We arrived on Thursday, June 30 in OKC to have lunch with an original Okie, Carol, an LSU friend. She lives outside the city and gave me lots of good info as we prepared to travel to her city. After a delicious Mexican lunch, we checked in to our hotel and then headed to the National Museum of Cowboy and Western Heritage. I have always loved and appreciated the romance of the cowboy and his mystique. The museum only added to that! The paintings were so beautiful, though the boys weren't all that interested. Jack and Joshua really liked the recreated Old West town inside the museum, with the livery stable, post office, and jail. The museum covered so many interesting aspects of cowboys, from rodeo to cowboys in the movies. That's when I got excited. I absolutely love John Wayne...can you really trust anyone who doesn't? They had a huge display on his Westerns, even mentioning the importance of his WWII movies, too. The lady in the gift shop told me that the family is a big supporter of the museum and visit often. They have donated many of the items in the museum. Outside the museum, there is a very peaceful grove where several well-known rodeo horses and bulls are buried. To put it succinctly, we loved the museum.
After we left the museum, we headed downtown to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Originally, we intended to see it at dusk. However, timing was tricky, especially with an 11 year old anxious to have enough time to swim in the hotel pool before bedtime. Even in the afternoon heat, this was a place to see. The intimacy of the memorial, despite its size, was overwhelming. It was very sobering, very solemn. A place to whisper. The symbolism was mesmerizing. The ends of the memorial have matching walls with two times on them, 9:01 and 9:03. 9:01 represents the city and its innocence before the bombing. 9:03 is symbolic of the change in the city after the bombing. The chairs representing the victims hurt my heart, especially the little ones representing the children. However, there is hope shown in the Survivors Tree and the Rescuer Orchard. Beautiful! What a day!
This morning, we headed back to downtown OKC to eat at KD's restaurant and see where the Thunder play. The downtown area known as Bricktown is so nice! Clean, well-planned and easy to navigate, we all agreed that we would stay there if we ever return.
Tonight we are in Hays, KS. I picked it because it was on the way to our next stop. Turns out I picked a good one. http://haysusa.net/ Because I love history, I read a little bit about this town. Turns out Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill Cody spent some time here, along with General Custer. This was the "end of the line" back in the day. It just so happens that this weekend in the Wild West Festival. We originally planned to visit their downtown Bricks in the morning, so we'll see what we find now that there is a festival going on. Who knew?
So far, this trip has exceeded my expectations. Can't wait to see what's next!
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