, that has a sign letting those passing through know that this is the home of Miss Oklahoma 1998, Julie Payne. Good on you, Julie.

One thing I should say about Oklahoma: I did not see any corn, let alone any as high as an elephant’s eye. Also, I was impressed that the speed limit is 75 mph on their turnpikes. I really noticed that I used up much more gas when I drove that fast, but they don’t care here or in Texas - you just scratch the ground and up comes oil.

My two reasons for visiting Texas were to see Lubbock and Odessa, Lubbock being Buddy Holly’s hometown and Odessa being the site of Friday Night Lights (the book and movie about high school football in this part of the world). As soon as I crossed into Texas I found an oldies country station that was playing “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” by Willie and Waylon. It made me recall that I miss the classic country station in Seattle whose place on the dial was taken over by the liberal talk show network, Air America. When that happened I bet some ole boys (if there are any in Seattle) were pissed. I know I was.

About this time I also began to feel very inferior and inadequate in my little Toyota pickup as I encountered countless “real” trucks. I stopped for gas and a coke in the town of Paducah (I liked the name) and saw some advertisements for houses selling for $17,000 and $22,000. I know this is the middle of nowhere, but could that be right?

Lubbock may have been the most auto-oriented place I saw on my trip. Not the endless strip malls and franchises that are the same throughout suburban America, but just very wide streets with the buildings set back far from these streets. For example, the freeway that runs through town actually has two- or three-lane one-way frontage streets on both sides. And Lubbock is no small town. It is very spread out and 200,000 people live here. In addition to the Buddy Holly connection Lubbock is proud of its prairie dog zoo or park. I had no interest in going there but when I was searching for Buddy’s cemetery I came across this vacant lot that was amazingly full of prairie dogs.


Prairie Dogs

Then I visited the Buddy Holly Center. It was a nice little museum. However, the woman who worked there never heard of the musical, “Buddy”. I saw it in London maybe 8 years ago and it was fantastic. The first hour was the story of Buddy’s short life and the second hour, after intermission, was a recreation of the last concert that Buddy, the Big Bopper, and the kid from Pacoima (Richard Valenzuela or Ricky Valens) performed in Iowa before they were all killed in their private plane, the day that music died. I sent an email to the British star of that show and I still am on his email list telling about gigs he performs throughout England. Anyway, here are some Buddy Holly photos.


Buddy Holly Center


Buddy


Gravesite

Funny how things link up. In the Buddy Holly center they played a film clip of Dylan accepting an award, Grammy maybe, a few years ago, and he recalled how, as a kid, he had been in the first row at a Buddy Holly concert in Duluth and that he felt that Buddy had looked directly at him and how he felt a connection, maybe a passing of a baton. Earlier Buddy felt a similar thing when Elvis came through Lubbock and performed there. As a comparison to Buddy’s grave, here is one from Graceland (not from this trip):


Graceland

After Lubbock I headed for Odessa. The book Friday Night Lights paints a rather bleak picture of the place, being surrounded by cotton fields and oil wells. It was that, but more depressing to me were the endless chains: Wal-Mart, Target, etc, etc. I found the high school. It is named after the ancient sea that covered this area, supported living creatures which later turned into Texas Crude, bless their little hearts (if they had any). The football team was doing well this year I understand so they still have lots of their famous “mojo”.


Permian High

Not too far away, in New Mexico, is a place that also relates to the former Permian Sea. Carlsbad Caverns were formed, in part, because of how sedimentary rocks were formed in this sea. This national park was high on my list and it did not disappoint although it is difficult to take pictures that convey the feeling of the place.


Carlsbad Caverns entrance


Whale


Stalagtites and Stalagmites


Column


Temple


Drapes

I headed north from Carlsbad, camping in a couple of nice dessert state parks one near where Billy the Kid is buried. But I did not visit his gravesite because it is privately owned, charges a fee, and was not open until 9:00 AM and I wanted to get on the road early that day. I arrived in Albuquerque around noon and drove around a bit. I rather liked the city. It is spread out but still seems a nice place to live. Not precious like Santa Fe and Taos that I visited later. Here is a WWII connection: the house where war correspondent Ernie Pyle lived is turned into a tiny neighborhood library and sort of memorial with some of his mementos on display. He was killed on a Pacific Island towards the end of war.


Ernie Pyle's house

I did not take any more pictures of Albuquerque although the old town seemed nice. I was not that crazy about Santa Fe. I did like the architecture but it all seemed a little too precious for me. It is fine if you like shopping, museums, and art galleries. If not, well….I did have some good food and did enjoy the general ambiance and architecture as I said. Most of the buildings are one story with rounded corners and painted earth tones. The ones in the hills seem to nicely fit into the contours of the land. I got a kick out of the McDonald’s painted earth tones and could visualize the negotiations between the company and the local planning officials with the resultant arches somewhere between the usually bright McDonalds yellow and the ambient burnt ochre.

I drove into Colorado but did not visit Mesa Verde or Four Corners (where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico all come together and one can stand – or squat – in four states at once; my kind of place) because I had been there before. I stayed in a really neat old retro motel in Cortez for $31 with 1950’s tile in bathroom; it was very clean, had real glasses to drink out of, and actually had wifi internet connection in the rooms.

Since it was between New Mexico and home I decided to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The drive in Utah along US 191 from Monticello to Moab was beautiful but had no dots on my AAA map. Who puts those little dots along highways on these maps that indicate scenic routes? This highway certainly merited dots in my mind. One of the sights was Wilson Arch and this other stupa-like formation.


Wilson Arch


Stupa

Also along this stretch of highway was the best tourist trap I visited on my trip. It is a 5,000 square foot home carved out the side of the mountain. It also used to be a diner. The wife of the couple lived here for many years after her husband died, apparently from the strenuous effort of hand drilling and blasting out all the rock. He also was a big FDR fan as can be seen from the memorial. The place also has interesting junk scattered around the site along with a petting zoo with alpacas and ostriches. I thought it was kind of an endearing place.


Hole in the Rock


FDR Memorial

Canyonlands and Arches National Parks were spectacular. I got carried away taking pictures and here are a few. First one from Canyonlands and one from nearby Dead Horse State Park.


Panorama at Canyonlands National Park


Colorado River from Dead Horse State Park 9

As I may have mentioned, Arches National Park was not on my list but I found it to be amazing. Maybe I just get carried away with shapes (remember the topiary). Here are the pictures of this intriguing place.


Delicate Arch


Landscape Arch


Skyline Arch


Formation


Turret Arch


Windows


Double Arch


Elephants on Parade


Balancing Rock

The thing to remember about Balancing Rock is that this is NOT Disneyland. After I left Arches I drove up along Highway 128 which parallels the reddish Colorado River and the canyon it carved – a very scenic view (this one does have dots on my AAA map.)


Colorado River Canyon

I then went a little out of my way to Provo, Utah to get my truck serviced then headed to Great Basin National Park just across the border in Nevada. On the way I had lunch at Delta and had an interesting encounter at the local diner. One of the waitresses asked a regular, cowboy type, if he knew what “ephemera” meant. He didn’t have a clue. I asked her where she saw that word and she said in one of her chat rooms on-line. I told her that I thought it was related to “ephemeral” and tried to explain what that meant. It was a strangely sophisticated conversation for a diner in this part of the world. I also visited the little local Delta Museum mainly to see the display I read about that covered a Japanese relocation camp called Topaz that was located nearby during WWII. They actually had a reconstructed barracks building that was interesting. But my favorite item was a fluoroscope that I have fond memories about as a kid - the only positive thing about buying shoes - before they outlawed these devices. Two little old ladies served as docents and they were pretty funny telling me all about the history of this little corner of Utah.


Delta Museum Ladies


Fluoroscope


Topaz Barracks

My last camping stop was Great Basin National Park just over the border in Nevada. It was my last camping experience because it got down to 12 degrees that night. No wonder there were no other people in the campground. My water and toothpaste froze, except the water in my ice chest that was actually warmer even with the ice in the chest. There is a big mountain in the park that had quite a lot of know at the top. And there was another cavern (Lehman Cave), which was somewhat different than Carlsbad, being more human scale with small passageways and some interesting formations like the “cypress swamp” shown below. And it was warm (50 degrees) inside.


Great Basin National Park


Lehman Cave


Cyprus Swamp


Poodle and Garden Gnome

Not too far west of here is located a park with ancient human markings. I am not all that interested in these but I like the name. I was about all touristed out by now anyway.


Glyph Marks

I took a stretch of highway north between US 40 and US 50 because it had the scenic dots on my map. However, I was getting a little anxious to make some major distance on the way home and decided to drive it at dusk as can be seen in these pictures.


Sunset


Moonrise

The last thing on my list was Battle Mountain, Nevada because I had heard about their sign on the side of a hill. I stayed there on a Tuesday night and they only had blackjack dealers from Wednesday through Saturday. And the only room left in the motel had a broken shower. So I was not in the best of moods and I was a little put out when I could not even find the sign on the mountain the next morning. The woman at cashier’s window at the casino (also the office for the motel) told me that the sign was there on the south side of town but was dim because it had not been painted for a while. I drove south of town and was able to see it. As I said, this was the last item on my list of things to see. It may be hard to believe that this was on my list and Arches National Park was not, but there you are. And this will be my last photo unless I include some repeats in my last “episode” which will be a summing up of my whole trip. The rest of the trip was heading back quickly through Oregon (my last night was in Madras which seemed appropriate), past Mt. Hood and Bonneville Dam, through Portland, and along I-5 to home.


Battle Mountain