Oklahoma! Oklahoma?

In August of 2024, I chose to embrace homelessness. I packed my belongings into a storage closet in NYC and decided that I can be a "citizen of the world". I would travel often, but typically flew between JFK and HND, not really exploring much else of the country or city. This was an opportunity to do so. For my first adventure I decided to go somewhere where many in the coastal cities would react "why?"

Around this time, I started watching Breaking Down – a Japanese youtube channel that gets the local yankees and gets them in a ring for a minute to see who'd win. IG caught onto this and pushed an ad for "Redneck Brawl", Oklahoma City, August 3rd. Good enough for me to send it, but I needed something else to really commit to it. I have a goal to ride every Amtrak train, and there was one route that stood out to me – not a transcontinental route, but one that connects two deep red cities – the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Dallas. That's two reasons to commit, and we'll figure out the rest.

A surprising fact you might not expect about Dallas - Fort worth is that it has a surprisingly strong rail network for a Republican state. You can take a $3 train from the airport to either downtown, and a $10 hour long cross city train with the Trinity Rail Express. As a driving hating individual (and disliking the act of going to the rental car facility), taking each of these were now on my task list. I took the train from the airport to my hotel, trekked a 10 minute walk in the scorching summer Dallas heat, and did my day job like a good wagie.

Sarah Sze is a multimedia artist whose work enamoured me. I forgot where I saw it first – most likely one of the auction houses in NYC. The canvas work compromised of ripped photos and painted paper gives me the sense of dreaming, of how I imagine what the past memories would look like if placed into a physical painting.

The Nasher Sculpture Center had an exhibition about her more sculpture-esque works. The term sculpture is definitely used liberally compared to the marble and bronze statued placed inside and outside of the museum. A multitude of blank pieces of paper tied from ceiling to floor, with a projector shining images onto and around the paper, evoking similar emotions as the canvas work. There's something about art that's larger than life – the sheer scale, engulfing the viewer, thinking of all the folks that collectively brought this work to life for us (for?). But I did like the canvas works better. I wonder why I never made it out to the Guggenheim for her exhibition there.

I departed the museum and headed towards the TRE station - the trains between Dallas and Fort Worth run about every hour or so during the day time, and I had an Amtrak train to catch after this so I would need to make it or pay a $70 uber, gotta love the optionality available here. Honestly not much (in a good way) to say about this train – solid, does the job, a diesel car in front with 3 double decker commuter cars behind it. The design was on point tho, it might be just as good as Salt Lake City's train. The Texas flag with the lone star painted onto the right. A quick hour long ride through the suburbs of Texas brought me to my first main event. (I wonder how packed these trains get for the Cowboys game. I saw that the AT&T stadium wasnt too far away from the train tracks. I'm sure they made it difficult to use it though. What a shame. They should learn a thing or two from 西武球場前.

I read recently that the Heartland Flyer is at risk of disappearing. With limited / no State funding available for public transportation, every few years its on the chopping block with advocates fighting for its survival. You could do the OKC DFW 4 hour drive, or you could sit back, enjoy the scenery across tribal lands, and grab a cold one while watching しかのこのこのここしたんたん、I chose the later. I wonder if anybody else in the world has the same experience as me. The Heartland Flyer is a thrice weekly train, with the train to OKC departing Fort Worth in the afternoon, and the return train departing OKC the next morning. As the train departs Fort Worth station, you’re reminded that Oil & manufacturing is a big part of this region. I came across so many freight trains, grain silos, factories, but soon that gave way to sprawling farms and plains. As we near the Oklahoma border, we enter tribal lands of the Native Americans. Frankly it looked the same as any countryside – it wasnt as scenic or striking as the tribal lands further out west, but the history engraved here is different, a trail of tears.

I recall a beautiful sunset while aboard this train. Thinking about the sunsets I view from Long Island City, watching the sun set over the skyscrapers of Manhattan. It felt weird knowing my time there was coming to an end, that each sunset is one sunset less for me. I also felt connected, that this was the same country, that this was the same sun we're both seeing. More people should travel off the beaten path. The stars we're shining.

Bricktown OKC was a neat neighborhood - definitely got some of that gentrification money spilling in, surrounding the old drinking neighborhood in the city. I saw a horse and a cowboy walking around. Apparently its not drunk driving since the horse is sober. I took my daily walk along the canal to the river and back, and hopped into my (unfortunately) uber and headed to the Oklahoma Railway Museum. This place allows you to operate a diesel locomotive on a section of their tracks - neat! I tried to do something similar in Japan at 碓氷峠鉄道文化むら (Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park), but its limited to like 5 people per month, and you know there's a lot more folks who love trains in Japan than the States so competition was tough.

When I checked in for my train ride, the lady at the counter was surprised to hear I flew all the way from NYC for this. I would be too – but she shared she used to live in the city as well, and took special care for me. Susie said after the ride I'd have a surprise awaiting, and I felt the warm Southern hospitality people always talk about. The train I rode was the MKT 48 - a former diesel locomotive that used to operate on the Missouri Kansas Texas railroad. In fact, some of the rail that the Oklahoma Railway Museum is on & maintains used to be from this company - the mainline got acquired by Union Pacific.

The train ride lasted a good 30 minutes. There was roughly a mile long track that we'd go to the end and come back. It had a couple of road crossings too, where Museum staff would be on site to ensure that I wouldn't hit a car. The operations of the train was fairly straight forward. I believe Bill was the conductor's name who was there to teach me the ways. There'd be one handle on the left for the break, and another for the throttle. Each was controlled hydraulically and you'd have the various pressure gauges in front of you. I never thought about this, but these locomotives (diesel and steam) are designed so that the operator can see what's ahead in both directions. I'd sit in my seat, look to the right to have a clear sight of what's in front of me, and when going in reverse the same would apply if I'm going to the left. The slightest of the uphill would really slow you down. Granted, I wasn't going fast – maybe like 10miles per hour. But at times I'd think I'm rolling flat but Bill'd let me know you're actually on a uphill segment so I'd need to adjust the throttle accordingly.

When crossing tracks, its the train's responsibility to honk the horn. You give two quick honks as you approach the crossing, and you give one long one until you've completely crossed the road. When taking my cross country Amtrak ride, I was awoken up multiple times at night cause of these honks. Now I know why they had to do it.

Bill couldn't care less about my Ai Pin. I mean I loved it – it gave me all these sick hands free shots that I was able to capture. Maybe that was a sign. Or I'm thinking too much. This was such a weird time to be working there. I'll cherish that experience, but that's for another time to discuss.

I returned back from the ride, and Susie told me that there's a train ride later in the day that I could hop on. One of the former staff members is coming back and they're sitting in the inspection car and they'd squeeze me in. I wonder how she knew I loved trains. I spent the next 2 hours walking around the museum, taking all the photos of the stock cars they have - mostly diesel, some steam – and toured the model train car, a train car with a diorama build inside of it.

The inspection car used to be used by railroad executives when they would tour their routes & facilities. So the former member told me. He was there with his family, his grandchildren, and still took the time to talk to this 29 year old single Asian guy from NYC. I'm thankful for making me feel present. The best seat in the train is always the one that you can either look out in front of the train or to the back of the train. This inspection car had a sheet of glass and was attached on to the very back of the train, so this was primo. I even got to see a locomotive painted with the letters "PanAm Railways" - I thought they only did airlines but TIL.

What a great time at the museum. They're planning an expansion in the coming years, so I hope I can visit it again. Nearby there was a World War II museum dedicated to the veterans of Oklahoma who fought in the war. I saw a mirror that was hung in Hitler's bedroom in Berlin. Mirror mirror what did you see?

I returned back to Bricktown, took a little rest, and headed to my main event of the trip – Redneck Brawl. The theme was Oklahoma vs Texas, quite fitting for my journey. As I got closer to the stadium the redneck energy kept on increasing. Really, why was I there lol. I felt just as out of place there as I do in bushwick, except that the mullets and the outfits were kinda similar. The event started off with the US anthem, and you guessed it, a prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we pray for our fighters tonight. I wonder what authentic American culture is, and frankly I feel like this is it. Its not whatever is in the coastal cities, but this feels the most American coming from a background thats based outside of America. The irony.

A few moments stood out to me. - Lets not forget that these arent professionals. They're just rednecks. Within the first 30 seconds one guy took a punch to the face and chose to walk away – the booing from the redneck crowd was quite brutal. - I saw a guy with a Steelers shirt in the crowd. Pittsburgh isnt a short ride away. Stillrs gonna win the suparbowl. - A fighter from Texas with the ring name "messiah" was introduced. That's a bold move in this part of the country. Boos & more ensued. He won. The crowd did not like that. The ring girls looked trashy af. I mean what else would you expect. I followed one of them on instagram - the occupation was what you'd expect. Shes a hardworking mom of two tho no disrespect there. - There were some good fights tho. Just fist for fist, no backing down. No way I could do it, and neither could most of the audience. After about 20 matches tho I decided that I had enough and headed back to my hotel to rest up before my early morning train ride. Good $30 worth of entertainment.

On my return train back into Texas, I thought to myself about side quests. This was definitely a side quest, but isn't the fun in life mostly from side quests? Maybe if I had more friends and more responsibility I wouldn't have time for it, and hence the whys, but for the time being I enjoyed it, and there really isn't more to it than that. Back in Fort Worth as I waited for the bus, I came across the location where JFK gave his last speech. A memorial was there in place. A tragedy, over 50 years ago, still people talk and conspire over to find a deeper meaning. The world is much more random than not and randomness is meaningless. A conspiracy theorist died and went to heaven, when God told him he can ask any question and he'll answer it, he asked who killed JFK. God told the man that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who shot JFK. The conspiracy theorist responds, wow, this goes higher than I thought.

I believe the Fort Worth Stockyards used to be a functioning stockyard where cattle traded hands. Now they sell $500 designer cowboy boots, $10 Fort Worth tee shirts and have a daily rodeo show. I really wanted to see the Longhorns up close. They've got a daily cattle walk where they guide the cows through the main street. Touristy yes, magnificent creatures also yes. I've seen them from far away when I've previously visited Texas, but it was very neat to see them up close as well.

To wrap up my trip I took the train back into Dallas to grab a bite at Terry Blacks BBQ. Now unfortunately the TRE - the cross town train - doesn't run on, you guessed it, Sundays. So instead I took the two regional rails that connect Fort Worth and Dallas respectively to DFW airport, and had a little detour to get over to Terry Blacks. Still, I've only used Ubers when out in OKC. The public transit network in Dallas-Fort Worth is really impressive, and its again a little side quest to get around only using public transportation in Texas out of all places. I didn't get a picture of the BBQ itself, but I've had it before in Austin and their brisket is to die for. I'm glad I got to experience it here again.

I returned to my hotel, took one last afternoon walk where the phrase "everything is bigger in Texas" rang extremely true – even their rats. I knew NYC had big rats, but these "nutrias", are basically mini capibaras. Wild that they're just roaming around a park. Also wild that the Las Colinas neighborhood in Dallas is pretty much an Indian neighborhood. There's a "Mahatma Gandhi" statue in the park. Huh. The Indian restaurants nearby were pretty solid as a result.

I took the first train from the hotel to DFW at 4:00am, to make my 5am flight, to land at EWR at 9:30am, to get to my NYC office by 10:45am. I'm back in a hotel in NYC until Thursday, where I go onto my next side quest.