Days 11-12: Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque

Day 11: Tuesday, October 20 – Tulsa and Oklahoma City

What a great day! It began at the Gilcrease Museum of Art in Tulsa. This is a relatively small museum that is best known for its art of the American West. The collection is amazing! Thomas Gilcrease was a 1/8 part Indian who received 160 acres of land from the government. This 160 acres happened to be part of the largest oil deposits in the U.S. He became a millionaire by age 21. He wanted to do something meaningful with his money and decided to amass an important art collection. He succeeded! Not only did he make individual purchases, he bought entire collections, including 2000 pieces from Thomas Moran’s estate. He had a close relationship with the artists in the Taos school and bought hundreds of their paintings. The collection also includes Indian artifacts from all over the western hemisphere, as well as other significant historical objects such as an original draft of the Declaration of Independence. It really is one of the most amazing collections I have ever seen, and it is also presented in a very manageable and educational way. Definitely worth another trip since we had only allotted about 3 hours for the visit. We were also told that the Philbrooke Art Museum in Tulsa is well worth a visit.

We traveled on to Oklahoma City and stopped at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The building and grounds are spectacular, but the collection is not nearly as thorough or interesting as the Gilcrease. Fortunately, we did ask for a recommendation for a good, local Mexican restaurant. Chelinos in Bricktown was recommended. We arrived there late on a warm, sunny afternoon and were amazed and excited to find that Bricktown is a revival of an old warehouse district with shops and restaurants along a canal. We walked the length of the canal and back to explore the whole district. They have a baseball stadium along the canal as well, which is home to their AA baseball team. This area is what Richmond has been trying to build for 20 years, to no avail. The city fathers in Richmond need to visit OK City. We had a delicious dinner at Chelinos. During dinner we had a call from someone who may be interested in buying our MD condo, so the good day continued.

Day 12: -Tuesday, 10/21 – OK City to Albuquerque
Another great day. We drove through a major rain system, but were relieved to miss most of the hard rain. We arrived in Albuquerque about 3 p.m. Mountain time – I love it when we gain an hour, which we will do two days in a row! We checked into Casas Des Suenos near Old Town, the terrific B&B (really more like a small hotel) that we had stayed in a couple of years ago. We toured Old Town and found a couple of great art galleries we had somehow missed on past trips. We then walked to the St. Clair Winery Tasting Room & Bistro where we tasted several wines and really loved one of the cabernet sauvignons. We stayed and had dinner at the Bistro and were pleasantly surprised by the creative, tasty and reasonably priced meals. I had a chicken breast stuffed with pine nuts, green chiles and other assorted unusual ingredients. We both ordered from the special harvest menu and were treated to a wide variety of fresh vegetables: bok choy, acorn squash, okra, corn, slice of sweet potato and some cute little yellow miniature squash. It was delicious. Fortunately we had to walk almost a mile back to the B&B.

I have been negligent in this blog, failing to mention 3 recurring themes of the trip. First, this is our maiden voyage with Arthur's IPhone. It has been extremely helpful throughout the trip to have access to local maps and weather, not to mention 24/7 access to answers to any question that pops into our head. He has apps that identify the song on the radio, translate Spanish - amazing. Second, the price of gas is always interesting, especially given that our trip last year occurred when gasoline cost almost $4. Luckily for us, this year the average has been about $2.50 per gallon - except, of course, in Canada where it was $.96 per liter! Yes, at $3.60 a gallon, it was close to what we paid last year. Needless to say, we didn't fill the tank there, just added enough to get us back to the States. I think I mentioned earlier that Canada is expensive! Finally, we are clearly part of what I call the "miGRAYtion", surrounded by lots of gray-haired couples heading southwest in their very large recreational vehicles.

Days 5 - 10: October 14 - 19 Dearborn to Tulsa

Our day at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI was really cold, which made it hard to enjoy the experience. The Village is 90 acres of historic buildings that Henry Ford purchased and moved there. They include old farm buildings, homes, Thomas Edison’s laboratory, and much more. We particularly enjoyed the pottery and weaving studios (learning all about the invention of the jacquaard loom) and a courthouse from Logan County, IL, in which Abe Lincoln tried cases before he was elected President. We had a fun ride around the entire complex in an old Ford bus. It would have been much more enjoyable in warmer weather. It is great that Henry Ford preserved all of this history. I do think, however, that having historical objects or buildings in their original settings and context enhances the learning experience.

We arrived in Champaign IL on Wednesday evening and spent the weekend at my mother’s home, visiting with friends and family. Two nights were devoted to my 40^th Class reunion, which was fun even though attendance was not great. I saw many people I hadn’t seen since high school. It was cold every day that we were in Illinois, and the sun finally came out on Sunday, our last day. We had an up close "Wild Kingdom" kind of experience watching a hawk devour a squirrel in my mother’s back yard.

On Monday, October 19, we headed to Tulsa, OK, where we rediscovered warm sunshine! It feels so good. Temperatures reached the upper 70’s. It was the first time we didn’t need a coat in a week. Since this was the 4^th time we have driven this route through Missouri, it wasn’t too exciting. We did see a town named ARTHUR in IL and another named DIXON in Missouri. It is always fun to see the St. Louis Arch along the Mississippi River, too. We also witnessed lots of stimulus funds in action on the interstate highways. Good Bar-B-Q for lunch at Buckingham’s in Springfield MO, and very bad Chinese food, advertised as Vietnamese, in Tulsa.

MD to AZ, Fall '09 - Days 1-4

Day 1: Saturday 10/10 - MD to Gettysburg
We arrived in Gettysburg before noon after a very easy trip from Solomons. The new Visitor’s Center and Museum is really nice. It was tremendously crowded, however, full of Boy Scouts. We really enjoyed the movies in the Museum, describing the 3-day battle. Because it was so crowded we had to park up near the end of the Battlefield Tour, which meant a nice walk through the woods to get to the Visitor’s Center. We also were positioned to walk to the battlefields and monuments of the big 3rd day of fighting, which included The Copse and The Angle, the site of Pickett’s Charge. Of course, we also visited the National Cemetery, site of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

The traffic through Gettysburg was horrendous. The hotel desk clerk told us it was homecoming weekend and the apple festival. We also saw LOTS of small soccer players and their families. The earliest reservation available at the “drunken scallops” restaurant that had been recommended to us was 9:15! Way too late for us. Although we ended up at Ruby Tuesday, our consolation prize was a beautiful orange/pink sunset.

Day 2: Sunday, 10/11 - Gettysburg to Niagara Falls
Our drive along the Susquehanna River was disappointing due to dense fog for most of the trip. We had a couple of sightings of the river, but for the most part we were all fogged in. At least the trees had started to change, so the land views were good. The drive through the Alleghany Mountains was gorgeous, with the fall color peaking. We spent almost 3 hours at the Museum of Glass in Corning, NY. It was amazing – you could say we were blown away by it! The museum covered glassmaking from 1500 B.C. to today, including a huge new collection of works since 1968 donated by a couple from Chicago (named Heineman). Glass in every way, shape and form. Unbelievable.

We had to sit for a long time to get across the Rainbow Bridge into Niagara Falls, Ontario. The toll booth person said it was due to the conclusion a little earlier of the Buffalo Bills football game. He also advised us against coming back across the next day (which we had planned to do to take in the view of the falls from the American side) because it would be Canadian Thanksgiving – who knew?!- and the waiting time would be even longer!

Day 3: Monday, 10/12 Thanksgiving, Canadian Style
I have now seen Niagara Falls, from both sides. We discovered that pedestrian’s can cross the Rainbow Bridge, so we walked over to the American side and back. It was not all that far. The falls are amazing, perhaps more for their power than beauty – they are mesmerizing, like the geysers at Yellowstone. It was cold, about 40 degrees when we arrived at the Falls this a.m. and never got above 45. Fortunately we both had wool sweaters with us, and I had my gloves. The wind was blowing the spray from Horseshoe Falls up onto the land so hard it was like a rainstorm. We were also fortunate to have had our rain jackets in the car (the advantage of a cross country move, having all of our possesions with us), but that didn’t keep our pants dry. It was really a driving rain – almost sleety. We didn’t feel any need to take a boat ride down by the falls to get closer to the spray.

We stayed near Niagara-on-the-Lake, so drove up the Niagara Parkway for our return trip. It is an upscale, quaint, scenic town – reminded me a little of St. Michaels, MD. We were surprised to find that this is a huge wine growing area. We must have seen 50 vineyards by the time we left the region. They specialize in ice wines, which does seem appropriate for Canadian wineries…. We ate dinner at the Hillebrand Winery and had a delicious meal, with truffle & mushroom broth as a starter, followed by venison for me and beef rib eye for Arthur, both fixed with very unusual sides and flavors (I had goat cheese au gratin something that didn’t taste like anything I had ever had before). We started the meal with their sparkling wine and had their cabernet sauvignon with the meal, and they were both very good. Who would have thought?! Canadian wine?!! We also decided food is expensive in Canada, and we wish we had visited in the old days when the U.S. dollar was worth a lot more.

Day 4: Tuesday, 10/13 - Back to the U.S. A.
We drove across Ontario, headed to the Detroit area. That part of Ontario looked just like Ohio, or most anywhere else in the U.S. Midwest – corn and beans, beans and corn. There were a few more trees than we usually see in the Midwest, and the leaves had turned, so that made for better views.

We spent a couple of hours at the Henry Ford Museum. It was an unusual place. It is basically a museum of manmade things, much the like the Smithsonian Museum of American History, only more focused on transportation and industrialization. Lots of great old cars, as you would expect. Also, a really cool “Dymaxion” house designed by Buckminster Fuller in 1946 to be made from airplane parts and aluminum. It was actually somewhat appealing, even though it was like living in a round Airstream trailer. We weren't surprised to learn that only 2 prototypes were built because he couldn’t get enough investors. We decided the Museum was worth a stop if you were here for some other reason, but not worth a trip. Tomorrow we go to Greenfield Village, another part of the Henry Ford historical complex.

The people at our hotel directed us to the Big Fish restaurant in Dearborn for dinner. For some reason, the folks at Big Fish LOVE to get out-of-towners into their restaurant: they had printed copies of today’s menu with personal greetings for us, we were given the choice of a free appetizer or dessert (we had calamari that was the best we have ever eaten), the manager came to check on us several times, and then the chef came out and introduced himself. I mean this is better service than the Inn at Little Washington, which cost mega-times more. The food was delicious and the price very reasonable.

Pictures of trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/aldixon3