Duncan: "If you don't like beer, you just haven't tried the right one" (L. Cripps)

 

First rain since we arrived in the U.S. - rain really came down hard on the drive from Davis (where we had to have the famous Fried Pies in Davis - see photo) to Duncan in the morning. 

First stop: The  Chisholm Trail Heritage Center & Garis Gallery of the American West. It's all about the life along this famous cattle trail, which was used end of the 1860ies until the 1880ies to drive cattle from ranches in Texas to Kansas railroad stations. Since there was no refrigeration at the time, cattle was loaded on train wagons and brought to slaughter houses, e.g. in Chicago. The exhibitions also tells about the folks on the trail – the cowboys, who drove around 2,500 to 3,000 head of cattle for up to three months along the trail. The average twelfe cowboys, a trail boss and a "cookie" (chuckwagon on photo below) walked about 10 mi a day, since animals were supposed to gain, not to lose weight. 


In front of the Heritage Center is a momument created by artist Paul Moore, called  “On the Chisholm Trail", inside there are several rooms depicting certain aspects of cowboy life, western lifestyle and ranching. One highlight is the Experience Theater: this show is the closest thing to being a cowboy and experiencing a real stampede, including smells, sounds and rain.

The adjacent Art Gallery is an exquisite collection of Western and Native American art in the West, including famous works by acclaimed western artists like Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, George Catlin, Allan Houser, Albert Bierstadt, and others.

Lunch at Wishbone Scratch Kitchen, part of a Golf Course. We had excellent food: salmon taccos and a burger. 

On then, in the pouring rain, to the Kochendorfer Brewing Company - a big warehouse-like building in the outskirts of town, in the "Duncan woodlands". Not a fancy bar or brewpub, but a family-friendly place with patio, playground, bingo and music evenings, food trucks and a friendly atmosphere. Lenny Cripps, the co-owner, showed us the brewery and let us try his excellent brews. The brewery has quickly become a hub for the local community. Cripps, who has traveled the globe with his wife in the military (pic of the couple below, also used on beer can labels), began to brew his own craft beers in 1990 and opened the brewery with the Kochendorfer couple end of 2019.  

And, here a pic of the men's bathrooms - isn't that appropriate for a brewery?
 

We had real good conversation and enjoyed the hospitality in Duncan in general. Happy and in a good mood, we drove to the new and really nice Fairfield Inn & Suites in Duncan and called it a day. Meaning, we started to work.