"Oklahoma, O-K-LA-HO-MA, Oklahoma!!!!"

This has been a very interesting day from cowboys to memorials. Let's start at the beginning and you can first refer to the first nine pictures. We arrived in Oklahoma City from Selina, Kansas about 1:00. Lee had read about the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. We thought we would drive by and take a look. Well! We drove up to this gorgeous building on Persimmon Hill above Oklahoma City and spent the next four hours dashing from one spectacular exhibit to another. The most interesting Native American drawings I couldn't photograph as well as scores of bronze sculptures. The paintings were magnificent and the whole genre of Western art unfolded before us. The place is huge and I tried to mark off the galleries I had seen to keep going in one direction. We wandered on into a lifelike rodeo arena, rooms of saddles, movies, guns, Western military, John Wayne collections, ropes, riatas, and wranglers. It was breathtaking. There was even a 1900 Western cattle town built in the middle of the museum. The picture of the shoes belonged to a rodeo clown. The marble sculpture of the cougar was titled Canyon Princess and was 18 feet tall. The huge white statue of Fraser's "End of the Trail" greeted us as we entered the building and a fabulous gift shop was our last stop as we were leaving. We were a bit breathless but so glad we had stopped.

From there we traveled on downtown to the Oklahoma City National Memorial which was built after the terrible bombing in 1995. That acounts for the rest of the pictures. This was a very sobering experience. You enter through a huge gate with the time of 9:01. The opposite end of the reflecting pool has the time of 9:03. The reflecting pool between the two gates represents the time of 9:02 which marks the moment of destruction. Beside the pool the field of empty chairs remind you of the 168 lives that were lost and they fill the area where the Murrah building stood. The smaller of the chairs represent the children and it really tugs at your heart to see them. We walked around the entire area as it was getting dark and the lights were coming on. It was a very quiet place and you couldn't help but wonder about people who will do such horrible evil things. Our thoughts are with all those who were affected by this tragedy.

By this time it was dark and Judi is our driver when the sun goes down. We were heading towards our hotel and needed to get on the freeway. We found the right highway but took three passes to find the unmarked on-ramp. There were some choice words for those road workers who have not installed a sign! But we made it and checked into the hotel and scurried back out to a great Italian restaurant a few doors down the road. No more unmarked on-ramps for us, thank you!

Tomorrow we drive on to Amarillo, Texas. This is sort of a semi-momentous day as the next morning (Saturday) I will hop a plane and fly to San Diego. Lee and Judi had offered to drive me to San Diego but I have made the decision to leave a couple of days early so I can join the festivities for Zoe's 7th birthday. Lee and Judi will drive on to Santa Fe, Sedona, Flagstaff, Prescott, Kingman before arriving home in La Verne on Wednesday. The Gotta Go Girls have pretty much gone and went! What a time this has been and will try to check in to let everyone know we are all home safe and sound. Wonder what we will do not working on the blog, using a coin operated washing machine, eating all our meals in restaurants, packing up a suitcase every day, unpacking some things from a suitcase every night, writing postcards, paying our bills by phone, shopping in museum stores, deciding who is driving, deciding who gets to sit in the back seat, pouring over maps, getting lost, getting found, laughing hysterically over little things, jogging one another's memories on where we were yesterday, wondering where the time got away to, ooohing and aaaahing over leaves turning colors, and the list goes on and on. Now we get to see what adventure awaits on the road to Amarillo. Nighty night.

P.S. Melody, we are sending good thoughts your way.