Route 66 Sentinel

"Route 66 Sentinel," 8 x 10 watercolor, 140 lb. d'Arches rough press paper

Oklahoma's historic round barn at Arcadia, built in 1898,  is just a few minutes from our house.

It's a symbol of resilience, of Okie hard work and dedication, and a treat to visit.  It is now a destination for those from around the world who want to travel the equally historic and iconic US 66, which runs by its front door, if a round barn has a "front" door. Of course, it's older than US 66, and US 66 is now history, and now is designated State Highway 66. 

So many stories and memories to tell. You can find out lots more about it at the website: Round Barn . Better yet, go visit.

Every once in a while I just drive that way, and in a few minutes I'm past the suburban strip mails, consumerism and traffic of Edmond and Oklahoma City. There is a two lane highway, trees, other barns, and part of old US 66--Oklahoma has more of that original pavement than any other state. And of course, there is the barn.

I've painted it today, because In Your Eye Gallery in the Paseo Arts District in OKC, of which I'm a member, will designate "Red" as  the theme for our shows in February.   I have some other subjects to be painted, but this was the first.

My second watercolor of 2021, depicted in the early years of US. 66 when it wasn't all paved, but there were some telephone lines.

And yes, it will be framed and for sale, in February.

"Killed in Action"--Memorial Day amid the Oklahoma graves

Memorial Day, Decoration Day. There will be flags on the graves of veterans all over the U.S. and the world this weekend, trying to remind us that it's not just a three-day weekend.
I am always attracted throughout the year to rural cemeteries, and to National Cemeteries. So many stories, so many lives. 
You don't have to go far, to see graves of men who died for their country, the original reason Memorial Day was established.
In a small cemetery very few miles from our house, the Luther cemetery, just north of US 66, I've wandered many times. This past fall, I discovered two fascinating graves I hadn't seen before. It wasn't a holiday, but there were flags on many veterans graves, and Old Glory flew on a monument overlook others.

The most striking was  that of Ferrell E. Messer, who died  in Vietnam at age 19 in 1969--just five years younger than I--unable to vote, but eligible to die for his country. The grave is topped with half an infantry helmet and a cross  telling freedom's story. I wonder about his heart-broken parents and family, and survivors. 
His grave is not alone in those who died in combat. 
Underneath the cemetery flag is a monument to the servicemen, and one of the sides honors William M. Perkins, 24 years old, of the Rainbow Division, who died 98 years ago in 1918 in France in WWI. (The St. Mihiel battle was in September, two months before the end of the war.)
Do yourself a favor and go walk through a cemetery this weekend. See out the graves with flags on them. It's a Memorial...not a holiday.

Room to breathe--Sunday in Sayre

The Spirit of the West in Sayre

The minute I get out of the city limits going west, my tension eases, even though I'm on I-40.
Halfway to Amarillo, I always stop for a walk around at Sayre, Oklahoma, right before I get into Texas. But last Sunday, at a more leisurely place, I got off I-40 for a few minutes and drove up into downtown Sayre. My traveling tension evaporated.
There's room to breathe out here in Western Oklahoma. The skies are big, the horizons long, the people friendly. 
I know a few friends from this area, including Brad and Dayva Spitzer, owners of the award-winning  weekly newspaper Sayre Record and Beckham County Democrat, and former UCO student Cody Vignal and family.  I didn't stop to visit anyone, but thought about how peaceful the town is on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

I'd traveled through here on old US 66 on my way to my freshman year in college long ago. Then I saw the old Rock Island depot, thinking about how my Dad went through here in a box car on a freight train longer than that--headed for Mexico to celebrate his high school graduation. Coming back, he tried to jump another freight in Tucumcari and lost his right leg. But he would have seen this depot.
Today, it's the aptly named Short Grass Country museum.

City hall--a monument to civic pride

The streets are wide, like the land, and the Beckham County Courthouse is distinctive as the people--Westerners as the Spirit of the West buffalo suggests on the Courthouse lawn. 
It was also featured in the movie "Grapes of Wrath," but the town is healthier and greener than that now.
 And who can miss the elegant architecture of a former bank that is now city hall? It's a monument to civic pride. Check the equally classy chamber of commerce web site for more information.

This home brightens up a normally dry country

Some of those people make sure there's color in what is usually dry country by painting their houses bright colors. 
Room to breathe--Sunday in Sayre.

Where the streets are as wide as the land--room to breathe

Reasons I love Texas--Part 5--Two Studebaker Sunday

A Vietnam vet's memorial on the outskirts of Shamrock, Texas, with Studebaker

I love Studebakers

If you slow down...get off I-40 and take the old US 66 exit at Shamrock in the Texas Panhandle, and drive leisurely down the old mother road.
I did that last Sunday, ahead of schedule before stopping in Canyon. I love back roads, and the memories they provoke. Shamrock is known for its art-deco US 66 gas station buildings and more, but on the fringes of this town are boarded up windows, mechanic shops, old gas stations and more.

Such class

Out of the corner of my eye I saw an old Studebaker rusting away in an automobile junkyard, went past it, turned around and went back to take photos. When you drive through a small town on Sunday there's almost no traffic. 

Edsel graveyard

Understand that my first car was a Studebaker, and I've driven one and ridden in one on US 660 and parts of unfinished I-40 as a college freshman from Albuquerque to OKC years ago.  I've been in love with them ever since. There I also found the largest collection of old Edsels I've ever seen, a Hudson, a Corvair, and an old, old Ford, plus more.
Imagine if those cars could talk and  tell their stories, of their drives and roads they'd traveled and places  they'd been.

After taking those  photos, I headed on west and passed another later model Studebaker, next to another old Ford. This was outside a mechanic's shop, with a display that tells me he is a Vietnam vet, because it's also flying the American and POW/MIA flag.

It was a two Studebaker Sunday in Shamrock--more reasons I love Texas. 

*

Here's my poem for you: 
"Once there was a fellow, a raker
Who told his beautiful wife and homemaker
He'd never, ever forsake her,
If he could just buy a Studebaker."
 

Can you imagine the stories?

Classic car treasure on US 66

 

"You just have to spot at the new truck stop and see the car museum," said my daughter , knowing I was going to New Mexico on I-40, in the ghosts of US66.

I'd seen the truck stop being built, the first exit inside the state from the Texas Panhandle, just about a mile or so west of the welcome center, but I wouldn't have stopped if she hadn't mentioned it.

What a surprise, with 25 cars and hundreds of old memorabilia inside.  The oldest is a 1927 Model T Roadster, and the newest is a 2007 Supersnake convertible. There's a 1929  Model A pickup, a 1952 Harley, and a lot of cars from the 1950s.Best of all it's free.

 These are the passion of Emory and Barbara Russell. He started hauling logs in New Mexico, moved to Cimarron in 1964, and after flooding lived in a tent for a while. They went into the grocery business  and expanded. He still owns the grocery in Cimarron but sold most of them, before getting into the truck stop business at Springer and expanding. You have to check the family web site  Car Treasure! for better photos than these--the light played havoc with my cell phone.

What the web site doesn't tell is how he got into the car business, but one of the employees told me he has five cars at Springer, and about 200 total, most of which are still "projects." There's also apparently an annual car show. Read the web site and you'll find these generous people have indeed given us all a treasure. Worth the trip and the stop, for sure. There's a Route 66 diner serving breakfast all day, and a gift shop.

Drought, watercolor

9 by 12 d'Arches 140 pound paper

I spent part of today driving up old US 66 toward Tulsa, (Arcadia, Luther, Wellston, Chandler, Davenport and Stroud) looking for photos...it was greener than this in some places, and more trees, with cattle huddled under them in the shade, but I saw several farm ponds drying up.

Back road interlude

Spring break means distance, not of traveling thousands of miles, but distance from "to do" lists, from self.

I took a short drive today, into eastern Oklahoma County, past new and old houses,through woods and pastures, over creeks and rivers, on back roads and not Interstates. Radio off. Bird sound when you pull up to a stop sign every mile. Soaring hawks, greening wheat. Room and time for imagination and thoughts and photos about how quickly life changes just a few minutes away from traffic. Don't ask what I do on spring break. I just am.

On a gate post to a house in a wooded area.

Barn door

North Canadian River, downstream from OKC, looking south,  at Hefner Road

Looking northeast

Where it loops back east and south, at Hiwassee Road

I love wheat in the spring, bringing bright color to our landscapes, the promise of life to come.

You can feel the distance.

Deep Fork Creek, east of Arcadia, into which Coffee Creek-pictured in my blog title above-- flows.

Man has been here a long time.

The historic round barn at Arcadia, 10 miles east and a century from Edmond, on old U.S. 66. Back to traffic. I grew up within a few miles of  US 66 in Albuquerque, and have spent a lot of my later life within a few blocks of it in Oklahoma City and Edmond. We now live less than a a mile south of its old route through Edmond.

Another reminder of slower traffic and life, visible from old US 66, a few miles east of our house.

 That's why it's good to slow down, think, and take a break from today.