An apartment project under construction burnt to the ground yesterday on West Dallas near Whole Foods. The fire started just after Noon and within an hour became the first 5-Alarm fire anyone could remember. It burned into the evening. A worker was rescued from a second-floor deck by a firefighter with a ladder, narrowly escaping flames and a collapsing roof. Two Live Oaks were mysteriously untouched. The aftermath this evening was thick with eerie smoke, popup flames, the steady quiet movement of equipment cleanup, and two firefighters who wouldn’t give up.
12:30
Alley next to Whole Foods
The last truck standing
The fire kept coming back
Crossfire
Search and destroy
Superhuman endurance
Calling back to the truck for more pressure
The project burnt to the ground
Getting the hoses ready for washing
Every horse needs a fence post
These Live Oaks were unburnt…a mystery wrapped in an enigma
The hoses are meticulously folded and stacked
It takes a village
Every hose is washed mercilessly
Alley behind Whole Foods…7PM…March 25, 2014
Author notes:
Arrived at 7pm as the local TV station vans, photographers, and reporters were driving away from the Whole Foods parking lot
Had the whole scene to myself
Two firefighters continued to fight the popup fires that appeared every time you thought it was over
The other men moved like shadows cleaning their equipment methodically, in total silence
Communication was telepathic with occasional hand signals
The final hours of our dusty climb was in the dark. We didn’t know it but we were being pursued by a massive ice-storm. The next morning, we woke in the shocking comfort of a hotel on the South Rim to find a layer of ice blanketing the Canyon. Had we not made it back the night before, we’d still be in The Canyon today. The original plan was to stay two nights at Phantom Ranch on the Canyon floor. Reservations for two nights are so difficult to get, no one ever gives them up. Forfeiting our prepaid second night at Phantom Ranch was the first wise decision Jeff & I made since our bizarre journey began. Luckily, it would not be the last.
The Road Home – Jerome, The Asylum, and El Capitan
Leaving Grand Canyon National Park the next morning, we skirted the west side of the ice-storm for a couple hours. On a lark we ducked into the remote cliff-side town of Jerome and checked-in to The Grand Hotel for a few days – our second wise decision. The hotel bar named The Aslyum became our sanctum sanctorum. Three days later we caught-up with the ice-storm again in West Texas where we made our third wise decision.
Every town’s got something special that’s not apparent at first glance. Van Horn’s special is really not Diesel Fried Chicken in spite of its iconic old fillin’ station. Van Horn’s special is the El Capitan Hotel. And it had two rooms and two reservations for dinner at the restaurant bar with our names on them. The El Capitan is a Depression-era hotel restored recently by a couple from Fort Davis for love and two and half million dollars. It’ll never be profitable but who cares? It’s the finest old hotel on I-10 from Jacksonville to Santa Monica.
The drive-by view of Van Horn most people take away The El Capitan was designed in 1930 by architect Henry Trost who designed several hotels in West TexasComfort, mood, and Mexican tile – a great hotel and the food is good as well
The El Capitan was the surprise-ending of our journey to Phantom Ranch. We got to the hotel and its restaurant bar just in time for the Super Bowl coin-toss. When our meal arrived we lost interest in the game. At half-time, we wandered off in different directions to explore the hotel, and our rooms. With our Grand Canyon experience still so fresh, I guess we just couldn’t stop wandering around.
Yonder
Jeff and I left Van Horn the next morning in a reflective mood. Our strange adventure was coming to an end in a strange town. We headed back to Austin and for a while things were quiet. But soon enough the truck was filled with the familiar claptrap of bogus insights on politics, life, and love, our mouths watering for Hill Country brisket, Shiner Bock, old flames, Asleep At The Wheel, and even the bovine noise of the State Legislature. There’s something about Texas that always brings me home. And there’s something about Grand Canyon that will always take me yonder.
Somewhere in West Texas, sometime in February 2014
Steel Wheels 