Sooners or Later

Today's route: 415 miles

We hit the road early this morning because we had a 180-mile drive to Oklahoma City and even more ground to cover after that. Our first stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, and it was well-worth the time and cost of admission ($15/adult). The museum does an excellent job presenting the story of the Oklahoma City bombing, the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history.

On the morning of April 19, 1995, a rental truck containing fertilizer and diesel fuel was detonated at 9:02AM in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. The bomb destroyed one-third of the building, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680 others. The attack was carried out by Timothy McVeigh, with the help of Terry Nichols. McVeigh was motivated by his hatred of the federal government, which was fueled by how it handled the Waco siege in 1993, as well as Ruby Ridge in 1992. He planned the bombing to coincide with the anniversary of the deadly fire that ended the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.

After entering the museum, we were directed to start with the exhibits upstairs. Eventually we found ourselves in front of a display about water permits, which confused me at first since I didn't understand what that had to do with the bombing. Every few minutes, the doors would open to the next area, which was set up like a conference room. Once inside, the official recording of a hearing of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board from April 19, 1995 began playing. The meeting began at 9:00AM and was held just across the street from the Murrah Building. I held my breath listening to it, because I knew what was coming next. Those were the longest two minutes, just waiting for the sound of the bomb going off...

And then another set of doors opened into an area that re-created the sense of destruction. Absolutely horrific!

The rest of the exhibits were chronological - the chaos immediately following the bombing; the rescue and recovery efforts;  the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of the conspirators; and the stories of survivors and victims.

The memorial encompasses the land where the Murrah Building once stood, as well as the area immediately surrounding it. The street that ran in front of the building is now a reflecting pool. The east and west entrances to the memorial are marked with 9:01 and 9:03, the moments before and after the destruction.

Bearing the names of the victims, 168 empty chairs stand on the footprint of the building and are arranged in nine rows, each corresponding to the floor on which they worked or were visiting. The smaller chairs represent the children who were killed in the daycare center on the second floor. Seeing nineteen of these broke my heart...

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.

From here, it was only a short drive to the state capitol building. It actually has a working oil rig in front! We spent just a short amount of time walking around inside (yay again for air conditioning!) and looking at the murals and portraits of their famous native sons, including Will Rogers and Jim Thorpe. None of Blake Shelton, though. Haha!

On our way out of OKC, we picked up Whataburger to eat in the car and continued driving west. R wanted to stop at the Cherokee Trading Post in Clinton, OK for smushed pennies. And shortly after that, we got off the interstate and headed north towards our final stop for the day, Washita Battlefield National Historic Site.

View of the valley from the visitor center

On November 27, 1868, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a surprise attack at dawn on the Southern Cheyenne camp of Chief Black Kettle. Black Kettle had just returned to his village next to the Washita River the night before, having unsuccessfully petitioned the commander at Fort Cobb for peace and protection. But still believing their position to be safe, Black Kettle did not move his people closer to the larger Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa encampments downriver. Both he and his wife, Medicine Woman Later, were killed while fleeing, along with 30-60 other Cheyenne.

By the time we finished watching the movie and going through the exhibits in the visitor center, it was almost 5:00PM. Even though the visitor center was closing, the trail to the site of Black Kettle's camp was open until dusk. So we drove over to the trailhead and started to hike in - we only made it about halfway there, because it was still unbearably hot and M didn't feel like he could walk any further on his gimpy leg.

From here, we drove another 90 minutes to our hotel in Pampa, TX. We had a great dinner at the restaurant next door, the Texas Rose Steakhouse. What else would we eat in Texas?!

And to top it all off, after getting ice cream from Braum's, Wal-Mart was our most crucial stop of the day for... SPRAY PAINT!