Category United States

El Capitán Revisited

Opened as a cattlemen's hotel in 1930, with the railroad depot across the street, ranchers used to trade cattle in the lobby. The hotel was designed by the architect Henry Trost, and built by Charles Bassett, one of five hotels of the Gateway Hotel chain constructed in west Texas and eastern New Mexico to increase tourism within 200 miles of El Paso. In the early 70s, the hotel was converted to a bank. Vaults installed during that time are now used for bar storage in the dining room and as a small gift shop off the lobby

Philly Cheesesteak Challenge

It has been done hundreds of times by hundreds of people, but we finally took the opportunity to experience the Philly Cheesesteak battle for ourselves.  We are visiting Philadelphia for work, and after taking care of some administrative duties with…

Historic Guthrie

This post visited the historic town of Guthrie, Oklahoma, the state’s first capital. With great examples of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century architecture, a Victorian design sense and developed tourism without being over the top, Guthrie is a great town to…

Hartwell Cruisin’

Last week, we took a quick mini-road trip up to Hart County in Georgia. The Savannah River was dammed, forming Lake Hartwell, which is part of the border between South Carolina and Georgia. The dam was completed in 1963 by…