Home of G.W. Bush
Saturday, August 11th
Start: Albuquerque, NM
Finish: Tulsa, OK
Distance: 730 miles
Time: 14.5 hours
We started out the day by going to the International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque. Albuquerque is the location of the annual International Balloon Fiesta, in which hundreds (or more?) passenger balloons all take off at the same time, creating what I imagine is a rather striking photo opportunity. (I don't know what the point is beyond that.) The balloon museum isn't dedicated to the fiesta, but it's presumably the result of the fiesta being located in Albuquerque. The museum is dedicated to telling the history of ballooning, but it doesn't do a very good job of it. When it comes to the few historic gondolas that they have, for instance, you can't even look inside of them. It did make me want to find out more about airship travel in the 20's and 30's, though.
We then drove west of Albuquerque to Tinkertown, a folk art environment created by a guy named Ross Ward. Now, everyone knows I have a soft spot for kitchy folk art environments, but I wasn't that into Tinkertown. Its two main elements were walls made out of glass bottles and concrete, and hand-carved wooden figurines (which sometimes were automata). Check out the curiously-sexually-ambiguous figurine in the bottom photo (this is becoming a theme of the trip).
On the way to Tinkertown, my Dad spotted a place called "Burger Boy", so we went there for lunch. It was the first decent roadfood discovery of our trip. Their specialty was chili burgers, so I had the green chili burger. The patty was crunchy on the outside the way I like it and the green chili gave it a nice spiciness without overwhelming the rest of the burger.
We then got back on the interstate and drove to Texas.
Just west of Amarillo we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch, a series of ten Cadillacs buried head-first into the Texas dirt. (It was made by a collective of California artists who are also responsible for an architecture book on California Crazy vernacular architecture that I remember liking when I read it back in the late 90's one CTY summer at LMU.) I've stopped here twice before and I always like stopping whenever I drive by, even though it's nothing amazing. You really can see all that it has to offer by looking at the cover of "Road Trip USA". (The Cadillac Ranch and Randy's Donuts appear to be the two most popular Americana sites for tour book covers.) I think I like stopping just because I know it's been years since I was last here and it'll be years until I come by again. And I can never predict when, exactly, that'll be.
Once we got to Amarillo we went to a big Western Wear superstore that I've been to a few times before, but Western Wear bores me now so I didn't get anything.
For dinner we went to the Cattlemen's Cafe in Oklahoma City. Located next to the stockyards, it's a old steakhouse. They serve "Lamb Fries" (lamb balls), which the guy at the next table ordered. Our steaks were good. Late in the night, a guy who was at least 80 years old at another table near us serenaded his special lady friend with a song on his harmonica. The entire restaurant applauded.
Start: Albuquerque, NM
Finish: Tulsa, OK
Distance: 730 miles
Time: 14.5 hours
We started out the day by going to the International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque. Albuquerque is the location of the annual International Balloon Fiesta, in which hundreds (or more?) passenger balloons all take off at the same time, creating what I imagine is a rather striking photo opportunity. (I don't know what the point is beyond that.) The balloon museum isn't dedicated to the fiesta, but it's presumably the result of the fiesta being located in Albuquerque. The museum is dedicated to telling the history of ballooning, but it doesn't do a very good job of it. When it comes to the few historic gondolas that they have, for instance, you can't even look inside of them. It did make me want to find out more about airship travel in the 20's and 30's, though.
We then drove west of Albuquerque to Tinkertown, a folk art environment created by a guy named Ross Ward. Now, everyone knows I have a soft spot for kitchy folk art environments, but I wasn't that into Tinkertown. Its two main elements were walls made out of glass bottles and concrete, and hand-carved wooden figurines (which sometimes were automata). Check out the curiously-sexually-ambiguous figurine in the bottom photo (this is becoming a theme of the trip).
On the way to Tinkertown, my Dad spotted a place called "Burger Boy", so we went there for lunch. It was the first decent roadfood discovery of our trip. Their specialty was chili burgers, so I had the green chili burger. The patty was crunchy on the outside the way I like it and the green chili gave it a nice spiciness without overwhelming the rest of the burger.
We then got back on the interstate and drove to Texas.
Just west of Amarillo we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch, a series of ten Cadillacs buried head-first into the Texas dirt. (It was made by a collective of California artists who are also responsible for an architecture book on California Crazy vernacular architecture that I remember liking when I read it back in the late 90's one CTY summer at LMU.) I've stopped here twice before and I always like stopping whenever I drive by, even though it's nothing amazing. You really can see all that it has to offer by looking at the cover of "Road Trip USA". (The Cadillac Ranch and Randy's Donuts appear to be the two most popular Americana sites for tour book covers.) I think I like stopping just because I know it's been years since I was last here and it'll be years until I come by again. And I can never predict when, exactly, that'll be.
Once we got to Amarillo we went to a big Western Wear superstore that I've been to a few times before, but Western Wear bores me now so I didn't get anything.
For dinner we went to the Cattlemen's Cafe in Oklahoma City. Located next to the stockyards, it's a old steakhouse. They serve "Lamb Fries" (lamb balls), which the guy at the next table ordered. Our steaks were good. Late in the night, a guy who was at least 80 years old at another table near us serenaded his special lady friend with a song on his harmonica. The entire restaurant applauded.
posted by Charles P. Everitt at 11:51 PM
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