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Oklahoma — Cherokee Nation

Oklahoma — Cherokee Nation

“I really think the creative process is more exciting than ever. There are more and more people doing great work.”
-Ron Howard

Oklahoma. Cherokee Nation.

The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated from the Southeast due to increasing pressure to Indian Territory and Cherokee who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears.

The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen and Natchez Nation. Over 299,862 people are enrolled in the Cherokee Nation, with 189,228 living within the state of Oklahoma. According to Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) head Larry EchoHawk, the Cherokee Nation is not the historical Cherokee tribe but instead a “successor in interest.”[1]

Headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation has a tribal jurisdictional area spanning 14 counties in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma. These are Adair, Cherokee, Craig, Delaware, Mayes, McIntosh, Muskogee, Nowata, Ottawa, Rogers, Sequoyah, Tulsa, Wagoner, and Washington Counties.

{ from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_Nation }

Like Arkansas, Oklahoma was also a wonderful state to drive through. A lot of beautiful trees as well but not as packed together. Oklahoma started to remind me of driving through Virginia and North Carolina. Two lane highways going opposite ways separated by beautiful patches of green vegetation.

Oklahoma freeway

We stopped at the Lockhart Welcome Center along the freeway and I told one of the ladies at the reception desk about my adventure. Her older counterpart next to her startled us with, “Wow!”. I’ve heard this reaction before but she was an older lady and to be honest, I’ve started to expect that younger folks or individuals my age would be startled at what I am doing but I guess that reaction is across the board.

After giving us a brief history lesson about the Cherokee Nation, the receptionist pulled out a map of the United States and I showed her the routes I’ve already traveled and where I plan to go. She was impressed and wished me luck on my adventure.IMG_0427

And so, off we went, on over to Texas.

 

 

 

 

 

Woo hoo! Comedy, burgers and skylines, here we come!

Arkansas. Trees. Trees. Trees.

Arkansas. Trees. Trees. Trees.

“I’ve been married five times, and people think that’s some bizarre thing, yet I’ve got buddies who refuse to get married and have sex with 15 people a week. I’m like, “Which is better?” At least I was trying.”
-Billy Bob Thornton

There are a lot of trees in Arkansas. When I think of trees, I think of oxygen. I think of a clear mind. I think of growing up in the Caribbean and playing in them. Sleeping in them. Climbing them. Eating food from them. Trees are peaceful havens. They’re beautiful. They help you to live and provide safety and shelter, depending on the circumstances.

Although we didn’t spend much time in Arkansas, trees were one of the first things I noticed while driving along the freeway. I couldn’t help but also think of all the real estate construction in Los Angeles and how they could improve the air quality by planting a few hundred trees for every ridiculous business high-rise or money hungry condo going vertical.

Patrick and I got a lot of time to chit chat in the car while sneaking on over to Oklahoma. We had a comedy show in Dallas on Friday night and we needed to head South through Missouri, literally tag Arkansas, “You’re it!”, head East into Oklahoma and then southwest to Dallas. 8 hour trip.

During the drive, Patrick and I talked about the philosophical ideas behind my trip: “Where is Steve?”. My concept behind the name is to stay in the moment. Yes, I may have to drive 6000 miles or more in total over 6 weeks but “Where is Steve?” in the moment? Where is he, right now? How does he feel? And what is he doing to stay in the moment?

My #1 goal for this trip has been to stay in the moment. To breathe the current air of the place I am inhabiting. To study the vegetation that surrounds me. To pay attention to how the roads differ. To look at the cloud formations that are close to me and the ones in the distance. To pay attention to weather patterns. To talk to people. To break the ice. To engage with people. To make people laugh. To engage with animals. To listen to the voices around me and how different people sound as I make my way across America’s beautiful terrain.Welcome to Arkansas

Patrick’s take on the adventure was more personal. Where was he in his current life and where does he want to go? Where does he see himself during the current time, the rest of the year and a few years out. Patrick loves his current life which is consumed by his wife, dog, job, comedy and future family plans. As he spoke about his plans for his family, it was great to hear the PASSION with which he talked about them. Patrick is a good man. So many folks could learn from him and in time, they will.

I grabbed a concept and ran with it and that’s why I’m driving across the country. But so far, it seems to have affected others in a way I never expected and I can hear that when I converse with Patrick. If this helps him push even harder to be a better comedian, husband and person in life, then I’m happy for that. Just knowing that, has already made me want to push even harder as well. We are in this together. We all are, philosophically speaking.

What a beautiful drive.

S/O to Bill Clinton! The first black President. We love you buddy.

Kansas City and Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque

Kansas City and Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque

“I think we should all be more concerned about the environment and the effects of global warming. It will be pointless to talk about all the issues that divide us when it’s 300 degrees outside.”
-Don Cheadle

We didn’t spend much time in Kansas City. Only one night. But what a beautiful, quaint and quiet city.

There’s always someone running with their dog, a cute-looking girl in the distance and a river or lake staring you in the face somewhere.

I remember my boss telling me that when he comes to Kansas City, the BBQ is always delicious so I asked for a recommendation. He said: “Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque. Burnt Ends. BBQ Beans and Coleslaw”.

Patrick got the burnt ends, coleslaw and potato salad and I got the chicken with baked beans. We tried each other’s food and man, everything was delicious! My baked beans were SO GOOD!!

If you are ever in Kansas City, Missouri, check out Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque spot. Hey, even President Obama came here and loved it.

Steve @ Arthur Bryant's Barbeque
Delicious!

Before retiring back to our hotel room, I got a professional deep tissue massage at a Massage Envy franchise in the area. It was great and I was due for about 3 states. I promised myself that on this journey, I would try to get a professional massage every 3 or 4 states.

COOL NOTE: The massage spot was located on State Line Rd so it was pretty cool to keep going back and forth between Kansas and Missouri in less than 3 minutes.

Massage Envy on State Line Rd, which separates Kansas and Missouri.
Massage Envy on State Line Rd, which separates Kansas and Missouri.

Tomorrow, we are off to Oklahoma in the middle of the day and then doing a comedy show near Dallas, TX in the evening.

Onward.

We are definitely in Kansas.

We are definitely in Kansas.

“There are moments that I’ve had some real brilliance, you know. But I think they are moments. And sometimes, in a career, moments are enough. I never felt I played the great part. I never felt that I directed the great movie. And I can’t say that it’s anybody’s fault but my own.”
-Dennis Hopper

WELCOME TO KANSAS: THE SUNFLOWER STATE

My buddy and I took turns driving across the state of KANSAS end to end, from the west side to the east. If you like randomly placed billboards, pretty cloud formations and falling asleep at the wheel, quickly drop your life and move to this super flat state. I promise that, if anything, you’ll have many stories to tell … or just ONE, LONG, BORING STORY.

According to my buddy Patrick: “If you’ve seen any of Kansas, you’ve seen all of Kansas.”

I hadn’t seen Patrick in about 5 years. He moved from Los Angeles to Dallas to be with the love of his life and continue pursuing a career in comedy. It’s been great catching up with a great friend and when you do drop your life and move to Kansas, make sure to take someone with you who can make you laugh out loud. We had a ball cracking jokes, sharing where we were in our lives and what we want to do in the future.

We both agreed that we both just wanted to get out of the flat countryside in the immediate future.

One thing I did notice about The Sunflower State were randomly placed billboards along the freeway for no reason at all. I mean, are these billboards going to change the world somehow? And who paid for them?

Two of my favorites are listed below.

“JESUS IS REAL”

“Adoption
not
Abortion”

Really? Just keep the McDonald’s billboards up please.

Despite the boring drive, Kansas did have some beautiful foliage along the 70 freeway. Check out my gallery below.

Oh one last thing. This picture. Patrick said that ‘Tonganoxie’ translates to: “Buffalo Dick Kansas”.
Hahahaha!!

I want this address!
I want this address!
The Rockies. Denver. Comedy.

The Rockies. Denver. Comedy.

“The greatest missile in the world is useless … unless it’s targeted. A torpedo is adrift unless it has someplace to go. An arrow is pointless unless it hits something. So it’s important for kids–for everyone, even if you fail at first–to target something and head in that direction. With all your might.”
-Tim Allen

If you ever get a chance, drive through The Rockies of Colorado. The trees. The mountains. The clouds. The rain. The feeling of nature moving along with your winding drives. Peace. Quiet.

It’s majestic.

I must’ve seen 2 million different species of trees. They just all looked different. And to top it off, Mother Nature decided to show off and sneak some waterfalls along my drive and sprinkled some water from the sky on my dirty car, along with blowing some mist over the roadways. Whaaat?! So cool.

I kept thinking to myself: Southern California needs to borrow 2 million trees from Southern Colorado. How clean must the air be in this state? Gosh.

Driving into Denver
Driving into Denver. Still a few hours out.

Once in the city of Denver, I met up with my buddies Dean Delray and Patrick Puckett. Dean, a headlining comedian from Los Angeles, who travels all over the country, let me perform a couple shows with him while in town. One at Comedy Works Denver and another at this late night place called The Great Pile.

Patrick is a traveling comedian buddy of mine from Dallas, Texas and along with Dean, we all started comedy around the same time 6 or so years ago in Los Angeles. I flew him up to Denver and he is going to help me navigate the next 5 states. How cool is that?

I must quickly mention that it was a pleasant surprise to see another Los Angeles comedian on the Comedy Works show: Bronston Jones. Bronston also travels doing comedy and has a crazy fun room called The Venice Underground in Venice, CA. If you are ever in the area on a Wednesday night, check it out. Bronston is super nice and quite adventurous so we are always sharing travel and/or activity stories.

The Wednesday night show at The Comedy Works was on fire! I had a great set and the night as a whole, was amazing. I am very thankful for friends like Dean, Patrick and Bronston. Think about it — I set out on this exciting 6-week journey across the country and got to hang out with 3 cool comedy buddies in Denver, Colorado AND perform standup at TWO SHOWS!

#THANKFUL

Having fun at Denver's Comedy Works.
Having fun at Denver’s Comedy Works.

I love performing standup comedy and this was certainly a perfect way to end my Colorado visit. I made some new fans along the way. They were all curious about my journey through this vast land we call America. Hopefully, they will join in on the fun and learn some things along the way.

If you are reading this and will be in Denver this week, go see Dean Delray at The Comedy Works. He will be there all week until Saturday night. His shows are always fire. Dean works very hard on his craft and hardly ever has a bad show. Tell him I sent you.

Well … it’s late, I’m super tired and my journey continues tomorrow so goodnight. Enjoy some more pics from the Colorado drive.

Shiprock New Mexico! Sounds like Shitrock.

Shiprock New Mexico! Sounds like Shitrock.

“I have always been a fan of that immersive theatre idea that there is some kind of puzzle unfolding, and that things are happening around you without you knowing it.”
-Neil Patrick Harris

WELCOME TO NEW MEXICO: THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT

So, while leaving the state of Arizona, which seemed like FOR…EVER, it started raining hail drops and I could see lightning activity to my right. I called them hail drops because they looked like 4 times the size of regular raindrops.

Let’s get things straight very quickly. I was scared. Very scared. But not because of lightning. Mainly because the films of water on the freeway just seemed like hyrdoplaning disasters waiting to happen. I only felt my car hydroplane once, very briefly, so I virtually patted myself on the back for remembering the rules for driving in the rain: SLOW DOWN and DON’T SWERVE ALL OVER THE PLACE! (these are the kinds of things you learn growing up in Philly)

Check it out.

Lightning Storm in Arizona.
Lightning Storm in Arizona.

After finally arriving in Shiprock, New Mexico, I spoke to a Navajo man who told me about the “four corners” I had missed the opportunity to experience 30 miles back. Basically, there was a nice piece of land I could stand on and be in 4 different states at the same time (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado). I was not about to drive back 30 miles when I had a 7-hour trek ahead of me to Denver. Just the thought of it at the time made me want to fly home (to California) and go to sleep.

But alas! I stayed.

And as a result, I noticed that New Mexico, like Arizona and Utah, had some sweet rock formations as well.

Rock formation in New Mexico -- Noir filter added.
Rock formation in New Mexico — Noir filter added.

Many of these particular rock formations looked a lot alike. I don’t think Mother Nature gets enough credit sometimes for the things she manages to do.

I included a picture of a rock formation here and applied the NOIR filter for extra added creepiness. Click on it to see a bigger version.

In conclusion (maybe), Shiprock, New Mexico seems to be home to Natives who love two things: jewelry and KFC. I saw a few jewelry stands and their sellers on the side of the road and noticed two KFCs in town, one of which, I decided to pop into and have some lunch.

BAD IDEA!

If you ever go, don’t eat there. For the next 7 hours, my stomach kept asking me if I was going to end up like Harry in Dumb and Dumber.

I didn’t but man, I was worried about it for too long.

Thanks a lot New Mexico!

Until next time?

By the way, what’s that BIG POINTY LOOKING ROCK THING in the distance?conan-grace jones

 

 

 

 

Upon closer inspection, it looked like the castle from Conan The Destroyer.

Big Rock in New Mexico

Grand Canyon Arizona

Grand Canyon Arizona

“You’re only human. You live once and life is wonderful, so eat the red velvet cupcake.”
-Emma Stone

WELCOME TO ARIZONA: THE GRAND CANYON STATE

Arizona is one of the most beautiful and dangerous places I have ever seen in my life. While driving through the state, all I could think about was the ocean. I felt like if we ever saw what the ocean looked like without water covering it, it would look close to Arizona. Sprawling vistas. Amazing scenery. Mysterious looking vegetation. And of course, the Grand Canyon itself, which looks beautiful, massive, deep and scary.

I actually went and visited Grand Canyon National Park, which is on the east side of the state. I did not know this but there is only one way in and one way out. I thought I would be able to drive in, take in the sights and move on over to New Mexico. NOPE! And this is where the danger comes in.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Fanta selfie at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

I ended up driving out of Grand Canyon National Park just after sunset and it was the scariest thing I think I’ve done while driving in a car. Why?

Well, to get out of Grand Canyon National Park, you have to drive about 42 miles. Your average speed is anywhere between 35 and 55 miles per hour. It doesn’t sound too bad but there are no lamp posts, so it’s dark dark dark!

AND … Grand Canyon National Park has signs for deer, bison and cattle crossings so you have to be on EXTRA alert while navigating out of the monument.

I spotted 7 or 8 deer but only 1 was actually in the middle of the freeway. Scared the crap out of me! As it turns out, my high beams were on and I think they are very much attracted to that light. So I used my high beams sparingly.

Consequently, what you see on TV is so true. When a deer looks into your headlights, it just stands there, in the middle of the road until you turn off your high beams or slow down so it can run away.

That was not fun at all.

The end of Grand Canyon National Park had cabins you could rent and places to park your RV if you had one but I didn’t have that kind of time and to be honest, I didn’t know those were options. It’s pretty cool.

Grand Canyon Panorama
Grand Canyon Panorama
Utah – Where my GPS went haywire…

Utah – Where my GPS went haywire…

“I used to want to be a movie star so I wouldn’t have to live in trailers anymore. And now that I make movies, I spend a lot of my life living in trailers.”
-Roseanne Barr

WELCOME TO UTAH: LIFE ELEVATED

After waking up with a wee bit of a stomach ache and spending an extra couple hours in bed, I took another few selfies in Las Vegas and jetted my way over to Saint George, Utah.

It was a pretty short drive. About 2 hours or so.

Welcome to Utah sign
Welcome to Utah!

Although there’s pretty much nothing to do in Utah (or maybe that’s just what it seemed like from this small town), the state is amazingly beautiful. I enjoyed the cool rock formations and awesome scenery.

When the weather is anywhere close to manageable numbers, say, 70 or 80 degrees, I would love to visit both Arizona and Utah and explore more of their beautiful terrain.

While in Saint George, I stopped by a Ross Dress for Less and bought some slippers because I didn’t want my feet sitting in my shoes while the temperature did jumping jacks between 99 and 106 degrees. Boy, it was hot!

I must say, I saw probably one of the most beautiful women I’ve seen so far on my trip in Utah. She was in an El Pollo Loco with her husband and three kids. Jesus Heavenly Father, she was hot. Just like the weather.

It made me want to explore different parts of the state to observe the hotness meter for Utah-ian women.

But alas, I didn’t have the time and zoomed on over to Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (which by the way had some hotties as well).

Oh, one last thing … when driving through and exploring either Utah or Arizona, make sure you keep a paper copy of any directions you may need. An old school navigational map is not a bad idea either. My Waze app starting acting a fool and didn’t know where the heck I was. Maybe aliens were in the area interfering with my cell phone?

Utah destroyed my GPS

City of St George Utah

Welcome to Las Vegas

Welcome to Las Vegas

“Every day, you have to be better than one person. And what is required each day is always different.”
-Andre Agassi

WELCOME TO LAS VEGAS: SIN CITY BABY!

It seemed like it took forever to get out of Los Angeles this past Friday but I finally made it to one of my favorite cities in the world: Las Vegas.

Fanta helps when it's 113 degrees! (near Vegas in Baker, CA)
Fanta helps when it’s 113 degrees!

My drive took about 5.5 hours. It usually takes anywhere from 3.5 to 4.5 hours depending on how fast you drive (or speed) but I made a couple stops along the way to soak in the ride. One of those stops was Baker, CA, which was beautifully nicknamed, “Gateway to Death Valley”.

It was 113 degrees while I was there and boy, could you feel it. The heat literally slaps you in the face and back into your car.

I always like to stop in Baker because it is home to probably one of the largest digital vertical thermometers in the US. The top of the thermometer read “134” but it was not illuminated. 113 was. Thank goodness!

You know it’s hot when you see scorpions walking around with umbrellas.

Las Vegas was amazing as usual. Friday night, I managed to talk my way past the ridiculous line at Drais nightclub in The Cromwell and watch Nelly perform live. He was actually pretty good.

Nelly concert at Drais nightclub in Vegas.
Nelly concert at Drais nightclub.

Saturday evening, I rode The Linq Wheel (aka The High Roller). That thing was amazing. I managed to buy a ticket online for $47 (if you buy it using your smartphone, you get a discount) and it included an open bar, which was a nice pre-game warmup before going out later that night.

The Linq Wheel aka "The Eye" in Vegas
The Linq Wheel aka “The Eye”

To end my Las Vegas trip, I spent Sunday at Red Rock Resort & Casino soaking up some sun in a Cabana that was rented out by a friend of mine. The pool was great as well. It’s the best thing you can jump into when the temperature outside is 103 degrees.

And finally, my friends Tracy, Marcus and myself rounded out the evening by playing a few games of bowling. As it turns out, Red Rock also had a bowling alley within their facility.

I have to say… it is very dangerous to start a cross country trip in Vegas. I will never do this again. Las Vegas is so much fun that it should’ve been my last stop. And my friends love to drink so I needed to be careful because I have 47 other stops to make and it wouldn’t have been cool if I couldn’t wake up and take my butt to my next stop — Utah!

See you there.