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

The face of August

What thrives at 110 degrees plus?

Mortality's face in August

When I turned around, I saw him lying on his back on the floor, his hand on his forehead.
A few minutes earlier I'd walked into Hobby Lobby to have two gift watercolors framed for grandchildren, and he'd been sitting in a chair beside the frame counter. I didn't pay any attention, figuring he was waiting on someone. I did hear him say something about his wife to one of the employees. I turned away, and then turned back to see him on the floor.
His wife arrived, and asked how he felt....he said something about the floor feeling cool. She asked what he wanted to do, and a couple of employees came up to ask about him. Finally, I asked if they wanted to call an ambulance. His wife asked him, but he didn't say much.
I called 911.
The operator got the info, contacted EMSA, as I told them what I knew. They started asking questions, with the ambulance on the way...pain, awake, age? I told them late 50s, and he said "66." A store employee trained as an EMT was talking to him and taking his pulse when the ambulance crew and firemen arrived.
His wife answered some questions, tried to call her daughter. The EMTs hooked up an IV, took an ekg, and did some other stuff, talking to him all the while, while someone else brought in a gurney. Apparently he didn't have  a heart attack but his bp was low. His wife, near tears, finally got their daughter and by that time they'd decided to take him to VA, rather than the heart hospital.
I walked over and patted her on the back, and told her he was in good hands, right where he needed to be. Before I could talk away, she hugged me.

5x7 watercolor

By that time one employee had finished my frames, and thanked me for calling 911. I told him that I knew if I was ever on the floor, I hoped someone would call an ambulance. As they wheeled him out the front door, I was checking out...thankful I'd come in that time, for several reasons, especially since I'm older than him.
Mortality stared me in the face earlier today too, as I sat in Starbucks, reading the New York Times, scanning my blog. Another man came in, neatly trimmed white mustache, about my age, need at table for his computer. I motioned him over and introduced myself after he sat down. We spent 30 minutes talking about everything--my teaching, his pharmacy, insurance, children, travel, young people, the state of the country, and more, including his wife surviving breast cancer the same year Blue Cross, in cahoots with big chains, robbed him of about $20,000 in income in an unjust audit .
"I'd rather some thief had come in and just taken it," he said. He is also close to my age, and wishes he could find something different. As he walked out the door to go to work, I hoped we'd get to visit again.

5x7 watercolor

Later, I took the two paintings to Pony Express to be wrapped and shipped, and got the same great service from the owners as usual, including conversations about children, and grand kids, spiced with humor and questions about UCO and journalism. Nothing like giving something to children and grandchildren in the face of mortality and love.
Then I went to Steve's Rib to play chess with John Lawton, a retired optometrist I've played with for 13 or so years now. He's a student of the game, and I just play. He usually wins. His conversations are about art and living and aging, having recovered a year ago, at age 80, from a close call after, at Susan's insistence, that I take him to the ER.
After a good prime rib sandwich, and ice tea, he wiped me off the board in the first game.  But an hour later, playing black, I outlasted him, advancing a pawn to a Queen, enabled to say "Checkmate." That term is a translation from Persian, where the game began centuries ago. It's a translation of "Shah mat,"--"the king is dead." More mortality in the fittingly termed "end game."
Home in the 113-degree heat of the first day of August to air conditioning, I notice the backyard birds--doves huddle on the ground in the shade, woodpeckers with their beaks open. Wrens and robins sipping out of the birdbath. Squirrels near the cool base of the tree.
For the second time today, I turn on the backyard sprinkler, to cool things off back there, to stave off mortality for other creatures.
It's a good day to be alive.