Cowboy Up!

Y'all may have surmised that I'm back home from my trip. If not, welp, I got back Friday afternoon. I needed a couple days rest just to recover. I also ran out of steam as far as making it to all the places I'd liked to have gone to as well.

There weren't enough hours in two weeks to go to points east of Indianapolis nor west to Denver, much less the West Coast. I'd pretty well figured that out already, but after about seven or eight days on the road, I was pretty well fried. For sure I was tired of biscuits and gravy, hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, nuked sausage and egg patties I can buy at Wally World, and so on and so forth. Never did get tired of bacon, which was available exactly twice.

I stayed in Holiday Inn Expresses, Comfort Inns, and AmericInns. I wish more king bed rooms had recliners. The sofa beds and the average chair are really not made for sitting.

I put on over three K miles, which is not that big of a deal. The new truck got as high as 17.5 or so mgp - I need to bring in my little black book and get all the figures - haven't even gotten to that yet. I was hoping for better, but it hasn't even gotten close to it's first oil change.

I also have a drain pipe (four inch diameter) to put on for a cat back exhaust system (as well as a grill guard), but didn't have time before I left. Not gonna mess with the chip or the intake - I'd prefer Ford pay for any screwups they installed rather than moi during the warranty period.

 Kitsey was pretty tickled to see me when I appeared at the door. She now likes sitting in my lap and being petted endlessly, but she hasn't figured out that she can actually come to me and I'll pick her up to do that. Her standard practice is to flop on her back in my path so I'll stop and rub her belly.

And I have more pics. Sorry about the quality - it's kinda hard to tell in the dark just how crummy they are when you're taking them. I hadn't been to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in OKC, OK since I was a teenager.

Things have changed.

For one thing, I've changed. Old me: Paintings? Bah. Boring. Current me: Surprised at how art can move me.

I got in trouble for taking some of these pics in a restricted area. The guard was really nice about it - he said the flashes can break down the pigments, and that there might be copyright issues were I to publish them. Of course, they're gonna end up on this blog. However, after looking at the pamphlet handed out, those areas were limited to no flash photography, not no pics at all.

Oh well. I can tell you there is one painting ten or so feet tall and fifteen or more feet wide of the Grand Canyon that was simply breathless. It showed a sliver of sunlight highlighting a canyon wall into a golden display of visual riches, a small rain squall below the rim covering part of the view behind it, several huge craggy and incredibly detailed bluffs - man, the colors and sense of depth just blew me away. There were paintings of cowboys in action - men who look identical to many I've known over the years, Native Americans, various wildlife, and just about any thing associated with the West.

The gun pictures I took were not in the main gun room, which I could have shot some no flash pics. I'd have probably ruined my phone from the drool anyhow. Some of the guns John Wayne donated were definitely highly desirable.

Of course Fredric Remington's and C.M. Russell's works were represented. Awesome, to over work a word. Of course, James Earle Fraser's plaster cast of End of the Trail sculpture is featured.

There is a pretty comprehensive rodeo section as well. I'm not much of a rodeo fan, but I did recognize a few names. Lots of prize saddles over the years on display.

I was there for four or five hours, and being on my feet that long just wiped my fat butt out. Totally worth it. I also went on a Wednesday, which happens to be free admission day for a limited time. I got there about a half hour after it opened, and it was definitely getting crowded with families by the time I left. Any wonder? Free vs thirty or forty bucks?

I hope those kids were entertained - the kid in me sure as hell was!

Here is a slideshow of the pics I took: