We were up and out early this morning expecting a long day on the road. We left Carthage, MO and continued on our westward journey. We followed the old Route 66 heading towards Joplin and found some cute stops along the way. Joplin has some great murals, and we grabbed photos of a few of them. Then it was bye, bye to Missouri and hello to Kansas. The route goes through a short area of Kansas, but it was fun nonetheless. We came upon Galena which had some really fun stops, including a couple areas dedicated to the Disney movie, Cars. We did the typical touristy thing signing of the wall, and while we were there, we noticed so many people from other countries have signed the wall. I guess Route 66 has a worldwide reputation.
Next, we crossed into Oklahoma, more small towns and we stopped at a roadside museum. This place was packed with all kinds of memorabilia, and it was nice to see how clean and organized everything was.
We headed towards Tulsa for a quick trip to see the “Golden Driller”, if you have watched Tulsa King, you’ll recognize this big guy, no, not Sylvester Stallone.
After leaving Tulsa, we headed towards Oklahoma City. We wanted to take time out to pay our respects to those 168 souls who lost their lives on April 19, 1995, at the hands of a domestic terrorist. The memorial was beautifully designed, it is serene and moving. You cannot help but become emotional here. It was created on the exact site where the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building stood, prior to the bombing. The “Field of Empty Chairs” has 168 chairs representing those killed on that day. There are nine rows which represent each floor of the building and are situated to show the approximate location of all who were killed including those who were outside of the building. There are two different size chairs, larger for adults and smaller for the children. You cannot help but feel so much sadness for every life that was lost that day. It was heartbreaking, but we need it to be sure no one forgets what happened there. Keep their souls and those of their family members in your prayers.
We drove almost all the way across Oklahoma, lots of farm land, cows, horses and windmills, windmills, windmills. Oklahoma has over 5,600 of them, and I am sure we saw 5,599.
We battled the winds and have and ended our day in Elk City, OK. Tomorrow, we head into Texas.
See you down the road.
Leave a Reply