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I am here in Tulsa OK for e week working on a very nice August Forrester Grand for a wonderful family.

From here I drive to the Dallas TX area for a bit more work on a Steinway B.

Considering the snow in Boston ... this is a very welcome trip. As I look out the window, I see no snow at all. The little we received last night has all but disappeared.

Back in Boston, well, you have all seen the news.

I have a couple of days in between clients and I plan on a leisurely drive south.

Anything interesting between Tulsa and Dallas?

Except for snow !!

Enjoy the trip Larry.

As far as I know the most plentiful thing between Tulsa and Dallas is roadway. You could stop into Oklahoma City on your way and there have to be a few music shops as well.

Larry:

I once drove from Oklahoma City to Houston and found it a pleasant but not too interesting experience. The one important distraction was that I was driving a vintage Thunderbird from the mid '50s - ivory colour with red and white interior and that distinctive round window in the removable hard top.

When I lived in Texas, I developed a taste for the local cuisine: fried okra, cheese grits in a casserole, chicken fried steak and ice tea - a combination that would gag most East coast types.

I enjoy Texas and Texans VERY much.

Tell us more about the AF. What size, vintage, etc. Is the owner a pianist ? If so, why was it chosen ? I've always liked their sound but find the accidentals uncomfortably narrow with sharp edges.

Karl Watson,
Staten Island

Tulsa is known for an active live music scene; there should be a local independent newspaper that lists the highlights for that week's issue.

Hi Larry:

My mother was from Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle. I still remember visiting Palo Duro Canyon State Park as kid long ago. Really spectacular. http://www.palodurocanyon.com/ Worth a visit.

Will

Larry:

I have made that drive dozens of times.

I grew up in St Louis and went to college in Denton, TX

The only thing I can recommend is that, as you near Dallas that you swing slightly to the West and visit my alma mater - now called the University of North Texas - in Denton

It is the second largest music school in the USA with about 1,800 music majors. I happen to know that they have about 400 pianos on campus, and the staff would probably be most welcoming to a fellow tech.

Here is a video of the UNT 1 O'Clock Lab Band performing recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgPahSNn4U4

Have fun in Texas.

Karl,

It is an August Forrester 170 with a Piano Disc in it. It is a very sweet piano with a strong fundamental tone for it's size. I like that is able to be resonant in an interesting way without over playing it. It does not want to be a "concerto" type if an instrument, not that it cant be played loudly, just that it seems to develop early and sacrifices at the more fff levels a bit.

It is nice in the living room.

Curious as to what others have found?

We're being hammered with snow. I just shoveled about six inches off the driveway and sidewalks, and it's still falling! I'd much rather be down where you are right now! Anyway, Dallas is a big city--there must be some things of interest going on there.

Karl, I made a few cross-country trips when I was younger, but never in a classic car like that! I'm officially jealous. I've always daydreamed about a road-trip on the old Route 66, especially in some sort of classic convertible!

And my dad retired to Georgia when I was a teen! It was culture shock initially (we'd just moved back from Germany), but I learned to love the food, people, slow pace, etc. Finished high school and college in Georgia, and lived in Atlanta for several years before going to work in Switzerland for a while. Anyway, I love southern cooking (although I don't eat as much of it these days, but okra is one thing I never developed a taste for.

So were you the kid in the suspender shorts by the blue '59 Desoto at the scenic overlook? ;-) I spent lots of time there as a kid in the late '50s, early '60s, too, having spent the first 7 years of life in Amarillo right by the Pantex Plant absorbing all that radiation.

Since it's Texas, which is a "whole 'nother country" (and proud of it) Palo Duro is half the distance of a large European country away from I-35 and the OKC to Houston route.

I made that trip from OKC to Houston just six months ago for a funeral. I'd lived in the metro-OKC area for 35 years but been away for 10. I thought I'd stop and visit all my old haunts. My first stop was going to be a visit with an old friend who dealt in Jaguar & Rolls, with an ulterior motive of using his executive washroom. When I got to the highway junction where his dealership had been, there was now a humongous Native American casino. Then the place where I had lunch nearly daily was a different building with a different menu, though still a restaurant. Every other place I used to frequent had changed as well. (Even the cemetery where 5 generations of my family are buried had been moved a quarter mile north from where it had when I got there!)

Stopped to see my old house of 30 years and found it's now the color I'd always insisted to the Historical Commission that it *should* be, but which they'd always nixed. At least it and my favorite neighbors were still there so I hadn't wandered into an alternate universe.

There'd only been one place I ever suggested people stop passing through that way--an old cafe established around 1910 by the trainstation that'd evolved into a great micro-brewpub where I spent every Friday evening for more than 30 years, having two glasses of the best stout ever over a good dinner. But it burned to the ground four weeks ago, so I'm left with no recommendations for stops.

If you want to see the remains of the oldest mountain range in North America, without getting much off the Interstate, the Arbuckle Mountains just north of the Oklahoma-Texas border are quite beautiful. Of course, being the oldest, they're the most worn down and smallest still called "mountains". But what I find so beautiful about that area is all the craggy layers of exposed and upheaved ancient rock along the faultline where the mountains once stood. The scenic turnout is right off the highway so it adds very little time to the trip to drive through and see some of the oldest geological features on the continent. Even if you skip the turnout, you get several miles through the cut that was made for the interstate in the mountains. I've always wanted to build my last ultimate house there.

Palo Duro is beautiful, but I doubt you'd want to drive that far, especially across the desolate high plains between you and it, to see it. Heck, I wanted to see it again after all these years and even I didn't want to drive the mere 50 miles south of the interstate across yet more high plains after driving from LA and through Amarillo.

Fort Worth has several fine art galleries and San Antonio is well worth a stop for some lovely old hotels/restaurants. Houston? Most people don't like to drive around it because of the traffic on the loops. My view is the only way to do Houston is to stay on those loops and drive *around* it. (My sister lived there for many years and she loved it, so what do I know? We still argue that point.)

It's good big country and good people out here but if you stay along the interstate corridor it won't look much different near any metro area from the interstate in LA, except there won't be palm trees and all the interesting bits will be some hours off the main go and taken for granted by the locals such that they won't even be marked.

Just don't eat at that hamburger stand 40 miles from nowhere in the Arbuckles unless you've got a colonoscopy scheduled the next day.

I hope you enjoy your visit.

I thought I would be leaving the cold and snow of Boston for 70 degrees and comfy ... but no such luck.

Yesterday just on the warning of a little snow, school was cancelled and ... we lost power for an hour and a half. I can see it though, took a ride later that evening and the little bit of freezing rain and snow was dangerous. There is no treatment of the roads in any way and they are very slippery, even for a NE driver.

I'd like to take a warm desert no mans land route to Texas. Put the top down and let the wing blow my hair(what's left of it) around.

Stay away from the wayward hamburgers??? How about gas station sushi?

I just left Oklhahoma on Tuesday from a 10 day visit with my sister. I was delayed three days because flights were cancelled because of weather. Life as we know it pretty much stops down there at even the idea of snow. Though, ice is nasty. They have no equipment to treat roads. So, the roads are actually way worse than we would tolerate up here. Luckily, the sun comes out soon and melts it all away.

Gas station sushi is OK, Larry. As long as they have fresh wasabi in the condiment pump.

I never wore suspenders - that wasn't me. The car was a '51 Mercury woodie, but it wasn't there because we took the train from Maryland to Texas.

My grandfather ran the only funeral home in Amarillo during the depression, and buried a lot of folks for free. That was part of the dustbowl back then too, and my mother told me it was so bad at times that she couldn't see the garage from the back porch - a distance of about 15 feet.

I really like Texans, but they are a different species and damn proud of it. And Texas lies make even Paul Bunyan seem small.

So what you are saying is that Palo Duro Canyon is at a "Are we still in Texas?". distance from I-35?

CHickGrand,

Likely I will explore the back roads on my way down. I have most of the day to drive what it otherwise a 3 hour drive. Why rush. I'll look into the routs you mentioned.

Rich, Sushi from a gas station, seems questionable, but, if the wasabe is green enough, what the heck!

William, I'll see where the Palo Duro Canyon is, canyons are a favorite of mine. I did bring my god camera.

I hear the Mass Cape Cos was ht hard with snow. I am looking out the window here in Tulsa, and, NO snow, 56 degrees. Not a heat wave but I will certainly take it.

I have to say, this August Forester is a sweet small grand. In a living room setting it has a beautiful resonance.

I don't really play so it is fortunate it has a Piano Disk system in it. I have made a few adjustments to the player and wow .... pretty good listening experience !! Especially with a freshly regulated, voiced and tuned piano !!

The snow is almost completely gone from the roads in Dallas this afternoon so you should have no trouble driving around once you get here.

Larry, one thing you might consider is a stop at Two Frogs Grill in Admire Ok. Admire is on the Interstate and Two Frogs is just off the Interstate. The atmosphere is funky and friendly and there's good cajun food. We always plan a stop there when travelling south.

Ardmore.

I looked at the Palo Duro Canyon, wow, beautiful !

Unfortunately, much too far put of the way for this trip.

William and others. thank you for pointing that out.