Stop #3 Pt. 1: O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!

The drive to Oklahoma was scenic, lonely, and smelly. I say scenic because the drive was almost strictly two- or four-lane highways (we call those "back roads"). The views were largely flat but the roads were hilly in a lot of spots. I say lonely because for most of the drive, we were the only car on the road. We started to wonder if anyone lived in Oklahoma. Andy drove for the first few hours through some serious rain, about which he was less than pleased because the speed limit on most of those roads is 75 mph! But the torrential downpours meant he had to drive slower to maintain safety. We switched drivers around dinnertime and the weather cleared up just in time for me to drive...75 here I come! I say smelly because we left for Oklahoma directly from the Diamond Mines and we were all pretty...ripe. Charlotte's shoes were soaked and all of the dampness mixed with our sweaty bodies and rapidly declining teenage attitudes made for a stinky ride. Kongy is glad he doesn't have a working nose.

Along the way, we stopped at a park with a lake and enjoyed the view (not as much the hole-in-the-ground toilets) as we stretched our legs and the kids tried skipping stones. It was pretty but we could tell there was a storm rolling in.

We made it to our hotel and I unpacked & showered while Andy and the kids swam in the pool. It was a low-key night as we settled in for a two-day stay.

The morning was our first sleep-in morning. Well, for four of us anyway; Andy was up bright and early for a client meeting so he set up in the lobby of the hotel and worked there for most of the day. The kids and I lounged in the morning and found the hotel laundry room to clean up our dirty Diamond Mine clothes.

After lunch, we headed into downtown OKC and visited the Oklahoma City Memorial, built on the site of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995. It was so quiet and peaceful. I was impressed with the number of park rangers working there and patrolling the grounds. The chairs are arranged in 9 rows, each row representing a floor of the building, and each chair a person who perished in that location on that floor. Smaller chairs are for the children who died. A small portion of an original wall still stands and is engraved with the names of survivors from that days.

I was particularly moved by the Survivor Tree, originally engulfed in the flames of surrounding cars in the parking lot, the charred bark seemed to tell a story that the videos, reflection pool, and expansive grassy areas just couldn't tell. They hadn't seen it; they hadn't felt it. But this tree was there, has been there for at least a century and has seen so much. Yet it still grows and thrives, growing new bark but keeping the scarred bark as a reminder of how far it has come. I sat under this tree for a while, thinking about the families who experienced horrific loss, the families of the perpetrators and their different, yet still profound loss, and those who lived in the city at the time. I talked with my children about these different perspectives and how one would feel being in each different situation. I was thankful to feel the cool breeze and see my children sitting there under that tree, knowing that so many families' lives were altered in that one minute in 1995.

Andy still had work to do so we dropped him back off at the hotel and, in keeping with our solemn theme for the day, headed to Moore, OK, about 4 miles from our hotel. This is the site of an EF-5 tornado in 2013 that killed many people and destroyed an elementary school (7 children perished inside Plaza Towers Elementary School). Sarah is both fascinated by and terrified of natural disasters--mostly tornadoes--so we're right in her wheelhouse as far as weather is concerned. So she knows all the locations of our nation's most terrifying tornadoes. We visited Plaza Towers school and saw the memorial they have set up for the children killed there on that day. Sarah knew a lot about it and shared with Charlotte, Alex, and me on the way. Each child was represented by a personalized marble bench from which originated a "ray" of sunshine on the walkway into the school. There were also large, engraved marble likenesses of each child lining the walls of the entrance way to the school doors. No names were associated with the 7 figures but from the benches, we could figure out which child was which. We also noticed that the neighborhood was mostly newer-looking homes, most likely because they previous homes had been destroyed by the tornado. Given what happened at home last week, our hearts were broken to know the destruction that happened here, but joyful to know that brighter things could be ahead for the folks back home.

We stopped for groceries to make lunches on the road and ate dinner in our hotel room. Andy took the kids to a local park to throw the frisbee and I rested my swollen ankle. I have a case of tendonitis in my left ankle and, coupled with the swelling that happens whenever I travel, it's looking mighty gnarly 'round my lower limbs these days. I'll spare you the photo this time.

Tomorrow we're going to visit the National Weather Center on the campus of Oklahoma University before marching out of town for Amarillo, TX. Should be an interesting visit and we're all looking forward to this tour.