DAY 93- Abilene to Dallas, TX…

I woke up to a HUGE loud bang against metal at 5AM in my hotel room in Abilene.  A cowboy had dropped his heavy overnight bag into his huge diesel pickup truck that was parked right out front of my room.  BANG!  5AM in the morning and I already felt like I had a heart attack!  A few minutes later the whole room was vibrating when he started up his truck.  Shortly after that I heard more cowboy boots thudding around and more loud pickup trucks starting up.  These cowboys liked to start their days early around these parts.  I looked out the window and the 75% of the parking lot that had been pickup trucks last night were gone. 

I decided to start a pot of coffee and get ready for the day too.  I got on-line and figured out what there was to do in Abilene before I started my drive to Dallas where I would spend the Thanksgiving Holiday.  I found out a few possibilities and headed up front for breakfast and a bit of assistance for directions. 

Photo- Frontier Texas a FUN place to visit and learn about Texas Hertiage.

Off I went towards historic downtown Abilene; I stopped southeast of it and went into Frontier Texas!  It’s a western heritage center that focuses on the frontier time period of Texas history.  It’s done with a new level of technology.  I went in paid the $8 entrance fee and wasn’t sure what to expect.  I was handed a map of the museum and before I knew it this southern Texas older gentleman was taking the map out of my hands and very nicely explaining what the museum was and how it worked.  He seemed impressed that I was all the way from Salt Lake City and wanted to ensure that I had a good time visiting Frontier Texas.  He was very sweet.

Photo- Inside the Frontier Texas an example of a covered wagon.

I had to wait for a few minutes for the next starting time.  Frontier Texas has a series of holographic spirit guides that take you through the history.  It was an amazing experience where these 6 historical figures took you through the history by telling you about parts of it.  In the first room, a hologram of Buck Taylor briefly introduced the spirit guides that you would be meeting as you went along.  In the second room, Buck Taylor’s hologram gave you a general overview of the Texas history; the big picture as it was called.  Then, I went down a hall where I went on to meet another spirit guide a Native American Indian that talked about the history of his people and what the land was like before all the settlers came. 

Photo- A community tooth brush!!??!  Ewwwwww!!

There were items to read and interactive things that you could along the way too.  I walked through a tepee and then met another two of the spirit guides.  These two were kind of having an interactive conversation with each other and it was very informative.  Next, I turned a corner and met a Captain Marcy.  There was a series of buttons in front of him that you could press to get answers to questions.

Down another hallway you got to meet another spirit guide who was a cowboy that moved cattle on a trail.  Though, there weren’t any real trails at that time.  He talked about the dangerous life on the trail.    Then, across the room on the other side you met another spirit guide who was a former slave that had been freed in hopes of locating his family that had been taken by Indians during a raid.  He ended up finding them and ended up going into the business of delivering supplies to pioneers. 

Then, I waited for a few minutes to get into the theater area where a presentation takes place.  It’s an amazing presentation where you sit on chairs that could be spinned in 360 degrees.  The theater show goes on all around you and it’s a wonderful presentation about the frontier Texas life.  After the theater show there was one more spirit guide that you met that I found interesting in that the woman who had managed to escape from Indian capture seemed to go through quite a few husbands on the frontier. Her first husband had been killed in the Indian raid.  She remarried and the next one went to check on the horses in the barn and didn’t come back.  She remarried again a military man this time that ended up being killed in action with Indians.  Then, I was at the end of Frontier Texas and was deposited in the gift shop area.  It was very worth the $8 entry fee.

Photo- The outside of the Grace Museum which is a restored hotel.

Next, I drove further into historic downtown of Abilene and located the Grace Museum.  I parked the car and walked in.  I paid the $8 entrance fee and was admitted to the Art Museum.  There are three floors of art.  On the first floor there was a featured exhibit called Wild Things.  There were two different artists displayed in this exhibit; one was Billy Hassell who painted colorful oil paintings with wildlife represented in them and the other artist was David Everett who had some amazing three dimensional wooden carved and colorfully painted sculptures.  On the second floor of the art museum there was a Texas Impressionism Exhibit titled Branding with Brushstroke and color, 1885 to 1936.  It featured several local impressionistic artists that had been in the area when Texas was just coming into being made a state.  The third floor featured a black and white photography exhibit by David H. Gibson called Quiet Beauty.  It was a wonderful art museum to visit and quite high quality for such a smaller town area.

Photo- The inside of Cypress Street Cafe in Historic Downtown of Abilene, TX.

I walked next door to have lunch at the Cypress Street Station Café.   It was a wonderful older building that had been remodeled to be a restaurant and featured a white tin punched ceiling.  I had the special of the day which had a beef quesadilla, chicken chimi, and a fresh salad with fresh sweet salsa vinaigrette.  It was a wonderful meal.  After lunch, I walked through a Texas gift shop down the street where it had anything and everything that was Texas.  It was fun going through but I just window shopped my way through it.

It was time to start heading towards Dallas.  It was basically a straight drive east on I-20.  It was a fairly heavy traffic day on the interstate and I think it was due to everyone heading somewhere for Thanksgiving which was the next day.  I set my cruise control for a bit below the speed limit and just went through with the flow.

Construction was a nightmare when I got into Dallas.  The exit that I should have taken was under construction and when I got off the interstate to try to back track the streets were curving every which way that I ended up getting totally lost.  I was lost about an hour and a half amid the Dallas Wednesday night rush hour traffic with construction.  I will say that it was really rather frustrating.  I also discovered that it was similar to driving in Salt Lake City in that if you put your blinker on they wouldn’t let you over.  I started driving like I did in Salt Lake City and just started to head over as a space appeared.  It all kind of reminded me of when the SLC was preparing for the Olympics and we had the Toboggan run going on with I-15.  I finally did manage to find the hotel and I opted to stay in the hotel for dinner.  I had enough of Dallas driving for the day.

DAY 92 - Buddy Holly, Silent Wings, & Wild Burgers...

Lubbock, Texas is the birthplace of Buddy Holly the rock-n-roll singer who tragically passed away at the young age of 22 in an airplane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.  Growing up in Iowa I had heard about the crash and had enjoyed some of Buddy’s famous songs like; Peggy Sue and That’ll Be The Day.  Buddy Holly and the Crickets had four hit songs in their 18 month short lived career together.

Photo- The outside of the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, TX.

I learned more about him at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock.  I went in and paid the $5 entrance fee in the gift shop and was told about the Center.  I also found out that my entrance fee was good to get into another museum in the area that I was planning on going to.  Bonus!  I watched a short film about Buddy Holly and all of the boundaries that he had broken in his short career.  He helped open doors for independent control of music and recording for future rock-n-roll stars.  He influenced the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Elton John.  Buddy also experimented with using different instruments and noises in the recording of his songs.  The short film also featured the Big Bopper who had also tragically died in the same plane crash. 

Photo- The local postman who was going by insisted to take my picture with
the glasses because otherwise how would I prove I had actually been there.

Then, I went into a room where there was a timeline and memorabilia from his life.  There were photos, shirts, jackets, and one of the famous Fender Stratocaster guitars.  There were letters from fans asking how much it would cost for him and the Crickets to play at a dance or a venue.  It was a window into a very different time of music careers.  I was also very amazed because there was even the pair of glasses that he was wearing when his plane went down.  It was all very interesting and it made you wonder what it would have been like if his musical career had been longer. 

In another room were photos from his life and of some of his musical comrades who had not been in the airplane accident.  Some of them had gone on to musical careers by themselves with mixed results.  Each year some of those musical comrades have a musical reunion at the Buddy Holly Center sometime in the summer.  There was also an additional gallery room which features local art from the area.  The current exhibition was the Day of the Dead.

In the pamphlet materials available at the center there were other sites that pertained to Buddy Holly’s life that you could visit in the area.  You could drive by the home where he grew up, visit the grave where he’s buried, and take a photo next to a bronze statue of him in Buddy Holly Square which was across from the Center.  There were other places that you could swing by or visit on the list that were still around in the area.  There was a West Texas Walk of Fame which featured other musical artists like; Tanya Tucker and Mac Davis.  They have quite the musical history in Lubbock.

Photo- The Silent Wings Museum housed in the old Lubbock Airport.

Next, I jumped on to I-27 north for a few exits to the other museum that I wanted to visit for the day.  It was the Silent Wings Museum which is located near the current Lubbock airport and rather looks like the museum took over the old airport.  This museum is the story of the World War 2 Glider Program which played a key role in World War 2.  It is the only museum in the world dedicated to telling the story of the gliders.

Photo- Inside the Hangar Gallery of the Silent Wings Museum.

I showed my already paid ticket from the Buddy Holly Center and that got me into the museum.  I first started down the hall and to the left where there’s a 14 minute film that explains about the glider program.  The gliders were a silent way to deliver men and other supplies into combat zones or possibly even in behind enemy lines during WW2.  During WW2, there was a South Plains Army Airfield (SPAAF) near where the museum is now that served as a training facility for the glider pilots. It’s estimated that 80% of the more than 5000 WW2 glider pilots graduated from the SPAAF facility.   Great deals of these pilots were older and had not been drafted because of their age or other reasons.  Now they were training to fly the gliders as well as learn how to fight because a glider was basically a one way ticket into a combat zone.  These were a special breed of patriotic men that flew these gliders and they earned their silver “G” wings which is their symbol.

Photo- The very tight "Blue Box" that they used to train the glider pilots.

After the film I wandered around the museum.  In the large Hangar Gallery there were actual restored gliders and what is called a blue box which served as a trainer for the pilots.  It looked like a very small and tight cockpit to me.  They had a Combat Gallery which contained different of examples of the uniforms and weapons that these men would have used on their mission.  There was also a description of some of the actual missions.  Then there was a Timeline Gallery that had key events in aviation history that led to the WW2 gliders being used.  The gliders had a short history in war because of the eventual development of the helicopter that would serve the same need in further combat history.

Photo- A very fun and good place to get a burger in Lubbock, TX.

Before leaving Lubbock, I grabbed some lunch.  I ended up at a place called Wild BurgerGrille.  It’s a fun funky burger joint that specializes in burgers.  You have a choice of having beef, bison, or chicken with a list of possible toppings on your burger.  They have a list of already devised specialty burgers that you can choose from that you can order with beef, bison, or chicken.  I chose one of these called Green Chili Cheeseburger which is green chilies, sharp cheddar cheese, lettuce, roma tomato, with a spicy mayo.  I opted to try it as a bison burger.  It had been years since I had a bison burger.  The burger came with a choice of fries and I chose the garlic parmesan fries.

Photos- The fun interior of the Wild Burger.

While I waited for the food, I looked around Wild Burger’s interior.  It features quite a few large paintings of famous people in a fun playful psychedelically colorful way.  There was Albert Einstein with his tongue stuck out.   Amelia Earhart’s painting featured her blouse unbuttoned down quite a ways and leaning proactively.   Then there was an Animal House scene where John Belushi is wearing a toga.  It was a fun laid back type of atmosphere.  I asked the server if this was a chain restaurant in the area and she said no but there was just one right now but they were working on it.  The burger and fries were wonderful when they arrived at the table and everything was very fresh too.  The server was very friendly.  While I ate, I watched people come in and one of the staff would say I a heavy southern accent,” Hi Ya’all! Where ever you would like to sit and someone will be with you soon!”

Photos- Windmills and oil rigs on the Texas landscape.

After lunch, I found myself driving south easterly towards Abilene, TX.  The landscape was still a bit flat.  Here and there off in the distance I would see fields of windmills turning slowly in the Texas wind.  As I got closer to Abilene, the landscape started to get bluffs and some hills.  I was starting to get closer to Hills Country in central Texas.  I was also seeing oil rigs out in the fields too along with the windmills.  I thought it seemed a bit odd to see them together but I guess in Texas they were playing both ends of the energy spectrum.

It was getting dark shortly after checking into the hotel and I decided to play it close to the hotel for dinner.  There was a great deal of construction in the area and I didn’t want to risk getting lost in all that.  I went across the road to a Chili’s restaurant.  I sat at the bar and ordered an appetizer with a beer.  A short time later an older couple sat down next to me.  I struck up a conversation with Karen.  She was a fun southern lady that wasn’t a bit shy.  It ended up that her and her husband were staying at the same hotel across the street.  They were driving through on their way to see her daughter for Thanksgiving. We talked and she gave me a list of some places to go see while I was visiting her great state of Texas.  She wanted to buy me a drink but I thanked her and told her two beers was my limit for the night.  I said good night and she wished me well in my travels.