Waking up our last morning in Texas was a little strange. We had been in the Lone Star State for the past 38 days, driving hundreds of miles across the state. We had traveled from the desert and mountain west, the central Texas hill country, the Texas gulf coast and the major cities in North Texas. Today was the day though. We were finally crossing the state border north to Oklahoma.
We said adios to the Metroplex, hopped in Bubbles and headed north on I-35. Before we knew it we were crossing the Red River and were into Oklahoma. A few years prior a good friend Matt and I had flown to Dallas to see our favorite band Weezer play in southern Oklahoma. As Julie and I were on the same route and were passing the casino where the concert was held Julie and I decided to take a few hours off the road. It was a bit strange being back in this casino, which is about an hour and a half from both Dallas and Oklahoma City. It’s almost in the middle of nowhere. We walked around the huge Winstar World Casino having lunch at their grand buffet. As it happened to be St. Patrick’s Day we of course had to have a small Guinness and take a cheers to our trip. Slainte! From the casino we traveled the remaining hour and a half up to Oklahoma City and called it a day.
Waking up the next morning we were ready to explore. It had been quite a long time since we had started in a new state and we could not wait to get going. We packed up and headed into the city. As OKC is not a huge city we figured we could park in a somewhat centrally located area and walk for the day. We ended up parking in the Bricktown neighborhood in the city. Bricktown is a former railroad and warehouse district that had been transformed in the late 1990’s into an entertainment area. It was pretty neat as one of the most unexpected features we came upon was a riverwalk. This riverwalk while not as large as the one that we had seen in San Antonio was nonetheless very neat. We walked down among the restaurants on the canal having our packed lunch while we watched the tourist canal boats motor on by.
From Bricktown we walked into downtown and made our way to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. This memorial was dedicated to the people who lost their lives from the bomb that went off at the Oklahoma City Federal Building on April 19, 1995. The memorial was very moving in the way that it was set up. It was placed on the footprint where the Federal Building formerly stood. Where the interior of the building would have been there is the field of empty chairs. Each chair has a name of one of the people lost in the bombing. They are laid out in rows according to what floor the person was on in the building. There were also a few chairs off to the side indicating the few people that lost their lives that were not physically in the building. Julie and I walked around the memorial for quite a while taking it all in. As the National Park Service there runs the memorial there were rangers answering peoples’ questions. Just like at the JFK memorial in Dallas a place like this really made you think about both sides of the human experience. On one side you have someone that is so angry or depressed that they felt they needed to put a bomb in a heavily used building and all the pain that came from the aftermath. On the other side we saw how people came together from this tragedy, helped each other and really came together as a community to show that love really is more powerful than hate.
From the memorial we walked and checked out Elemental Coffee suggested by our Texan Coffee/BBQ friends (Thanks Zach & Cindy!). After a great cup of coffee we continued our OKC tour checking out the Uptown neighborhood and Automobile Alley district. The Automobile Alley district was pretty neat as it was where the majority of cars in OKC were once sold. Many of the old showrooms from the 1920’s with Chevrolet, Packard and other names on the buildings have been turned into shops and restaurants. There were even a few showrooms still being used to sell cars. From this area we decided to call it a day and head back to the campground for the night.
The next day we woke up ready again to hit the town. As usual for us when visiting a capitol city we have to visit the state capitol building. Here in Oklahoma City it was no different. After packing up and hitting the road in no time at all we were parking in front of the capitol building. One thing surprised us immediately as we pulled up as there was an oil derrick right in front of the building. It didn’t look like it was working but it was still neat to see nonetheless. (We later found out that it was the only state capitol building with an oil derrick on site) We toured the building with a few other Oklahoma folks running into a large news conference at one point as teachers in the state wanted to pass a bill allowing higher pay. Go Teachers!
From the Capitol building we toured the Paseo and Arts neighborhoods before leaving the city and driving north to the small town of Guthrie. We came here again for coffee at the suggestion by our new Texan friends to check out their favorite place, Hoboken Coffee. The coffee turned out to be excellent and the town was neat as well. Almost every building in the small downtown area had been placed on the Guthrie Historic District list as they were all built in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. The town had really boomed around this time as it became a railroad stop. The buildings were all built using a bright red brick, which really stood out, as it was an overcast day. We walked around Guthrie walking into a few stores and really getting a sense of history for the place. From Guthrie we drove back to Oklahoma City then back to our campground for the night.
Next up….We head southeast for a taste of Cajun cooking! Louisiana is up next!
