Well, I haven’t really seen enough of the Oklahoma area to confirm whether on not it is “oh so pretty”, but it is certainly a very friendly place, and I’ve had a great time here. I drove in from the farm in the countryside to the city on Tuesday afternoon, stopping off briefly to take a look at the famous Route 66 round barn, and to visit Pops for lunch. Pops had been recommended to me by several people, and is an amazing roadside diner famous for it’s incredibly extensive soda-pop menu. I am not a big soda drinker, but I had to try one, and ordered a white chocolate soda, which was actually surprisingly good.
In the city itself I found a place to park right by the Oklahoma City National Memorial, built in remembrance of the events of the morning of 19th April 1995, and the aftermath of that devastating bombing.
I wandered around the outside sections of the memorial, but did not think I would have time to look inside, as I was meeting Michelle, who had kindly offered to meet me after she finished work and be my Oklahoma City guide. I took a wander down through the business district, and on into Bricktown, following the canal through the pub and restaurant-filled part of the city.
Eventually I met up with Michelle, and we went for a couple of beers in a great bar, which had a couple of good English bitters on the menu. Wonderful. We made plans for the next day, including returning to the memorial for a proper look inside the museum, and after a bite to eat it was back to my RV, which I parked once again in Walmart’s carpark for the night. I am going to add Walmart as an unofficial sponsor of my trip – what a fantastic overnight RV option!
The Memorial Museum was very well thought out, and took us through the events of the day of the bombing, and the aftermath, and was incredibly moving. Just like I had been after visiting the 9/11 memorial in New York, I was pretty quiet and thoughtful afterwards.
That evening, I met up again with Rose and Lance at their house. I had first met them out in Wagoner at the weekend, and they had kindly offered accomodation in Oklahoma as I passed through.
The next day I met with Lorraine, another internet contact, for lunch in the city before heading onwards on the journey. Somehow I forgot to bring my camera to lunch, which was at a wonderful sushi restaurant – sorry Lorraine!
Thanks again to my wonderful Oklahoma guides Michelle, Lorraine, Rose and Lance, and of course to Walmart too, my unofficial accomodation sponsor!
