Sunday, July 1, 2018
Oklahoma City was about four hours away from Amarillo. Much of the highway paralleled the original Route 66 so we took in a few more attractions. The first Route 66 point of interest was a tilting water tower. Since we saw it from the road we didn’t take the time to stop. We did stop in Shamrock, TX to visit a beautifully preserved Cononco Gas station built in the 1930’s. It had a gift shop and café attached to it but both were closed on Sundays. In Clinton, OK we spent some time at The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. Although it was similar in scope to the other museum we saw earlier on our trip, it offered some more interesting historical information and offered more sophisticated exhibits.
I can’t recall if I mentioned earlier that Route 66 was completed in November of 1926 running from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier in California. Until then, most of the roads were dirt and gravel. Before there were gas stations on every corner, fuel was purchased from liveries, repair shops, and general stores. Drivers would pour gas into buckets and then use a funnel to transfer it into their cars. Since gas tanks were smaller back then, drivers had to stop about every 70 miles to refill. (I wonder what they did about bathrooms?)
The main reason for building Route 66 was to move crops and natural resources to market. It turns out that is the same reason that the highway system was built that replaced Route 66. President Eisenhower had seen the Autobahn in Germany and was determined that the U.S. improve its highway system. (NOTE: From Oklahoma City going East we will no longer follow the old Route 66, which heads North towards Chicago.)
We were both expecting Oklahoma to be dry and barren like much of the Texas panhandle, but it is relatively green. It even had clusters of trees. Arriving in Oklahoma City reminded us both of Cleveland, although Cleveland is a larger city. The streets of downtown Oklahoma City were extremely quiet. Because we arrived at about 4 PM, we decided to first visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. It commemorates the loss of 168 innocent people killed when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed at 9:01 AM on April 19, 1995. The Memorial is simple in design with a shallow reflection pool. Each person lost is represented by a bronze chair. The monument also included the Survivor Tree. An elm tree that dates back to 1927 and somehow withstood the bomb’s blast.
The Museum was quite impressive with state of the art interactive exhibits and lots of videos. It brought the tragedy into clear focus again and made it clear that something like this could have happened anywhere—and could happen again. It told the story from the point of view of survivors, family members of those who lost loved ones, rescuers, medical professionals and other authorities that were there that day and, in the days, to follow. It also showed visitors how Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichcols were apprehended and brought to justice. The Museum was beautifully done and was a very moving experience.
It was then time to look for a place for dinner. As usual, we had skipped lunch since our breakfast had been so large. Our AAA book mentioned a part of town that had been revitalized, “Bricktown”, similar to the Flats in Cleveland. Just like the Flats it was once a dilapidated warehouse district, but now was filled with restaurants, bars, hotels and even a mini amusement park with mini golf, bungy jumping and laser tag. Instead of the Cuyahoga River running through it, there was a man-made canal running through it with small boats you could hire to take you around. The area was quite busy for a Sunday evening.
Not knowing where we would end up for dinner we had parked the car in an attended lot and took a walk around. We ended up having a pleasant dinner at a New Orleans style restaurant called Jazmoz Bourbon Street Café. After dinner we thought we would have to drive at least 20 minutes to find our hotel, but when we put the address in our GPS it was literally around the corner from the restaurant. That was a pleasant surprise, but we could have saved ourselves the parking lot fee. Oh well. Tomorrow we will explore some more of Oklahoma City and then we’re off to Little Rock, Arkansas.
BY THE WAY WITH WENDY & DAN 