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 ?

Santa-Fe - Cochitti Lake - Farmington - Holbrook- Tucson, AZ

June 9 - 15, 2025

June 9: We head out in the morning for the Tesuque Casino outside of Santa Fe, NM where we will spend two free nights.  The drive became a bit of an adventure when the address we programed into the GPS unit routed us via a crazy route through a residential area of Santa Fe which ended up at a gated entrance to a ranch.  Luckily, we were able to make the tight turn around without unhooking the Jeep.  Twinkles had been following the route on her cell phone which was not in agreement.  Using the cell phone we then found our way easily to the Casino which was only about a mile away.  

The Tesuque Casino is fairly new and after checking in we unhooked the Jeep, parked the RV and then headed to downtown Santa Fe for a few hours.  There was a rain shower in mid afternoon which disrupted our afternoon somewhat, but we ducked into the Museum of Contemporary Arts for a while to escape the weather. 

https://www.tesuquepueblo.org

The painted columns in front of the Arts Center

It was almost all indigenous art work

This was unique, having a thumb drive built in

Kind of liked the painted tin cans 

Back at the Casino, we go inside to check it out, it has just opened up, some of the slot machines are not connected yet, we stick to the slots as usual and actually come out ahead by $50 ! 

June 10: We start today by going to the Santa Fe farmers market, not much farm produce yet, it’s too early.  However there were arts and craft items and an excellent bakery that we thoroughly enjoyed.  The Farmers Market is held at the Railyard complex which originally was the old rail yard but is now a very popular restaurant, brewery and  entertainment complex.  The original Santa Fe railroad station remains in use by the current New Mexico Rail Runner Train system that operates a state run passenger rail system in New Mexico.

https://railyardsantafe.com

Santa Fe Railyard complex

New Mexico Rail Runner Train system

Santa Fe train station

After that, we go to the New Mexico Capital building a short distance away that has to be one of the most unique Capital Buildings in the US.  It is three story round building with a rotunda and the interior walls are mostly plain painted surfaces covered with New Mexico art from all areas of the state.  The art, mostly paintings are hung along virtually every interior surface.   It’s one of the best art galleries I have ever seen ! 

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

New Mexico State Capital from entrance

The rotunda looking up from the entrance

All the art is done by New Mexico artists

Another view of the rotunda from a higher floor

We then go back to downtown Santa Fe to explore the streets taking in all the great architecture, art work and shops.  We did a lot of looking, much walking, had a good lunch meal, but hardly any buying. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,_New_Mexico

The Lensic Performing Arts Center next to Burro Street

Sneaking a peak inside the Arts Center 

An alley way of cow's heads

Quite taken with the beautiful rugs draped over the balcony

New Mexico Museum of Art

Lots of colorful Mexican pots here

We then take a drive on route 25 to the Poeh Cultural Center which houses a collection of ancient Tewa Pottery that has recently been returned to the tribe from the Smithsonian Museum.  They also have a gallery exhibit displaying the “Continuous Path” of the Tewa people from their emergence to the present.  The Cultural Center has a separate impressive tower that houses a collection of pottery from an amazing tribal artist, Roxanne Swentzell who has become quite world renown.

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

Many Pueblo's in this area

A few of the returned pottery pieces

Exhibit showing the path of the Tewa people, the good

And the bad

Impressive tower with Roxanne Swentzell art display

I was supper impressed with this agave stalk

The art work is a little weird but also compelling

A nice display

Thought provoking stuff

Lastly, back to the Tesuque Casino where we lose all our winnings from the previous day, that sucks !

June 11: We set off today to travel about 35 miles to Cochiti Lake Campground which sits above a huge reservoir created by a dam on the Rio Grande River.  We held hope that we could get into the nearby Tent Rocks National Monument there even though it seemed doubtful.  They now have a reservation system, a very confusing one, that limits the number of daily visitors.  Basically everything went wrong, on arrival at 10 AM our reserved site at the campground was not vacated yet so we unhooked the jeep and drove to the lake, to the viewpoint over the lake and generally rode around to kill time until we could get into our campsite. On rechecking the Tent Rocks web site we found that they are fully booked for the entire month, no chance to get in.  We finally were able to get into our campsite at about 3 PM, then took a drive to the Town of Cochiti Lake, mostly a middle class anglo town and then to the totally opposite ancient Cochiti Pueblo, where the real locals live.  Please read the link below to see how the US screwed the Cochiti Pueblo tribe concerning the Dam.

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

 

Beautiful mural of the Cochiti Library

On our return to the campground dark rain clouds develop and they let loose with brief rain shower in late afternoon.  We had visited this Campground and the amazing Tent Rocks many years ago, so no huge loss to miss Tent Rocks, but sort of a wasted trip, but I have lots of old photos.

June 12: Today was a log 200 mile drive from Cochiti, NM to Farmington, NM, but it was a very pretty drive mostly on route 550. We made a rest stop in Cuba, NM, which has seen better days with many closed buildings on the main street. There was a True Value hardware store, it looked rough on the outside but was fine inside and I found the allen wrench ( spell check doesn't know what an allen wrench is) I needed to tighten my outside mirror on the RV.  

Nearby was a nice appearing restaurant, El Bruno's with a couple of good murals.  Normally traveling solo, I would have gone in for lunch but today I'm sort of thinking more about a hearty meal latter in Farmington.   

Mystery building, but looks like it was once something special 

Nice mural

El Bruno's Restaurante Cantina door

Mural on side of restaurant

We arrived in Farmington and found our way to the San Juan County Fairgrounds.  The Fairgrounds consist of a casino, a 500 + site campground, many exhibit halls, livestock buildings, horse stalls, a Convention Center and more, it’s huge.  We checked into the campground for two nights. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington,_New_Mexico 

We then went downtown to look around and ended up buying a few items in a thrift shop, especially for me a very cool art deco picture frame.  Farmington has a healthy looking downtown, a couple of great old movie theaters, several good shops, several murals, many thrift shops and two quilt shops shops.  Farmington is centered within a huge oil field and as you ride around town oil related businesses are everywhere. it's drill baby drill mentality.  It also has a large farming base due to the three rivers running through town and and irrigation.

 

Museum of Navajo Art and Culture

Indian sculpture at fifth generation Indian Trading Co 

Amazing old lumber yard turned into a coffee shop and art gallery

The Allen Theater

Beautiful old theater sign

Latter in the day we returned to the downtown for dinner.  As we walked down Main Street we saw that it was closed ahead for a parade, which to our surprise was a “Pride” parade, we sure didn’t expect anything like that here ! The parade was short, but the participants were enthusiastic there was nothing overtly political, no demonstrators and it was generally upbeat and motivational.

There is a serious issue on the reservation with missing persons

We then had dinner at the Three Rivers Restaurant and Brewery which has a historic feel to it with many old photos and signs.  I was also impressed with what appears to be an original wooden floor with brass metal patch panels secured with screws, really cool. 

Side walk view

Interior view

 June 13: I went out at about 7 AM for a breakfast sandwich and chanced upon several hot air balloons landing in the fairgrounds parking lot.  The most interesting thing was seeing a distracted driver watching the balloons land who drove his pickup truck into a metal guard for a fire Hydrant.

 

A few balloons took off and landed each morning 

It was a near crash landing for this ballon

While out for breakfast, I saw a sign for the Animas River Whitewater Park and thought it would be a good thing to check out.  It turned out to be a short drive to the parking lot where we found a beautiful trail through groves of towering Cottonwood trees along the river.  The Animas River was flowing fast and is open to whitewater river enthusiasts, we actually saw a raft go by.  There are several bridges across the river with trails on both sides with interpretive signs and and a very impressive tribute to military veterans of all wars. There are three river that come together within Farmington with the Animas and the LaPlata flowing into the San Juan River.

 

The Animas River

Several bridges to cross over the river

Very impressive monument 

We were very surprised to see a Turkey

Impressive Lizard

  We talked to an elderly man with his dog, the dog was an great swimmer, he would throw a tennis ball far into the river and the dog would swim into the fast flowing current, chase the ball down, bring it back and then they would repeat it.    

It was then back to downtown Farmington for lunch at TJ's Diner which had a hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes, gravy and peas on the menu, have't had that in a long, long time, so good !  We then did an antique shop and Twinkles visited a quilting shop, she is quite impressed that there are two shops in town. 

After returning to the campground, we visited the livestock arena at the fairgrounds where all breeds of hogs were being displayed, some sort of a competition I guess, not exactly our kind of thing, but it was interesting.  Next to the livestock building is the impressive SunRay Casino which sucked us right in.  We started out with $40 and walked out with about $150, a really big win for us.

Beautiful arena

I would find it hard to love a pig ?

Impressive Casino with a horse racing track out front

June 14: We pulled out of the fairgrounds and headed on route 64 deep into Navajo territory to Shiprock, NM where we passed several Navajo markets that I so wanted to stop at and explore, but it would have been really hard with the RV.  We then turned onto route 491 towards Gallup, a long wide open uninhabited stretch of road with occasional side roads to remote Navajo towns.  This is real Tony Hillerman country, very appropriate since I am currently reading Lost Birds by Anne Hillerman.  

At Gallup we take I-40 west into Arizona and to Holbrook, AZ to overnight at the OK RV Park.  We then take the Jeep into Petrified Forest National Park for a brief visit at the Rainbow Forest Museum and the Crystal Forest viewpoint.  I've now been to both Holbrook and the Petrified Forest four times, maybe more, but I never tire of it.

On the way back we stopped at the Jim Gray's Petrified Wood Company, like we always do and marveled at the quantity and quality of the petrified wood and we have many pieces at home.

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

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

Mind boggling how the planet has changed

It's an amazing landscape

The multi colored layers are beautiful

Back at Holbrook we complete setting up the RV and settle in for the night. Actually that's what Twinkles did, instead I toured around downtown for a while, nothing has changed, and then went for a beer at the Empty Pockets Saloon.  The crowd there was kind of rough looking, big hulking manly man types.  This big man with a biker shirt and his heavily tattooed wife sat next to me and struck up a conversation.  He was originally from Buffalo, NY and they are long haul truckers. He spoke well and we had a good conversation, you just never know in these kinds of places. As I went outside, I saw their rig, it was a huge impressive monster sized tractor trailer.

 

A couple of 30's vehicles probably slated for hot rod heaven

Street Eagle always has some kind of vehicle in the works

Always a popular attraction in Holbrook

I threw my shadow into this picture

June15: We decided to take the scenic routes Rt 77/60 south back to Tucson to avoid the heavy traffic and congestion of Phoenix. 

We then pass through a more prosperous looking area,  the historic towns of Snowflake and Taylor with their lush green fields, beautiful clean downtown areas, big Mormon churches, everything clean and orderly, almost too perfect.

We then start climbing in elevation, into the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest and then down into the Salt River Canyon passing through beautiful rocky mountainous terrain with incredible views. At the same time it's but a bit of a struggle to maintain speed and braking, trying to keep up to the traffic flow, amidst the beauty of the surroundings where you just wish you could pull over to absorb all the splendor, but you can’t, very frustrating !   

In retrospect, it was probably a more stressful drive due to the long mountainous uphills, the fast downhills, the single lanes and the tight curves.  It was a most scenic route however, just wish there were more pulloffs or shoulders to stop and enjoy the scenery. As a result, I didn’t get any photos, which to me is a wasted trip. 

The closer we get to Tucson, the longer the travel day seems, although we made good time arriving home at about 3 PM under the burning hot 110 degree sun.  Everywhere we went when people would ask us where we were from, their reply would be; I've been to Tucson and I liked it, but it’s just too hot there.  I would have to agree !

Overall, the RV worked well, no breakdowns, the AC and the refrigerator had a real workout.  We put 1,432 miles on it during this two week trip without a scratch, all good.

Happy Trails !