Embiggened By Texas
Posted on | July 8, 2009 | 2 Comments
Or Towed?
I need to recommend the Holiday Inn Express in Mount Pleasant Texas. You will not find a better hotel room for miles. Really. Which is to say that we are now in Texas. And what did we do first? We went to the Audie Murphy and Cotton Museum in Greeville, Texas of course. Leesy saw the words cotton and museum on a sign by the side of the road and took the next exit. Nothing says Texas like having a single museum dedicated to both cash crops and war heroes. Would you like an authentic Nazi German soldier’s helmet with your cotton gin display? Right this way.
Then we were off to Fort Worth for some museuming. We didn’t stop in Dallas. The point of this trip isn’t to have some kind of big city experience. I didn’t sit in the passenger seat for 1,500 miles so we could see that yes, even below the mason dixon line, the buildings are tall and set close together. I’ll take your word for it. So we headed to Fort Worth to see the Kimball Art Museum by Lou Kahn, the new Fort Worth Modern by Tadao Ando, and the Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum. I’ll put the pictures on flickr later, but the Kimball is a seminal work. I have not been in a lot buildings that are better considered and more honestly made than this one. Simple arches(not so simple actually, all are post-tensioned) span well scaled galleries and a clever system of baffles and skylights allow in just the right amount of bright Texas sun. Also, they let you take pictures inside. How cool is that. Note to NYC museums: please let me take pictures. I’m not trying t make my own glossy art books filled with orangish blurry photos of famous works of art. I promise. The Fort Worth Modern Art Museum was also first rate as architecture and as a museum. Even though the initial scale of the thing is overwhelming(in Texas even the parking lots are e-freaking-normous), there are plenty of moments of intimacy and interaction with well curated exhibitions. Well done Fort Worth.
Before we saw the art however, we ate some of the best tacos anywhere at Paco and John’s Mexican Diner. I didn’t really know where to go in FW and many guides recommended old burger places or some kind of steak or cow themed restaurant but a few people on Chowhound and Yelp really liked this upscale taqueria in a converted gas station. I can’t say enough good things about these tacos. I’ve eaten tacos every meal since then and I still would spend another three hours in a car just to have these again. I’m not sure Leesy would drive me there…again.
Speaking of food, if you are in central Texas, you must stop at the Czech Stop in West,TX on I-35. Texas is apparently filled with Czech and Eastern European enclaves(that’s part of the backstory of great Texas Barbecue) and West has apparently decided to cash in. There’s the Czech Inn, and a Czech festival and a truck stop that serves Kolaches, savory rolls with meat or cheese filling. Like a Chinese bun only, you know, Czech and in Texas. An entire meal in a little sweet roll, they’re great for eating on the road. There are sweet Kolaches as well with jam and cream cheese that we didn’t try and they sold some peanut brittle that you could use to kill a man that we decided against as well.
And now we are in Austin at Caren’s house enjoying for the first time an actual real home, no check out times and the convenience of Mi Madre’s around the corner for breakfast tacos. More posts to follow on Tacos, chillaxing and texas.
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2 Responses to “Embiggened By Texas”
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July 9th, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
Not so simple, you’re not kidding! Discontinuous cycloid vaults is more like it! Let’s see those photos!
July 9th, 2009 @ 9:12 pm
Way to find a more esoteric way of describing it!