From 092821-100421, LeeAndra and I went on a road trip (our first together!) to Bent’s Old Fort, McClave and Lamar, Colorado for a day and night, and then on to Texas to join the Ultimate Fandango 2021, and then back for a night in the Great Sand Dunes National Park to camp in the dunes! 2192 miles over 42 hours in the car, and we just had the best time.
This set is the Texas portion of the trip.
Fandango is a movie from 1985, starring Kevin Costner, Judd Nelson, Sam Robards, Brian Cesak, Chuck Bush, Marvin J. McIntyre, and Robyn Tatu (nee, Rose). It’s always been in my top 3 favorite movie list, and I know I have seen it hundreds of times when HBO was new to our house, and my wife and I still watch it a couple times every year. My best memories are of my dad just howling when Truman Sparks (McIntyre) delivered his best lines and somehow stole the scenes from a simply stellar cast. My dad would be thrilled to know what I did and saw on this trip, and I made sure to tell Marvin how much he meant to my dad.
The movie really was magical, and made something so much more than the sum of its parts. It wasn’t just a road trip movie or a buddy comedy or raunchy frat house romp. Director Kevin Reynolds and crew put together something so special, so early in all their careers that had the howl-out-loud comedy, excellent writing, coming of age drama, and comments on friendship and manhood and loss and mortality that were every bit as poignant as another favorite movie of mine, Stand By Me. (To note, Reservoir Dogs and Red Dawn and Die Hard round out my top 5 favorite and essential movies).
As far as I remember, when Gardner and Waggener stumble onto the new grave of a Vietnam KIA in the midst of their revelry in the cemetery, and the tone changes and the camera zooms how it does and that music note changes to what I can only describe as the sound of black, that was the first time I understood the feeling of confronting your own mortality. Any other action heroes or explosions or special effects or robots or cartoons or lasers and phasers, or whatever else I thought was cool, just melted away for me, and I understood what film making could really be.
For about the past 15 years, every other year or so, Chuck Bush (Dorman), Marvin J. McIntyre and Robyn Tatu have led a pilgrimage through a bunch of the filming locations in West Texas, occasionally joined by other stars and crew. The lucky faithful fans who can join the trip are treated to soooo many stories about the filming, and about Texas, and their lives and careers since filming. But for us, we drove away with so many new friendships and memories and experiences. Along the way, we ran into the stunt pilot that pulled off some amazing work that would never be allowed now in any movie, and just happened to run across extras and crew who still live in Texas, and were happy to tell their stories to our group and catch up with Chuck, Marvin and Robyn after so many years! The production really did change some lives and careers!
After our trip, a few things are sure: I love Fandango even more than I did before, and I love Texas and Texans and Texas BBQ even more than I thought I would.
Thank you, Chuck, Marvin, Robyn, and Bonnie La Roe!
To anyone at Fandango 2021, I’ll make these pictures available via a Dropbox folder for download free of charge, if you are the subject in the image. Just let me know if that works best for you, but if you want a high-quality print, I’ll try to make the Buy Print buttons work on the images here. Fotomoto does great work to print and deliver stunning prints or other products, quickly and reasonably-priced. Contact me directly at jasonsargo@yahoo.com if you want to go the Dropbox route.
And Google Maps links for each of the days we were on the road in Texas with the group: