The Road to Ft. Worth — The Oklahoma Way
How long is the drive? Well, the GPS tells me it should take me 8 hours and 50 minutes to drive from Lake Ozark, MO to Ft. Worth, TX. But, that doesn’t really apply to me. In my mind, I have my own GPS system with a custom ETA that tells me it will take at least 15 hours. How do I get that number? I round up the GPS time to the hour and then add a half-hour to every hour, plus another hour and a half. This additional time accounts for getting fuel, stopping to use the restroom, stretching my legs, grabbing a bite to eat, and other road-tripping essentials including stopping at historical markers, a museum, or anything else I find interesting. A museum visit in an hour may seem a little tight, but it works out perfectly. Without fail, in that short timespan, I always take away something memorable, something that speaks to me. The best part about my custom ETA is that I usually arrive at my destination early or right on time.
On my recent trip to Ft. Worth, here are a few of the treasures I discovered.
Coffee Shops
I love cute coffee shops. Even though I only drink coffee first thing in the morning there’s a lot to love about quaint coffee shops — the ones with art on the walls, books, and comfortable chairs. A few miles west of Springfield in Mount Vernon, Missouri, there is a coffee shop called KeenBean. It was right around lunchtime so I ordered a Spring Chicken Stuffer which was a hollowed-out end piece of French bread stuffed with a delicious chicken salad. Then I got a locally crafted kombucha drink for the road. Yum!
The next morning, further on down the road just outside of Oklahoma City, in the downtown Arts District of Edmond, I stumbled on a great mural of a cowboy sitting on a horse taking a picture of the moon with his cell phone. It was the side of the Summer Moon Coffee Shop. Once again, I’d already had my morning coffee, so I sipped on peppermint tea while I waited for a museum to open. It turns out that Summer Moon (known for their wood-fire roasted coffee beans) has several locations in Texas, one in Wisconsin as well. There just happened to be one right across the street from the place I stayed with my son and his family in Ft. Worth. What luck!! Oh, and one more thing, in the Ft. Worth location, they offered locally-made breakfast tacos. Yes, I was in heaven.
First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City
Museums
The First Americans Museum was already on my list of places I wanted to see after I read about it in Cowboys & Indians magazine. It opened in September of 2021 and honors Oklahoma’s 39 tribal nations. I learned in a short video that although these 39 nations had different origin stories, the common factor was their connectivity to Mother Earth and the life-sustaining elements of fire, wind, water, and Earth. What struck me most was the design and the thought that went in to creating every element. The museum buildings are all circular and laid out to form two adjoining circles. representing many things, including circular time. The buildings are aligned in the cardinal directions with the entrance at the east (to greet the morning sun). On the equinoxes, the sun perfectly frames a massive glass art sculpture with light. On the winter solstice, the sun shines directly through a tunnel cut through an earthen mound flooding the museum’s Festival Plaza with light. On the summer solstice, the sun sits at the apex of the mound. The mound was built as a homage to the ancestors and civilizations that came before.
My short museum visit left me with a heart full of joy, awe and gratitude — for Mother Earth and for all the people who honor nature’s vast and abundant gifts (past, present, and future); for the painting on the wall that stopped me in my tracks by Kiowa/Caddo artist and poet T.C. Cannon. To top it off there was also a quote by him painted on the wall that read “Take me dancing when you go, and take me laughing too.” For the significant role T.C. Cannon has played in my life and music, read the story behind the song We’re All in This Together on my website.
Yes, I will come here again. Maybe on an equinox or solstice. But for now, this visit, gave me a renewed appreciation for the earth, the people, and the powerful gifts we all share with one another.
My next museum stop was in Tulsa, on the way home. I had heard about the new Bob Dillon Center quite a while back, and I assumed it was open by now. It wasn’t. I was about six weeks early. However, I didn’t realize it was right next to the Woody Guthrie Center. Of course, as soon as I walked into the building, I knew it was meant to be, I loved it. There was a young man sitting behind the desk, playing a guitar and working on a song he was writing. I watched the movie about the influence Woody had on many of today’s artists including Bruce Springsteen. I loved the reproductions of his handwritten lyrics (he wrote over 3,000 songs) and his visual artwork. Then, the young man I had seen playing the guitar asked me if I wanted to experience the Dust Bowl virtual reality. I sat down in a wooden chair placed on an old wooden porch and put on the headset. Wow! I saw jackrabbits running under the porch to get away from the oncoming dust storm. I saw birds flying by and then some falling to the ground as their wings were overcome with the weight of the dust. I saw a huge dark cloud approaching and then totally wiping out any light from the sun. I’ve only seen pictures about the Dust Bowl, but this experience brought a whole new level of compassion for those who lived it, and for Woody’s songs of inspiration and hope.
“One day we’ll all find out that all of our songs was just little notes in a great big song!”
It also brought a renewed sense of gratitude for the work I have chosen — to entertain people with a song and to offer something that brings a moment of joy, a smile, and a little relief from the unnerving news we hear every day. I can’t undo the damage of the Dust Bowl. I can’t fix the mess in Ukraine. I can’t solve anybody else’s problems. But, I can play a song for people to sing along, tap their foot, dance, or just listen.
The people I see around me. The people whose works I see in the museums, in the coffee shops, and everywhere I look. They are all sharing their gifts with the world, making it more beautiful, kinder, and softer. For that, I am grateful.
