On the Road Again…

Ahh, back on the open road.  We left Kansas City last Saturday just ahead of another snowstorm and headed southwest to Oklahoma City.  We had plans to spend two nights there and catch up with some old friends from Heinz’s Air Force days. 

First sunset back on the road.

We arrived late and settled in at Tinker AFB’s FamCamp.  The next day Anne and Larry came over to check out the rig and share a cup of coffee.  Then it was off to get some Chinese food, only to find out that the restaurant had closed.  No problem, there was a great burger place a couple of blocks away.     S & B Burger Joint has quite a menu of specialty burgers (everything from Green Chile & Cheese, to Peanut Butter topped) along with a long list of ingredients for building your own.  The burgers were great, moist, flavorful, and done to order (a perfect medium rare for me).  Just one warning, if you decide to click on their website, turn down the volume, it comes complete with VERY loud rock music. 

After eating, Anne and Larry took us on a great auto tour of the older residential areas of Oklahoma City.  There were some beautiful homes and some others just screaming for a hug.  After living in California for so many years, the prices seemed ridiculously cheap, the median home price in town is $125,750, with the homes in the area we were touring averaging in the $200,000’s.

Following that we popped into the National Cowboy &Western Heritage Museum.  This is a great museum with a wide variety of exhibits ranging from western art, to a reproduction of a small western town of the 1800’s, to artifacts of life on the western frontier.  The place is phenomenal!  If you’re ever in Oklahoma City we can highly recommend stopping in to check out this place.

“Canyon Princess” by Gerald Balciar

“End of the Trail”, James Earle Fraser

Sculpture in the atrium of the museum entrance.

  

Anne checking out some of the barbed wire samples.

We planned on leaving Oklahoma City on Monday morning, but Mother Nature decided to mess with us a little.  Another storm system starting moving in from the west, threatening high winds, large amounts of rain turning to snow, and lousy driving conditions.  So we decided to sit it out another night, which quickly turned to two nights as I-40 was closed due to blizzard conditions around Amarillo - our next planned stop.  Oklahoma City was predicted to get up to 4” of snow, but the snow didn’t happen and all we got was lots and lots of rain.  Amarillo though was another matter!

Amarillo TX, 18” of snow in 24 hours (photo courtesy of my cousin)

Oklahoma City, can’t quite call this snow in my opinion.

We finally made it to Amarillo on Wednesday, just in time to see all the slush from the melting snow.  We spent one night and met up with my cousin Harold for dinner at another great burger joint, Coyote Bluff Café. If you want an upscale restaurant with designer food and posh surroundings, this is not for you.  However if you like places that define “hole in the wall” with killer food, come on in.  It is cash only, and the food is fantastic.  Their bottles of beer are kept in an old tin washtub in the middle of the dining area, as you want one, you grab it out of the tub and it is charged on the honor system.  The clientele was eclectic, the waitress was efficient and ready to trade one liners all night, and no one was in a hurry to rush us out, letting us sit and trade family tall tales all evening.

Amarillo slush, 2 days after the near record snowfall.

Thursday, and we arrived in Albuquerque, NM to clear skies, temps in the high 50’s (ah, so nice after all that cold in Kansas), and 28% humidity - time to pack away the dehumidifier.  We set up the rig in the FamCamp on Kirtland AFB and headed out to get some REAL Mexican food.  We headed over to El Modelo.  This is yet another hole in the wall joint located close to the train switchyard in an industrial part of town.  They offer take-out only, although there are a few picnic tables on a slab outside.  The restaurant has been in business since 1929 with only two owners and no change in recipes during that whole time.  We were there at around two in the afternoon and it was packed with a constant stream of customers in and out.  Check it out if you’re in town, but remember, the portions are huge and the operative term for their red sauce is…hot!

Heinz enjoying the Mexican platter: tamale, taco, enchilada, rice, refried beans, red chile chorizo, spare rib, chips, and two sopaipillas – all for a whopping $7.80!

On Friday we ran a few errands and checked out the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.  The museum originally opened in 1969 as the Sandia Atomic Museum on Kirtland AFB to show the history of nuclear weapon development and to create better community relations between the military and the public. In 1991, the Museum was charted by Congress to serve as the nation’s repository and steward of nuclear-related historical artifacts. Then, in 2009 they moved to their current location just off the base and the museum was renamed. The collections cover early scientific discoveries of the properties of an atom, the Manhattan Project, WWII weapons projects of Germany and Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cold War, nuclear medicine, nuclear energy, and nuclear accidents.  It has a great hands-on area for kids, which is also interesting for adults. 

Museum entrance

Casings for Fat Man and Little Boy

Who remembers Bert the Turtle and nuclear bombing drills?  I do!  Really, what were they thinking??

How about shoe fitting fluoroscopes?  The “scientific” way to see if your shoes fit!

Today is Saturday and Heinz spent the morning spit-polishing our rolling home.  I should probably have felt guilty for being lazy, reading a good book and working on this blog entry, but somehow, I didn’t.

We ended our day at Barnes and Noble, kicking back with magazines after a wonderful meal at yet another fine dining establishment…Ezra’s Place, located in the Lucky 66 Bowling Alley.  But what a meal!

  

Heading in for another dining adventure.

Heinz opted for Scallop Tacos.

I went for the roast quail and fingerling potatoes with poblano sauce.  Bowling alley fare at its finest!

We’re off to chase another squirrel tomorrow.  The weather is beautiful and Navajo Dam and the San Juan River is calling.  Heinz has checked out his fly-fishing equipment and I’m busy reading Fly Patterns of Northern New Mexico.  Hopefully, I’ll be making some good trout meals while we are there!  There’s no wifi up there, so we’ll check in after we get off the river.  Promise not to be another three months between blog entries.