NYC Markets revisited, episode 1. In which I am Mother Nature's fool.

There is a universally valuable lesson to be learned throughout John Steinbeck's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, and that is one of the reasons I enjoyed sharing it with students year after year when I was a classroom teacher.  Aside from its brevity and beautifully minimalist writing (without a compulsive need for parenthetical asides), and the powerfully poignant friendship between disillusioned men in search of the elusive American dream, that final chapter sure packs a dramatic wallop.  Before digging into George and Lennie's tale, we'd prepare by looking at Robert Burns' poem (from which the title is derived) and sharing examples of our own personal plans that didn't quite get off the ground or that simply crashed and burned.

Our latest Spring Break plans would have been a perfect example to share with my students, especially since, as you may have heard, I'm a planner.  I plan trips months, even years, in advance.  I like to purchase plane tickets and select seats six months in advance so I can choose the most direct routes at the best times and travel in the most comfortable manner possible (budget willing, of course).  Over the years and miles there have been last-minute changes, as any traveler knows, that are out of my personal control. That's where travel gets difficult for me.

"Out of my control" is not something I like to hear or experience (or even type), but s--- happens.  That would be snow, of course.  The date of my latest best laid schemes?  The day I had prepared for and planned for months and months in advance?  Well, Winter Storm Stella had other plans for March 14, 2017. Sometimes I just need a gentle reminder that you can't outwit, outlast, or outplay Mother Nature.  That might be why I stopped watching Survivor after a few seasons.

By the way, I always picture Dena Dietrich from the 1970s Chiffon margarine commercials when I think of Mother Nature, don't you?

Maybe it is my age--no longer "gulp, fifty" but just "fifty" now--but I have kind of learned to go with the flow. Sometimes, there really is nothing you can do no matter how well you have prepared in advance.

Mari managed to snap that photo of me with the aptly-named Patience the lion after we finally arrived in my favorite city 48 hours later than obsessively planned.

I look pretty calm considering we missed our performance of Hamilton.

Mari and I learned an important lesson during one of our first visits to NYC together back in 2005.  NEVER buy theater tickets for the day of arrival.  That lesson involved a combination of flight delays (neither Dena Dietrich nor margarine were involved) that had us rushing into the Longacre Theatre just as the lights dimmed to see a glorious Kathleen Turner begin laying into her beleaguered husband (Bill Irwin, Tony winner for this role) in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  One of my favorite theater experiences almost didn't happen because I tried to squeeze one more show into our weekend, thinking that eight hours would be plenty of time to get us from LaGuardia to the City.

This time it was Hamilton.  The tickets I purchased ten months in advance for the carefully-selected day after our scheduled arrival were waiting for me at the box office.  Stella had other plans and cancelled flight after cancelled flight landed us in New York on Thursday afternoon, the day after Wednesday night's performance.  Thankfully, a good Samaritan and former student of Mari's who is living and working in the City was able to repurpose our tickets, but it will be another while before we have a chance to enjoy

Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical history lesson.

Another travel lesson learned and confirmed, we were finally safely entrenched in the exuberantly wintry-wet streets of a favorite city, favorite fleamarkets still on the weekend horizon.  We take a frosty dip into weekend fleas and I share what has become another beloved (library-themed!) favorite next time.

nypl.org

In the meantime, be sure to check the New York Public Library's thoroughly informative and beautifully laid out site.  Scroll down to the bottom and click on the "Plan Your Visit" link before you hit the city sidewalks (snowy or otherwise) yourself.

Dallas, episode 4. In which we go back to the future.

As a kid growing up in Tarrytown, New York, barbecue meant hot dogs and hamburgers.  Occasionally it meant grilled chicken or steak, bottled BBQ sauce on the side because Dad never let such things gunk up the grill.  Mom was always prepared with her foodie-before-foodie-was-cool version of compound butter which involved my going out to her herb garden and trying to figure out which of the multitudes was parsley. Today, living in Texas, barbecue has taken on a whole new temptalicious (still trying it out--I think I like it) interpretation.  In fact, the Texas citizenship test for those of us hailing from New York clearly identifies beef brisket as synonymous with barbecue, so pardon if I ever assume everyone is on the same delicious page.

While there is no official Texas Citizenship Exam, there is a rather embarrassing road test (parallel parking included) in addition to the written exam for those of us who let lapse their out-of-state driver's licenses.

After our meanderings with Monet, Mari and I had a chance to sample some of the local Fort Worth BBQ culture as well.  A quick search of the Food Network app gave me a few dining options in the area of the Kimbell Art Museum, but barbecue is never optional (it's required eating) so we happily set our sights and rumbly tummies on Angelo's BBQ, only about a mile away from the Kimbell.

Visit the Texas-friendly site to be temptaliciously (see, it's an adverb now) tantalized.

angelosbbq.com

Chalk up another episode of Bobby Flay's Food Nation for helping us find this local gem which has been in business nearly 60 years for good reason.  Mari and I ordered our "usual" which is sliced brisket and smoked sausage.  Usually we like to share sides so we can have a sampling of everything, but at Angelo's you get everything (beans, potato salad, slaw) with your BBQ plate.  Great concept, great service, great food, and great company (as usual, when I am breaking barbecue with Mari).

Angelo's brisket quickly replaced Austin's beloved Franklin BBQ as my favorite; a very close third belongs to the culinary smoky stylings of my brother-in-law, Aaron.

Itself only a few miles from our third and final Fort Worth stop for the day, the Fort Worth Water Gardens, Angelo's helped complete a perfect triangle of history, culture, and local nourishment on our travel map (it's actually more of a less-poetic rhombus if you take into account a few one-way streets, but you get the idea).

A longtime science-fiction fan(atic), my earliest film foray into those other (future) worlds was Logan's Run.  I am forever and eternally grateful that the non-creative imagination of current film studios has not ventured to ruin the memory of the 1976 film with a remake.  I'm all for a reboot, like the new Dallas series, and the new Bond and Star Trek film series, but don't remake a classic without a good reason (or script), okay?

The climax of Logan's Run occurs when Michael York's Logan finds sanctuary.  (Apologies, but I didn't think I needed a spoiler alert after 40 years.)  The futuristic sanctuary setting was filmed at the (then) newly completed (1974) Fort Worth Water Gardens.

Visit the site to plan your own futuristic visit.

fortworth.com/things-to-do/attractions/fort-worth-water-gardens

The imagery of that final scene with its symbolically freely-flowing fountains of water forever remained with me and has been on a mental travel list ever since.  Mari and I were happy to see so many families enjoying the beautiful afternoon together in such a special setting.  As I watched the kids wandering up and down those steps and throughout the park, I wondered how few of them had enjoyed (or even heard of) one of my favorite films.

It didn't really seem to matter (except perhaps to nostalgically sentimental tourists).

I hope you enjoyed this quick DFW visit.  I look forward to our next new-old journey together.

Programming note:  SecondhandTravels will be off air and off the grid next week while its host celebrates that great educational tradition called Spring Break.  A few updates and revisits to some old favorites next time.

Dallas, episode 3. In which I confess a crush.

I was in the 6th grade when I had my first Dallas experience. In New York.  Like my previously-confessed Northern Exposure fantasy, Dallas was also a TV-inspired living arrangement. Unlike most tween boys at that time (a time when "tween" was still a future mashup), it was not the beautiful and newly married Pamela Barnes Ewing that was the object of my affection.  I am an early member of Team Sue Ellen and was justifiably overwhelmed (and rewarded) with renewed pangs of tween boy crush when Linda Gray reprised her complexly troubled Dallas role in the unfortunately short-lived reboot (2012-2014) of a favorite childhood television series.

Still seductive and sappily soapy, the new series featured cleverly contemporary story lines inspired by the original series' trashy trappings as well as inspired reprisals of their classic roles by the original series' actors.  After all, you can't reboot Dallas without the original television villain you love to hate, J. R. Ewing.

You also can't reboot J. R. without the formidable femme fatale who stood by him all those years (in various states of relationship status and sobriety).  Linda Gray's recent performance as a distraught and freshly off-the-wagon (again) Sue Ellen was appropriately heart wrenching at the time of Larry Hagman's death during filming of the final season.

It was around the time that rumors of a new Dallas series were making their rounds online that Mari and I made a side trip to Southfork during a summer family visit.  Both Dallas fans from way back (from separate childhood states), we were excited to visit the iconic ranch that served as home to the troubled but wildly entertaining TV family as well as revisit our shared memories of a TV favorite.

Here we are looking like we own the place (a favorite pose for us).

I highly recommend a visit to Southfork Ranch if you are ever in the DFW area.  It is located about 30 miles north of the Big D and is open daily for tours and is also available for special events and catered dining events.  

Visit the site to help plan or inspire your own guilty pleasure visit.

southforkranch.com

Mari and I enjoyed an afternoon wandering first around the interior of the house, every room of which was recognizable from the series' original heyday, then lounging on the patio by the pool in the hopes that one of the famous Ewing barbecues would get fired up, and finally moseying around the peaceful working ranch grounds.  There is a gift shop, of course, and yes, there is a EWING-1 Texas license plate hanging in our garage among my small license plate collection.

You knew there had to be a license plate collection somewhere, right?

During our most recent visit to Dallas, we were also finally inspired to explore a little bit of the FW in DFW, something we have never done before this year's holiday visit.  A fortuitously-timed exhibit of early Monet works at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth enticed me into stealing Mari away from her family for a day.

Visit the well-curated site where you can also link to past exhibits like Monet, The Early Years.

kimbellart.org

earlymonet.kimbellart.org

We were so thankful for the opportunity to view this extraordinary collection so close to home (500 miles by Texas standards is pretty dang close) and in such a beautiful setting. Thanks to another couple of art-loving-out-of-towners for snapping our souvenir photo!

An unusually mild Christmas holiday week (with apologies to my Midwest and Northeast friends) lent itself to another filming location visit that sunny Fort Worth day, but first we take a Texas lunch break.

Because our invitation to the Oil Baron's Ball seems to have been lost in the mail.