RAMBLING ALONG ROUTE 66

Well, Howdy Pardner! It’s again time to get your cowboy on and ramble along with Barbara and Brian seeing what mischief those little doggies got into while straying eastbound in the general direction of the Windy City. Oh-yeah – this is part 2. Yeehaw!

April – May, 2022

A mere 258 miles northeast of Amarillo we found ourselves in Oklahoma City. Barbara had made one visit to Oklahoma in the early ’80’s spending a dusty hot time marching on behalf of women’s rights (wonder how much better things are in 2022?). This was Brian’s first time in the Sooner State.

When checking in at our campground the hostess casually pointed out the two (!) tornado shelters on property! Guess we had forgotten or never knew that Oklahoma’s infamous tornado alley included OKC. During our stay there was a hellacious mostly daylong LOUD thunderstorm with torrential rain that curbed our sense of outdoor adventure. The warning siren never did sound, so we prefer to believe we were safe.

VDO friends Steve and Kathy Lewis are living temporarily in town, and we figured on a nice visit. Steve had been coaxed out of retirement by his former employer on a limited time contract, and well, they assigned him to OKC. Turns out that Kathy had to deal with a family issue and was not in town, but we had a great time visiting with Steve and getting the “low down” recommendations of things to do.

While neither of us had ever spent any time exploring OKC, our primary reason for visiting here rather than Tulsa was to pay our respects to the victims, survivors and rescuers who died or were affected by the Murrah Federal Building bombing on April 19, 1995.

The outdoor grounds of the National Memorial and Museum are hallowed and present a tribute to those who were immediately and lastingly impacted by the bombing. The museum is a chronological timeline tour of interactive displays recalling the events of the day, the response of rescuers, pursuit of the criminals responsible, and stories remembered by the survivors, rescuers and affected families. All-in-all quite sobering and touching.

…as is our tradition we said a silent Kaddish in remembrance of those who lost their lives…

In 1929, 99 courageous (remember those were misogynistic times) women pilots formed the 99s, an international organization of and for women pilots. The mission of the newly formed organization was to promote the “advancement of women in aviation through education, scholarships, and mutual support while honoring their unique history and sharing a passion for flight.” Seems like near about everyone knows something about Amelia Earhart, but how much do we know about the other pioneering women who helped put aviation into the public’s eye? Google (to name a few) Jean Batten, Sophie Blanchard, Margery Brown, Bessie Coleman, Mae Jemison, Elizabeth Lippincott McQueen, Blanche Wilcox Noyes, Eula “Pearl” Carter Scott, or Ruth Stewart. The museum is a fascinating look into those early years of aviation and international flight. 

On moving from Brooklyn, NY to Austin, TX our nephew, Jon, made the transition from being “a guitarist” and the founder and lead of the free form jazz group Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord to being a banjo loving banjo picking bluegrass playing fool. This is in honor of Jon.

…just liked the mural…

Originally built in the early 20th century, a now rusted spiral fire escape was salvaged from the nearby Marion Hotel in downtown OKC. It was then suspended between two buildings as a quirky piece of public art and named after the double helix it resembles.

Just down the street from the Architectural DNA sculpture sits Frontline Church. Barbara admired the architectural style of the building.

Check out Factory Obscura, which states it is “a city-based collaborative company creating immersive experiences that awaken wonder, build community and make the world better.” Sounds like a local version of Meow Wolf? We just liked the front of the building.

We toddled on over to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum because there were reportedly some pretty impressive sculptures on the grounds. The bright sun made photographs difficult, but Brian did capture a few shots to reflect the quality of the artists’ skill.

Atlas Obscura finally failed us. It described the OKC Underground as: “over 20 city blocks, filled with art and history exhibits that illustrate the individuality of the state and its residents. There is no one entrance to the Underground, but rather many secretly well-known entrances scattered throughout downtown. Opened in 1974 the series of tunnels stretches for about a mile underground and includes a plethora of stores, shops, and even a post office.”

Well, nope.

Yes, it was underground. Yes, there are any number of entrances, secret or not all over downtown. But what we found was a winding array of differently colored neon lit walkways, some with photographs of times gone past (too much florescent lighting and reflection off of the glass for photography), but no shops, stores, restaurants or post office. Nice little walk with thoughts of what once was or maybe never was?

Barbara loved the juxtaposition of old and new architecture…

“Curious Organism” is a 2009 steel sculpture by Stan Carroll, resembling a bacterium surrounded by cilia, standing on four legs.

The Hopewell Baptist Church was built in the 1950s by roustabouts and roughnecks using oil field parts (e.g., drill pipes used for exterior supports) and made to resemble a teepee. Due to maintenance issues the church was abandoned in the 1980s and the congregation moved temporarily to a structure next door. With renovations funded by the generosity of a private donor the church has been able to reopen.

The Arcadia Round Barn was built in 1898 by a local farmer named William H. Odor. No one is sure how Odor came up with his design, or his rationale as to why this barn must be round. But by building a loft underneath the open round ceiling and effectively splitting the building interior in two the barn proved to be useful for not only housing livestock and grains but for community-wide dances and events as well.

When The Mother Road wound its way past the Acadia Round Barn, visiting tourists found it enough of a curiosity for the structure to become an iconic stop.

What is a gas station, restaurant and purveyor of over 700 different types of soda pop?

Pops was established in 2007 as a futuristic take on a classic roadside attraction. The building itself is designed in an ultra-modern style, all angular steel and glass, and once Inside a huge wall of soda bottles greets the visitor and draws well-earned stares. But it’s the stroll through the coolers and shelves bursting with so many types and brands of bottled soda pop from around the world that is just the best! It’s near impossible to resist buying a bottle or 2 or to purchase a pick-your-own 6-pak. What flavors would you try?

…check out the names…

There are billboards all over town advertising “Dead People’s Stuff.” Barbara was intrigued; after all, the name alone earned the store a visit!

Dead People’s Stuff describes itself as a “home and office-decor warehouse where unique, extravagant wares from all over the globe are displayed and are for sale.” Think an upscale consignment or second-hand store. Think a Hippo Hardware (of Portland fame) plus high-quality estate sale furniture and other architectural stuff and lots and lots of purses.

We have a friend in Mesa who was born and raised in OKC. Kevin is a Boomer Sooner – he bleeds red and white, believes only the toughest and most skilled can play Sooner football, and that the OSU Cowboys are, well, little brothers to the men in Norman. Apologies for the University of Oklahoma references, but bear with us…

We asked – we really did – about the highlights, the not to be missed while we were in town. The answer from a number of locals, Kevin included, was: “well, I guess after the National Memorial the stockyards are pretty cool or you could take in a minor league baseball game.” Some even added: “Tulsa’s only 100 or so miles away.” There was no oh my goodness you have to see the OU campus, no discernable excitement about the OKC downtown, drop dead gotta try restaurants, organized outdoor art, bustling upscale neighborhood with boutique shops and coffee houses or even crowds of people, save at the National Memorial site, and even then it was not particularly crowded. Not at all what we expected of a city of 700,000 or so citizens. And it’s the State Capitol – not even a recommendation to see the Capitol building? Perhaps it’s what you grow up with, but from our experience Oklahoma City is just lacking that sense of civic pride, and not a place we’d want to call home.

If in the neighborhood we’d very much recommend a trip to see the National Memorial and Museum, and if a fan of the era of the cowboys and settling the west a stop-in at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum would be a must.

We enjoyed the novelty of what we found in and around the area, and of course were very moved by our visit to the footprint of the Murrah Federal Building.

Barbara and Brian

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.“ – Henry David Thoreau

PS – Begging your pardon, but time for a little editorial: Oklahoma’s nickname is the “The Sooner State,” a term that dates back to 1889 when the Indian Territory was opened to white settlers. Thousands of people lined up on the border and, when the signal was given, they raced into the territory to claim their land. Some people went in early to claim their land, and became known as Sooners. That may explain the state’s nickname, but doesn’t excuse ill-treatment of the Indigenous Peoples who had so long called most of the West home, those in this region driven onto land that encompassed most of what we now call Oklahoma, then driven from that piece of turf to make room for white settlers and ultimately “herded” onto unwanted territorial lands.