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.
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.
posted by arthurandjane at 7:35 PM
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