Oklahoma City, OK

Tuesday, October 6th, 2020

We awoke to another misty morning At Aux Arc Campground on the Arkansas River. So pretty. We also saw Johnny & Stacie packing up to leave but since we’d already said our tearful goodbyes the night before, we let them head out without intercepting them so we didn’t have to go through another round. 

We got organized and left shortly after they did. Once again we were traveling on I-40 West. It was a fairly easy drive… and we had our first introduction to the rich red Oklahoma soil. Very different from what we’re accustomed to and very pretty… if soil can be pretty. Apparently the iron oxides in the soil give it that rich red color. 

We arrived at Mustang Run RV Park just outside Oklahoma City. Our Garmin GPS had the exit incorrect but since I’m nothing if not OCD (with directions when we’re towing), I had Google Maps running on my iPhone and between the two, we managed to get there without a wrong turn. 

This campground is located about 2 feet from I-40. Talk about road noise! We were here for 2 nights. If it was one more night, Gary might have found me with my head stuck down the toilet to get away from the incessant traffic noise. Even with air conditioning going and a fan on, you could still hear the road noise in the middle of the night. Non stop. It could drive a person insane. As you may have gathered this wasn’t our favorite campground, although the sites were fine and the laundry facility was good. 

Once we arrived, I went directly to the laundry room to get our 2 weeks worth of laundry underway. I met a young couple in there. They had just picked up their new 5th wheel and were embarking on being full time RVers. They were so excited. They were staying 2 weeks at this campground before heading to Tulsa to show off the RV to family. From there I’m not quite sure where they were off to. They were working online so needed to pick campgrounds with good cell service, and would use the evenings and weekends to explore new areas. They had no children yet but figured they would continue doing this even when they started a family. Fun to chat with them. 

This was the first time we had stayed in Oklahoma with our tiny home. That meant we got to add Oklahoma to our map of visited states. An exciting moment! (pic below)

We got laundry done and had a quiet night… except for the traffic noise. 

Wednesday, October 7th 2020

The top priority for today was going to see the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I have a clear memory of that day back on April 19, 1995. It was when Gary was working with his partner (and our friend) Ken at Footwear Concept Center. They had about 3 other designers working with them at the time, and I was sharing office space there as well doing graphic design work for my clients. We typically all gathered in the conference room for lunch. We turned on the TV and BAM… there it was… big as life. We could see the facade of the Alfred P. Murrah building gone. We were all thunderstruck. It was our first experience as a nation with domestic terrorism.

The Memorial was a short drive from the campground. Before you even enter the Memorial’s hallowed grounds, you’re met with a portion of the Fence. The original Fence was in place for almost a whole year to protect the site once the bombed shell was removed. Tens of thousands of people left messages and/or mementos on the fence for the victims, their families, and rescuers. A small portion of the Fence remains and people are still leaving messages. The thousands of mementos and messages that have already been left are now archived for the Memorial collection.

We focused our visit on the Outdoor Memorial rather than the museum. The hallowed ground of the memorial now encompasses the footprint of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and the footprint of surrounding buildings that were damaged and had to be removed. As soon as you enter the Outdoor Memorial, you’re met with a sense of calm, of peace. The designers have done a marvelous job. The day of our visit the Memorial wasn’t very crowded and shortly after our arrival we saw a Park Ranger who graciously explained the significance of what we were seeing. 

There is a Field of 168 Empty Chairs in tribute to the Americans who were killed. They are hand-crafted from glass, bronze, and stone and etchedwith the victim’s name in the glass base of each and lit from the bottom at night. The nine rows of the chairs represent the nine floors of the Murrah Building. Each person’s chair is positioned in the row that corresponds to the floor that they worked or were visiting. There are 5 other chairs off to the side. They represent the 5 people killed outside of the building. There are small chairs mixed in with the larger chairs representing the children that were killed. The children’s chairs are especially heartbreaking to see. 

There are two huge bronze walls at either end of the Reflecting Pool. They are called The Gates of Time. The only inscription on each of the walls/gates is 9:01 and 9:03. 9:01 represents the final minute of innocence for our nation in regards to domestic terrorism. 9:03 represents the minute after the blast when recovery first began. The Reflecting Pool between the walls or gates represents the long minute in between when people’s lives were changed forever. The Ranger had explained to us that we could dip our hand in the Reflecting Pool, place our hand on the bronze wall and the imprint would last all day. 

There is a huge American Elm tree that is set off in a space of honor at the Memorial. It’s known as the Survivor Tree. It’s 100 years old and the only tree that survived the bombing. Along with this American Elm is the Rescuers’ Orchard. The trees planted here represent the Oklahoma Rescue Workers and rescue workers who came from all over the country and the world to help. 

The Reflecting Pool is powerful. It reflects the museum building and also the trees. Some of the trees had some fall colors to them. It was beautiful seeing everything reflected in the pool. 

Many school children come here on class trips. There’s a whole area devoted to kids. They can leave messages in chalk on the grounds or read a sampling of the tiles that were sent by the thousands of children back in 1995 from all over the country who wrote messages of hope and support to the citizens of Oklahoma and the rescue workers. 

Such a moving memorial. We did not visit the museum as we were feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all. We heard from friends afterwards that it’s extremely well done so we will have to plan for that next time we are in this area. 

After we finished viewing the memorial we had much more mundane tasks to tackle like getting in some groceries and filling up with fuel. Then it was time to head back to our Tiny Home to a not-so-quiet night with more traffic noise. 

Tomorrow we enter Texas and visit Palo Duro Canyon State Park, the second largest canyon in the U.S. It should be something to see!