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 74- Tombstone…

Tombstone tallied as the town that would not die.  I had been seeing the billboards for Tombstone almost everywhere I went in the state; giving directions and showing the 5 gun slinging guys holding guns out towards you.  Well, it was only about 80 miles southeast of Tucson.  I thought I had better check this one out.  So off I went east on I-10.

When I got to Tombstone was really unsure of where to go.  I had an address for Tombstone from the internet for Allen Street; I got a little ways into town and saw a sign that read Allen Street this way.  I followed.  Then I saw Allen Street and it was closed to cars.  I found parking on a side street right across from the Tombstone Courthouse which is touted as the smallest state park in the west; one more small thing to log in on my BIG adventure.

Photo- Stage coach waiting to give a tour for visitors in Tombstone.

I walked over to Allen Street and walked along the board walk sidewalks where here and there cowboys were decked out down to their spurs.  They would say howdy ma’am as I walked by and tip their hats.  I wandered in and out of a few shops as I went along.  At one intersection the cowboys were talking about a shootout that was going to occur at Helldorado Town if you weren’t too much of a yellow belly to watch it then you should go down the street to it.  Of course, I wasn’t and off down the street I went and purchased a ticket for the next shoot out show.

Photo- Board walk sidewalks in Tombstone.

I found a sit among the cowboy hatted group and watched the show.  It was some interactive fun.  The sheriff was introducing the good guys (Yeah!) and the bad guys (Boo!) and the ugly (laughing booing!).  Then, they started a skit and one of them was tossing his gun up and around; doing all kinds of fancy gun works.  Some balloons got shot out, and then the ugly guy got shot.  Then, a miner who was a good guy (yeah!) showed up who was looking for his donkey that one of the bad guys had sold.  Well, some more entertaining fun came along with this part of the skits and I think a great deal of it was adlibbed because periodically they would say that wasn’t in the script. 

Photo- A bad guy (Boo!) whose showing off his with his gun at the shoot out show.

Photo- The inexperienced miner, a good guy (Yeah!), at a shoot out.

When the show was over they introduced everyone and said that unfortunately for their families this was how they earned their living and if you enjoyed the show to please tip generously on your way out.  Also, they said that our ticket stubs were good for discounts at the Helldorado restaurant and for the tour trolley car ride.  I walked across the street to the trolley and asked when the next tour was.  It was in 20 min.  I bought a ticket which I was told was good for discounts at other places in Tombstone and that our trolley ride guide would point out where those places were.  Yep, there was a bit of marketing racket going on in Tombstone but then again was that any surprise.

Photo- Tombstone's famous newspaper.

The trolley tour ended up being filled to the gills but it was a good tour and there was a fair amount of colorful history in the area.  We sat for the first bit of the trolley ride at the main stop while the driver told us how Tombstone came into being.  It was silver mining that out it on the map and its height it had 7000 male residents.  He said that the census back then did not take into consideration anything other than white males; that didn’t include the woman working in the brothels or the Chinese that also lived in the area.  We were taken along the edges and back and forth across Allen Street that was closed to cars because the streets have tunnels underneath them.  When it was really rainy, they were discovering that the weight of the cars was causing the streets to collapse just a little bit.  So it’s only the horse wagons that are allowed on Allen Street. 

Half way through the tour they drove out to Boothill Cemetery where you could get off the trolley and then catch the next trolley in about 45 min.  I stayed on because I was hoping to find a place to eat shortly after the trolley car tour was done.  The driver said that Boothill was the second most haunted place in Tombstone and that it closed before dark because it was too haunted for even the employees to stay past dark.  I don’t remember where the first haunted place but he kept on talking about how many were killed here and there in gun shoot outs as he drove us back through the rest of the tour.  There was plenty for the driver to talk about and he wasn’t the short winded type anyway.

Photo- The inside of the Crystal Palace Saloon in Tombstone.

With the tour done, it was now time to find a place to eat but first I went to my car and grabbed my warped cowboy hat.  I told myself it was for the shade and to keep my hair out of my eyes; not because I was at Tombstone and wanted to semi-try to fit in, of course.  I walked by a couple of bars and a restaurant.  The restaurant had closed because they were just open for a short lunch hour.  The 2^nd bar that I came to was the Crystal Palace Saloon.  I went in and sat at the wonderful wooden bar area.  I ordered a Blue Moon draft and asked for a menu. 

Photo- The Crystal Palace Saloon's signage outside.

While waiting for my burger on rye, a couple of women walked in.  One of them has this southern slang; she’s yelling and waving obnoxiously across the bar about getting shots of tequila with salt.  They have their shots and then discover that their husbands are down the bar a ways.  They get up, move down the bar, order more shots and proceed again to get salt all over the bar while they have their shots.  Then shortly after that they leave, the bartender clad in a black bustier old saloon attire with fish net stockings ended up wiping and wiping to get all of the salt off the bar.  I laughed and told her that she needed a little mini vacuum.   That would be really nice to have right now she said.  We strike up a conversation and I discover that she owns 5 horses.  She breeds them but most of the time she really has a hard time selling the young ones because she gets attached to them.  She really seemed like a nice gal.

Photo- A sign outside one of the shops along Allen Street in Tombstone.

After lunch I walked along Allen Street more and I went in more shops.  I was on the search for postcards and possibly an inexpensive t-shirt.  I ended up finding postcards in one shop and a t-shirt in another.  Then, I got to looking at some of the sterling silver rings that were priced very low and reasonable.  Oh, why not I thought to myself.  I ended up going around to 3 different shops and found a stainless steel one I really liked.  Now, it’s about 4pm and I still have a three hour drive to Phoenix where I’m meeting my friend Laura at a hotel in the downtown area.

I drive north on I-10W past Tucson and continue to Phoenix.  I watch the sunset as I drive north.  It’s dark by the time I get to the turn off exit in Phoenix.  I find the hotel and end up seeing my friend Laura for just a short bit as she takes a break from the nuns’ retreat she is attending.  She’s had 6 diet cokes and is just bouncing up off the walls; cracking me up. 

The guy at the front desk recommended a restaurant that was kitty corner from the hotel.  The name of the bar/restaurant is called Switch.  I walked across to it; and it’s pretty busy.  It’s a nice bar/restaurant with dim lighting and under lighting done in blue which is kind of cool with the décor.  I asked the hostess if I could just sit up at the bar. 

I end up sitting between a guy and a pair of friends.  The pair of friends is a younger slim sorority type black haired gal that went to Ball State which is where the guy on the other side of me went.  They talk together for a short bit and I think Cassie, her name, thinks that he and I are together.  Because she keeps on trying to include me in the conversation and she’s quite the talker I tell you!  Then she starts talking with her “buddy”, her married friend that she’s out to dinner with; who can’t seem to keep his hands off of her. 

She and her “buddy” leave after one drink.  I look at the guy next to me and told him I wanted to yell to go get a room.  He laughed and said I don’t treat my female friends like that.  We end up talking and watching the Washington- California college football game.  The game has had 8 turn overs and about 6 flags in the 25 minutes that we’ve been sitting there.  I teased Logan, the guy, that it’s a new game called Ping-Pong Football because the football has been going back and forth over and over with in the same 20 yards on the football field. 

We talked for a while longer.  Logan is currently on call for his work which is as the I.T. person for the 20 floor office building across the street.  I gave him a bit of a hard time about having three phones and that’s when he explained his on call status.  I teased him about I just figured he was one of those guys that likes his greatest and latest toys.   I ended up wishing him a good night and went back to the hotel with my left overs.