Ooooooooooooklahoma!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left Sallisaw and headed for Oklahoma City. We came to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. This was the site of the terrible bombing on April 19, 1995 of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building. This was the quote in the brochure I picked up: "We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope, and serenity."
There are two twin gates at either end of the memorial. They frame the moment of destruction: 9:02 a.m. On one end it says 9:01, the minute before the attack when everything was calm and normal. The other end says 9:03, the moment when everything was changed forever. In between is a calming reflecting pool that provides a peaceful setting. There is a field of empty chairs; 168 chairs for the people whose lives were lost. 19 of the chairs are smaller, symbolizing the children that were killed. The names of the victims are etched into the glass bases. They are organized in rows and the the rows represent the floor that they were killed on. There is a fence at one end where people have left tokens of remembrance. They have collected more than 60,000 items which they keep in the archives. There is a 90 year old American Elm tree which is called the "Survivor Tree." It survived the bombing and serves as a symbol of human resilience. In my photo of the tree, I watched a little boy who had told his mom he wanted to give his quarter to donate to the memorial. I hope my pictures were able to capture some of the magnitude of this amazing memorial. Although it was a beautiful sunny Sunday, mom and I spent several sad, quiet moments at this memorial.













We left Oklahoma City and headed towards Texas. When we were almost out of Oklahoma, we stopped in Clinton, Oklahoma. This is the site of the Route 66 Museum. Route 66 was built in the 1920s and 1930s. It was called the "Main Street of America" because it went from Chicago to Los Angeles and took you through all sorts of small town America. The museum was organized by the different decades starting from 1920 all the way up until the 1970s. Unfortunately, when they started building other interstate highways, like I-40 the one we are traveling on, people stopped going on Route 66 and many towns practically died out. 85% of the road is still drivable and open, and we were even able to drive on many parts of the historic route. You will see that in another update! Here are pictures from the museum.





Can you see that?! 48 cents for gas!!! Wish we had that on our trip!



Here's mom and I sitting at the diner listening to Elvis sing. For mom, it was a walk down 1950s memory lane!


And here's mom remembering her favorite time period...the 60s! Peace, love and happiness!!!









Now we are off to get our kicks on Route 66!!!! Texas here we come!