Began the day in Oklahoma City and while a tour of the 1995 bombing sight is not on the traditional Route 66 tour we knew we had to go. I don't believe I have any words to describe the feelings one has as you tour the site. Only questions....here are some of the photos.
The photo on the left is the entrance to the bombing memorial and the photo on the left are chairs symbolizing everyone on of the 168 victims that died in the bombing. The small chairs symbolize children and the chairs are organize in rows symbolizing the floor on which they were killed.
Above is another photos of the chairs and a photo of the last remaining wall of the Murrah Building.
It is impossible to fathom what drives one person to do such a thing to innocent people. I expected this trip to be different from the memory standpoint. Seeing this memorial certainly adds perspective and reminds me again of how random things are. Here these people were simply going to work, or for a walk, or filing for social security and their lives came to an end....suppose that's part of the motivation for this trip. Life truly can be short...okay enough serious stuff for today.
After downtown Oky City we headed west and to say it was hot was an understatement. The thermometer on the car read 107 at one point..pretty sure the temp on Dennis' forehead was another 15 degrees higher in the back seat as he rode in the "photo op" seat of the Mustang. Here are some of the photos from today....
Wild Fires to the West of Oky City....no worries we were quite a ways away.
This is a tunnel/underground walkway going under Route 66, the second one we've seen. The Route used to be so busy that they built tunnels to allow the town folks to cross under and avoid the massive traffic....it is simply impossible to imagine such a day in the past. Later on the outskirts of town we actually found areas of a 4 lane Route 66 and our guide book confirmed that at one point the State of Oklahoma in an attempt to help with traffic made the Route 4 lanes. Nowadays, you can drive those stretches of road and see maybe 2-3 cars every 10 miles. It is almost eerie.
We ended our day reaching the 1/2 way point of the Route, having some dinner and ending up at yet another amazing classic motel. Dinner was jalapeno chicken fried steak with a jalapeno cheese gravy that promptly put me in a coma. It was amazing along with the calf fries(look them up) and the fried okra..I see a trend here in the Southwest when it comes to cuisine.
The Blue Swallow Motel is a must see if you travel this way and Kevin and Nancy the proprietors are all in when it comes to Route 66 and are the nicest people. The have refurbished the motel and I am sitting in the deck chair out front right now having an iced vodka writing. I will definitely have to wander thru here again in the near future. Here a couple photos from the end of the day.
Off to Day 5...spending the day in New Mexico. I hope that I end up really liking this State. I'm delivering my little girl Kara to Santa Fe in 2 short weeks to spend the next 2 years of her life. More tomorrow. Back to the iced vodka.
TJ
No comments:
Post a Comment