All aboard to dreams and wishes

I've always wanted to ride in one of those sleek dome cars on a train trip through the country, especially the Rockies. Alas, so far at least.
But early today, at the Amtrak station in Oklahoma City, there was this classic. The Heartland Flyer, which runs between here and Fort Worth, must have brought it overnight. But when the train left, with my wife Susan on board for an arts conference in Ardmore, the car remained.
Ah, the dreams and wishes of such journeys.

All aboard to stress freedom, Part 3

Forest Park Railroad

A week ago, we'd just boarded the Amtrak Heartland Flyer in Fort Worth and settled in for a five and a half hour trip back to Oklahoma City...no hassle, no traffic, no heat, and no hurry.

Two story sculpture for Booker T. Washington

We left behind Fort Worth's great museums--including the Modern Art Museum , which has an entrance fee, and the downtown Sid Richardson museum of Russells and Remingtons, and no fee. Amon Carter and Kimbell out near the Modern Art Museum, don't have fees either, but we didn't visit them. There are other museums, but you could make an entire trip just out of them, and we weren't in a hurry or on a schedule. We enjoyed the flights of fancy and imagination in the Modern museum, and had a great lunch there as well.

Trying to get the ladder in the picture

To me, Fort Worth's architecture is also art, including the Bass Performance Hall downtown, a two story Barnes and Noble with a two story statue of a bronc rider in it, the historic Hilton hotel (the former Texas Hotel), lots of art deco buildings, the front of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, and even the Forest Park Railroad. If we'd had time and it wasn't so hot, we'd have probably visited the scenic and refreshing Botanic Gardens, just across the road from the train.

The last evening was spent after dinner at the cool basement Skat jazz lab, right on Sundance Square, with some great live music.
Riding the little train was a highlight of fun and no hurry, about 30 minutes for $3.00, acting and feeling like kids.

Bass Performance Hall

By the time we pulled into Oklahoma City, refreshed by Roy Kelsey's liquid refreshment, we got to see the lighted scissor tail sculpture spanning the new crosstown Interstate for the first time at night.

All aboard to stress freedom, part 2

Traveling someplace you don't have to drive or rent a car has become a new passion of mine, ever since two trips to Europe. Sure, we don't have their mass transit here, but it is possible. We've done it in San Francisco, Seattle, and once again, in Fort Worth. Between buses, free trollies, and cabs, life is much simpler and cheaper. And traveling with the Kelseys adds humor and interesting conversations as well, since they picked us up and drove us all to the Amtrak station in downtown OKC. Parking in the Cox garage is only $6 a day.

The four of us at H3 restaurant in the Stockyards, for great ribs,
steaks and a chicken fry to die for...our first evening meal.

The other benefit of traveling with the Kelseys is that Roy takes photos of everything. I take lots of photos...now almost exclusively with my iPhone. But Roy has a small digital camera and he took more than 400 photos on this trip. So the photos you see may be his, or mine. The one pix I didn't take, and should have, was a photo of Roy taking photos. I was sort of the tour guide since I'd been there before (taking students down for a credit course called "Cowboy Journalism," and with Susan, and with brother Jerry), and while the bus schedule caused us some problems, the food was excellent and other sights worth a return.

The flag of The Republic is ever present in Texas

Places to eat...Go to the Stockyards north of downtown--cab or bus, ease through the lobby of the Stockyards Hotel for great art, then through the side door to the H3 bar, with a buffalo butt coming out of the wall (home of Buffalo Butt beer). You can sit on a saddle at the bar if you wish, and flirt with the female bartenders in their hats and boots. And you can talk through the doors into the next room, the restaurant where the food's being cooked on the grill--great smells, and the buffalo head is mounted on the wall opposite its butt on the other side. Chandeliers of deer antlers. Longhorn heads and other wildlife mounted on the walls. Great ribs, steaks, and my fav chicken fry.

Jill, Susan and I in front of old water tower at roundtable
in the stockyards at the Grapevine Railroad.

Tour the stockyards for sure...lots of gift shops, a depot for the Grapevine railroad, the incomparable White elephant bar--a collection of more than 1,000 white ceramic elephants from around the world, plus hundreds of real cowboy hats attached to the ceiling with the names of their owners...the real west and the poetry of the names. Live western music most nights  and a small dance floor. And there's a twice a day "cattle drive" down the street with real cowboys walking real longhorns a few blocks, till those very well fed, pampered animals get back to their stalls. It's touristy, but a top draw if you haven't seen it. It's also home to the gigantic "Billy Bob's," the worlds largest western honky-tonk with multiple dance floors and bars--worth seeing, at night, but sort of a warehouse withspurs.

Susan and Jill at Riata

The next evening at downtown Riata Restaurant...named after the ranch in "Giant," with appropriate  Elisabeth Taylor and James Jean mementoes. Because of the heat, we didn't eat on the roof this time, but I highly recommend the quail and cheese grits appetizer.

Kelseys on Riata's roof

If you're not in for western food, there's a killer sushi restaurant downtown, Piranha Sushi, and lots of Mexican restaurants a short cab ride away from downtown. There's also a phenomenal hamburger at Jakes, two blocks north of the hotel. But don't think "Cowtown" is all about the west. You won't believe the museums and other attractions to help keep stress away. That's to come.

The lighting in Riata is "romantic" and you  old folks will need reading glasses and an iPhone flashlight to read the menus, though the restaurant will provide small flashlights and reading glasses.

All aboard to stress freedom, part 1

Tired of stress and traffic? The cure is a weekend trip aboard Amtrak's Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth with friends. It begins early, parking in the Cox convention center across the street from the depot, and walking across the street and up on the platform to the waiting silver cars and locomotive before  the train leaves the old Santa Fe station downtown at 8:25 a.m.

Jill, Susan and I waiting to board

Any trip to Fort Worth is personal for me, having gone through first grade there, but this was with Roy
and Jill Kelsey. Roy's a train buff, like me, and I found out he'd never ridden a train before, and we were celebrating Jill's retirement from UCO.
I love going places where I don't have to rent a car, or drive... there's less to worry about, less stress, and more more time to enjoy the sights. Fort Worth is one of those places. Plus, there's no hassling TSA, body scans and having to worry about shuttles from remote airports. It's also cheap--$32 round trip. No baggage fees. You put your baggage in a storage area as you get on, and then climb stairs up  to the seats. Your train deposits you right downtown at what is also the super modern and clean central bus station, two easy walking blocks from a hotel.

The Kelseys

It may not be the most scenic railroad trip in America, but you will see things on this 418-mile trip you never see from a car--including the Washita River "canyon" through the Arbuckles, plus a lot of rural countryside. And you've got a lot of time to look out the windows, to chat, to think, to enjoy friends. On Fridays and Sundays the train is packed, picking up and letting people off at regular stops at Norman, Purcell, Pauls Valley, Ardmore and Gainesville.

The conductor.

The train staff are courteous and fun, joking and easy-going. You can get up and move around from car to car, go to the cafe car which is more of a snack bar for beverages and snacks and souvenirs, or bring you own. The bathrooms are clean and lots bigger than on aircraft. There's lots of foot room, wider aisles, and no seat belts. The seats are well upholstered, comfortable, and have foot and leg rests. You can view the countryside, talk with friends, think, read, or doze, because the ride is really smooth.

The Washita River canyon in the Arbuckles

Susan and Jill 

You get between 12:30 and 1:30, get your baggage, and walk up a small hill to the historic Texas Hotel, remodeled by Hilton, the same folks who now run the Skirvin in OKC. Check in is easy, and lunch is a three-block walk away up red brick Main Street to the Corner Bakery.

Your correspondent travels light

"All aboard!" in Fort Worth

Us kids always want to be the engineer.

I rode a big train (Amtrak) and a little train, Forest Park Railroad in Fort Worth this weekend, with Susan and friends Roy and Jill Kelsey. So much fun. This was my second trip ton the Forest Park train, about a 30 minute ride, cost $3,00. It was close to 100 degrees out there, but so what? Here's a video and a couple of views of what it's like to be a kid (still). More info and photos to come of the entire trip. Previous post is at http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2010/08/all-aboard.html

Remember your train rides?

Amtrak Surfliner, California

My oldest son, M/Sgt Vance Clark, USAF, called today, riding AmTrak Surfliner up the Pacific Coast from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara.  A beautiful view. He was thinking about memorable train rides in his life and he couldn't remember the date of one.

"Remember when we were in Canada on the steam train? He asked. "When was it?"

I pulled the date and place out of my mind immediately. " "Your Mom was pregnant with Dallas, so it would have been the summer of 1971, in Winnipeg." I asked him what he remembered. At age almost six, he could remember going to the bathroom, flushing the toilet and seeing the tracks underneath, afraid of falling through.

We chatted for several minutes, each remembering train rides, he with more than me, because in the service he's been on trains in Turkey, England, the Chunnel, France  and Germany, plus time on Amtrak from Glacier National Park to Chicago to St. Louis.

"It's amazing that you remember the train rides more than any plane rides, and they're always more pleasant," he said.

The Rock Island Rocket

Got me to thinking. Earliest train ride I can remember, just barely, is at about four or five, riding with my Dad in the Rock Island Rocket from Fort Worth, through Comanche where Granddad lived, to Duncan, where he'd pick us up. I most remember dark windows and night, wondering about the people living in the lighted homes.

Of course there was one train ride my Dad would never forget, when he jumped a freight in Tucumcari in 1932, lost his grip and fell under the big steel wheels, costing him a leg. See "My Dad had a wooden leg." But he never talked about it to us. http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/search?q=wooden+leg

In Albuquerque, long ago

After that, I don't know. There's a photo of Mom, Jerry and I boarding the Santa Fe at Albuquerque to go to east Texas, but I don't remember that trip. And when I got my Cub Scout Webelos badge, they packed us onto the Santa Fe at Albuquerque and took us to Lamy near Santa Fe for the ceremony.

I do remember Neysa and I boarding Amtrak in Ardmore to go to Houston, where we picked Mom up and moved her to Waurika in the early 70s. And we road the steam train out of Chama to Cumbres Pass and back years later. http://www.cumbrestoltec.com/

Cumbfres and Toltec

Since then, I've ridden Amtrak from Washington to Philadelphia one morning to meet a professor friend. Susan and I have ridden the Amtrak Heartland Flyer to Fort Worth a couple of times (taking students one time), and took the train from Rome to Florence a few years back.  In Utah, east of Salt Lake, I rode the steam Heber Valley Railroad for a short distance, riding in the caboose all the way. http://hebervalleyrr.org/

Forest Park Railroad

Most recent was a "kiddies" train, the Forest Park Railroad,  in Fort Worth two years ago, see August, 2010 post http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2010/08/all-aboard.html   and I road one in Elk City  and Duncan before that.

On every one of the trips I remember the scenery outside the windows, the sounds, some of the people--pleasant, relaxing. Today I value such travel for its lack of stress. Isn't that amazing? As Vance said, the only plane trips you remember are the bad experiences.

Now I'm not a real railroad buff, but no wonder I'm attracted to old steam engines,  see October post, http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/search?q=Bartlesville  and prowl old depots like the one at Waurika where we owned the newspaper--vacant then but it's become a library and museum.

 I always want to climb on old steam engines and railroad cars, am captivated by cabooses, "Where's the 'boose?' http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2011/07/wheres-boose.html , count the freight cars going past, attend train shows, yearn for a caboose in my back yard, look down those tracks wanting to go.

North to Alaska

And this May, the Lord willing, we'll board the Yukon and White Pass steam train at Skagway.

And with Dad's art in the house, and some of my efforts, especially Christmas cards for good friends Roy and Jill Kelsey, the pull of trains is more than just a fact.


All aboard!

My Dad's scratchboard of the turntable in Fort Worth. I was there as a kid when he drew this, and he later turned it into a snow scene for a Christmas card. So many memories

My watercolor from Neruda's poem, "Is there anything sadder than a train standing in the rain?"