Tucson, Arizona to Okemah, Oklahoma

July 7 - 13, 2015:

Tucson Arizona to Okemah, Oklahoma:

This is a unusual kind of trip for me, I’m traveling straight by the most direct path from Tucson, AZ to Okemah, Oklahoma, all highway miles to get me there by noon on Thursday July 10th for the Woodyfest 2025 festival.  What has possessed me to do such a thing ?  A few days ago, I was procrastinating about where to go, east, west north or south when I saw this festival promoted on facebook.  This three day festival is an annual event, the 28th year I believe that attracts many devoted fans and notable musicians in celebration of Woody Guthrie.   

I start by traveling north on I-10 through Phoenix to route 17 north to Flagstaff.  The trip was uneventful except for considerable truck and car congestion on the crazy uphill climb, curves and steep downhills, that’s a beautiful but crazy drive.  

I sort of cheated already by stopping in Flagstaff when I probably should have driven a couple of more hours.  I parked downtown and walked around, then drove to the beautiful Museum Club which had a music jam starting, I stayed a while, but it was weird, no one else was there except a few musicians who were there to play.  I wandered around downtown Flagstaff for a while, went to Walmart for groceries and then retired to a Cracker Barrel restaurant that allows RV’s overnight, which Walmart doesn’t. 

Another Route 66 highway 

Another mural

Another

This one is more than a mural

The interior of the Museum Club is unique

July 8th - I’m now on I-40 eastbound, a far less stressful drive than yesterday.  I then come upon a road sign and exit for Two Guns, AZ which brings back a memory.  I had read about this place, a sort of weird ghost town with much history, mostly bad, that I just have to stop and take a look.  There is an old gas station covered with graffiti (real trashy stuff) and several old stone buildings and the remains of cages that were once part of a roadside museum attraction.  It was very unique, dark and mysterious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Guns,_Arizona 

Two Guns celebrates 100 years

This gas station is more like an art gallery

What would the original settlers think ?

Once there was an actual town 

Wire cages for the animals

Next I come upon a sign for the Meteor Crater which is National Monument that for some reason I’ve never visited.  It also was really tempting, but I have limited time and my better judgement rules.  I also pass by Winslow, Holbrook and Petrified Forest NP and many Indian souvenir shops.  I do make a stop at the Yellow Horse trading post where the Indian souvenir shops are so beautiful against the colorful rocky background.  This is a most scenic area, Navajo country is beautiful.

What a view

Indian truck for sure

 

 I then continue to Albuquerque, NM where I stop for the night.  I park in the old downtown area, so sad how beautiful it once was and how distressed it is now, seems like half the businesses are closed and many homeless types are on the street.  It’s very hot, a Tucson kind of hot as I make my way to my favorite brew pub, the Tractor Brewery for a beer.  It looks unchanged since I was last there about two years ago.

Twins ?

One of my favorite street art walls

Always more murals

I was attracted to the window scene at the Bliss building

That's a wild woman

Colorful dead of the dead theme

I was hoping to find an Indian casino to spend the night at somewhere close to downtown but see none, kind of weird.  It’s getting harder to overnight on the streets these days and most Walmart’s and even the Cracker Barrel’s don’t allow overnight stays in many city areas.  As a result, you must do the stealthing thing which is sometimes dicey.  I end up in a apartment complex on a street which looks fine, it actually was quiet, but in the morning I find a beat up car practically touching my front bumper and about three feet behind is another car, I could barely squeak out.

July 9th - I drive a very tiring 500 miles today on I-40 with lots of trucks who normally behave way better than the car drivers.  I just blew through all the usual towns that I stop at, but I did stop at one town, Elk City, OK.  They are doing amazing things in their historic downtown area, renewing the road, sidewalks and the shops along Main Street also seem to be upgrading their store fronts and signs.  They get my historic preservation award !  They are building a huge oil derrick nest to this beautiful old building ?  This area of Oklahoma is beautiful, lush green foliage everywhere and prosperous looking farm fields.  However, Oil is obviously the big crop.

Appears to be a complete restoration of this building

Great old movie theater

The stores all look freshly painted

As I am driving between Albuquerque and Oklahoma City I am seeing wind turbines in the distance,  thousands of them, miles and miles of them. I thought these “red states” were all about oil, drill baby drill, maybe not so much ?  

I arrive in Oklahoma City about 6 PM and after figuring out how to get to the desired downtown area, I actually find an easy route on street that goes almost directly to the Bricktown area.  I was interested in going to the Mojo's Blues club for their blues jam ( a big favorite a couple years ago for me) which turned out to be a bust this time. I waited for an hour for it to start, but there were no customers and they were in no hurry so I left. 

Very popular canal boat and dining in downtown

Across the street is the ball field

Beautiful mural at canal

After leaving, I traveled back on Reno boulevard through an industrial area and parked in a business parking lot.  Everything was fine until it started to get really hot inside the van.  My refrigerator puts out considerable heat and unless you can open doors or the outside temperature drops, the heat builds and builds inside until it becomes miserable.  As a result, I leave about 2 AM  and drive a few miles away to cool the van interior down, then park at a Cracker Barrel restaurant for the rest of the night.  I think I only had about 4 hours of sleep max.  

July 10th - I have a decent breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then attempt to download photos into Lightroom which works fine but I can’t open Mac photos as I have no internet connection, I’m going to have to go somewhere to get a real connection.  My MAC had a recent program upgrade and now needs to update all my files, this makes me very nervous, I’m sorry to have installed this program update, I don’t really need it !  

I’m now only 100 miles from Okemah, Oklahoma and there is no rush to get there.  I stop in the town of Shawnee along the way at a Walmart to get a few more needed things and then stop at a McDonalds to upload blog details from yesterday. 

I arrive in Okemah, Oklahoma at 2 PM where I get my festival tag and am allowed into the Thursday music events, except for the main evening show, even though my ticket is for Friday and Saturday.  They call this event “Woodyfest” and they have  a nice festival program with a picture of Woody holding his famous “this machine kills fascists” guitar. We all need these machines now !!! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okemah,_Oklahoma 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie

An old poster in the museum

This concert seems to be very well organized, with a room for musician merchandise, souvenir items and tee shirts.  There are music events going on simultaneously at two locations a few blocks apart on Main Street.

I start the night sweltering inside the van, again,  on a downtown side street until I realize that there is a nice cool breeze blowing and that if could park somewhere else and open the rear door that nice breeze could blow inside. It wasn’t easy to find such a spot, but it worked to some degree.

 

July 11th - In the morning I explore around Okemah for a while before the music starts at noon.  I locate the house that Woody Guthrie lived in but there isn’t much to see, it looks like a wreck actually, but I understand that there is a fund raising thing to save it ?  Downtown Okemah was once a booming small town with attractive stone buildings and a good part of it remains although mostly in pretty rough condition, but there is hope. I had seen the post office yesterday with a beautiful old mural inside, not sure it is original or a reproduction ?

Mural in 1938 Post Office 

Beyond Main Street, Okemah is pretty rough and distressed looking, but it has a vibrant history.  I found that out when I checked out the history museum adjacent to the Crystal Theater where a portion of the Woody Guthrie festival takes place.

The Fort Smith and Western RR once was here

Famous Indian leader

This town is named for Chief Okemah, a great leader

 Also beyond downtown is the new commercial district with various businesses, restaurants, fast food places, a couple of truck stops and an Indian casino.    

The Woodyfest 2025 festival takes place at the Crystal Theater Stage and on the Bound For Glory Stage at the Hen House on Main Street a few blocks apart and there is a shuttle bus as some of the Woody crowd is up in years.  There is also night performance a few miles away at the Okemah City Park which has an impressive new stage suitable for all kind of events. 

The Crystal sign light up nicely a night

Woody mural are everywhere here

View of the Hen House after the rain storm

A clever Chinese take on Alice's Restaurant

Love this cloudy farm field view 

I took in several shows during the day on Friday and the night show, I am not a huge concert fan, I am more into the folksy more intimate stuff at small venues.  I know only a few of the musicians playing here although several have national status, but I seem to prefer the unknowns just as well.  

They also have great food at the “Hen House” at reasonable prices, unusual for a concert venue.  

I wasn’t sure what kind of a crowd this festival would attract here in a "red state", but I suspected it would be a liberal crowd that supports the political philosophy of Woody Guthrie and they didn’t disappoint.  It was inspiring to see, we could use more of that !

The Pastures of Plenty Stage

Aaron Lee Tasjan playing on the big stage

 July 12 - The concert goes on again all day but there is a strong chance of rain showers that could disrupt the evening outside show.  I go to the first show at the Hen House where there are three men whose names start with a T, there is some joking about that which is similar to my two “Paul” friends in Tucson.  These guys were great, good stage banter, understandable song lyrics and they may be my favorite pairing of the day.  I am constantly running from the theater to the Hen House (love the name) trying to see the most desired performers.  It was hard to get decent photos in the poor lighting and limited access to the stage so I used my cell phone mostly to take videos.  Sorry, Only a few short movie clips are attached that do not do justice to the event.

  

At noon time, the storm arrives with very heavy rain and by mid afternoon the outside event is canceled but it will be moved into the Crystal Theater. 

The evening show was strange (to me) with the opening act being the Matt Axton band, who is the son of the legendary singer, songwriter and actor Hoyt Axton. The band is playing songs with more of a pop-country feel to them.  Matt Axton is a very smooth, likable performer, but the show was somewhat awkward in this more folk song environment.  I don’t understand why the festival planners felt the need for this band but many in the crowd seemed to like it.  They were followed by Margo Cilker who was way more in line with the Woody Guthrie spirit and attitude, I really liked her singing and folksy stage banter.  The final act was then BJ Barham who tends to yell through his songs, but mostly talks about his insane youth, family issues, his mom, his drug and alcohol abuse issues, it was a great comedy routine, but way too long. They eventually had to cut him off as he was running way over his aloted time and there were a coupe dozen festival performers waiting to do a rousing group rendition of Woody Guthrie’s "This land is your land" to close the festival.  My one complaint about this festival was that there was very little actual singing of Woody Guthrie songs, that’s very odd ?

I close now with no real plan from here, I’ll just drive north tomorrow towards Tulsa, maybe find an interesting stop over along the way ?