Day
3 - Saturday 12th September 2015
Written by Kev
I wake and look
at my watch – 2.30am. Oh dear. I doze off again until
4.30am. At 5.45am I give up and Tam and I get up. We re-pack the
suitcases and meet Deb and Matt at 6.30am for breakfast.
It’s still dark outside as I eat my eggs, hash browns and
green ham. I only had this to see what the green ham was like and
it’s not as exotic (or green) as it sounds. It’s just a
thin piece of gammon really, I was hoping for something a little
more Dr Seuss.
After breakfast
we check out and walk across to where we’ve parked The
Beast. This is an apt name for it as I’m sure it’s been
intimidating the other cars. I reckon they’ve been edging
away from it slowly in the dead of night.
At 7.20am I clamber into the driving seat and press the
‘start engine’ button. The Beast grunts, belches and
roars into life.
220 miles later we arrive in Oklahoma City and pull into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum at 10.10am, just 10 minutes behind schedule. As the name suggests this place celebrates and documents the cowboy way of life through the ages as well as focusing heavily on the Native American culture.
We are meeting
Susan (our Oklahoman friend and one of the main reasons for this
trip), but she’s running late and hasn’t arrived yet.
We pay the $12.50 each entry fee and start to explore the
exhibits of clothing, weapons, art etc. As we are part way
through, Susan rings to say she is here. We walk up to the
entrance hall to meet her and get a surprise when she has with
her Sally (her sister) and Shelly, who Deb and Matt have met
several times before and are good friends with.
Introductions are made and we all continue to tour the museum.
For Tam and I our favourite part is a reconstruction of a typical
Wild West town at night. You walk through the town and go into
all the buildings such as a blacksmith, a schoolhouse, church
etc. They even have a jail and Deb, Matt and I mysteriously find
ourselves locked up by the Sheriff.
Next we walk around the gardens, which are very pretty and have more sculptures as well as a sort of horse graveyard for famous horses through the ages.
From left to right: Tam, Matt, Kev, Susan, Deb, Shelly, Sally.
It’s getting close to lunchtime now, so we all drive to Irma’s Burger Shack. I bet you can’t guess what they are famous for here. It’s been a family run business for many years and even has old black and white photos of family members over the years along with witty comments underneath.
This one tickled Tam's fancy.
The food is
very good and we all have burgers of various sorts. Part of the
way through the meal Shelly gives us all presents. I get an
Oklahoma University T shirt. OU is the college football team that
Matt follows. Shelly and Sally also follow them enthusiastically.
Thanks very much Shelly, I’m now an honorary Oklahoma
University fan.
At the end of the meal Sally declares that she is picking up the
check. I’m beginning to think these Oklahomans are a
generous lot.
We drive into
the centre of Oklahoma City next, where we check into the Skirvin
Hilton Hotel. Susan is staying here tonight as well, but Sally
and Shelly are leaving us later to drive back to their hometown
of Muskogee, about 100 miles away. We drop off our luggage in the
room and return to the lobby to meet Deb, Matt and Susan. The
Beast has been safely caged by valet parking ($26 for the night)
because Sally is kindly ferrying us around the various sites.
She drives us to the Oklahoma City National Memorial on the site
of a federal building that was destroyed in 1995 by a bomb
planted by Timothy McVeigh. 168 people lost their lives including
19 children. There is a museum, which we don’t go in, and a
memorial garden. Either end of a reflecting pool are twin bronze
gates. One end says 9.01, the other 9.03. The bombing was at
9.02am; so one end reflects the last moments of peace and the
other the first moments of recovery. On the site of the actual
building that was destroyed is a lawn with 168 chairs – one
for every victim. 19 of the chairs are half size to represent the
children. It’s very well done and very respectful while
still getting across the story of the awful events.
After a while Sally drives us to the Oklahoma Museum of Art where we briefly stop to see the huge glass sculpture in the lobby.
Sally’s
taxi service then drops us off in Bricktown where we say goodbye
to Sally and Shelly for the time being, we will be seeing them
again later in the holiday.
Bricktown is an area that has gone through considerable
regeneration and houses many bars and restaurants alongside a
small canal. We take the boat ride where the guide tells us about
the history of the area. At least she would if I could hear her.
There is a family next to us with a little girl about 2 years of
age. She certainly knows about ducks as she screams
‘Duckies’ every time we pass one. There are a lot of
ducks on this boat journey. I’m none the wiser about the
history of Bricktown by the end of it, but now know a lot about
ducks. Just ignore me; I’m being a miserable curmudgeon as
usual. The little girl is just excited and having fun.
After the boat ride we sit and have a beer in Captain Norm’s Dockside Bar, where a couple of guys are playing guitar, before we return to The Skirvin.
Here we shower quickly and meet up again in the bar where we watch the college football game – Oklahoma University v Tennessee.
We eat various snacks while we watch, but Oklahoma are very poor in the first half ending up 17 – 3 down. Matt is not happy and neither are most of the people in the bar. One lady seems especially upset and screams out ‘Fu?$%* referee’ really loudly before realising what she’s said and apologising profusely to all around. Matt and I are particularly offended, as we’ve never heard such language before.
Susan has given
me the gift of an Oklahoma University baseball cap to go along
with my T-shirt, so I definitely have to root for them. Oklahoma
are much better in the second half and score a touchdown with a
few seconds left to take the game into overtime. They eventually
win, so all around are happy.
The air conditioning is a little chilly, so we end the evening
outside where it’s warmer.
Back to the room at 11.00pm and in bed by 11.30pm.