Chapter Seven May 4, 2001 Friday Wichita Falls, Texas to Oklahoma City Dave is Working On It We woke up in Wichita Falls, Texas and pointed the car north. We already had reservations at the Courtyard by Marriott in Oklahoma city. We circled town once and headed for the boarder. It was a cloudy day, half the time lightly raining and the rest of the time threatening to rain. We stopped at this gift shop for some maps and tourist information and to buy a book of "Cowboy Songs" so we could sing the "Red River Valley" like any good Okie.   We stopped in Lawton, Oklahoma, for a quick snack and to check out the town. Fort Sill military base is located there, and the city was otherwise of only passing interest. The gravesite of the famous Indian Geronimo is located nearby, but we had difficulty finding it and the weather was very uncooperative. Besides, we didn't need to start another gravesite collection just now. There was an historic site with costumed reenacters, but after we found it, we decided against committing the time to actual stop in. However, in the outparcel of the fort, in what was otherwise a city park, were a series of prairie dog mounds housing dozens, if not hundreds, of the cute furry critters. We took these pictures, and headed off north in the on-again off-again drizzle. We arrived in Oklahoma city in late afternoon, and Dave wanted to stop by the airport (to get oriented in case he ever was sent there on business). To our delight, the giant arrow sculpture and the on-property working oil well pumps made for this couple of interesting and memorable pictures. We checked in at the Courtyard, then headed out to the Cowboy Hall-of-Fame (only to learn that it has been renamed the "Western Heritage Museum"). The museum was interesting and informative, but we particularly enjoyed the art gallery with oil painting portraits of various famous cowboys and cowboy actors. We hurried out of the museum and headed to our other planned stop. And boy were we mad! We had read about "Enterprise Square", an interactive museum on the campus of the Oklahoma Christian University. We had been to their website, and verified their address and hours. We left the Cowboy museum early and headed up there only to find that it was "closed for renovation", had been so for weeks or MONTHS and that no effort had been made to inform anyone. What a waste of our time! And on a very very busy day for us! We were all anxious to see the Oklahoma State capital building. As schoolkids, the picture was famous to us for the oil wells located on the front lawn. It was just a couple miles from downtown but, alas, the oil derricks are just for show these days. We finally visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial site. It was dreary and raining intermittently. But the site was quieting. Of course, the site is a memorial to the tragedy for the Murrah federal building, but the chosen symbols were particularly meaningful. Everybody by now knows of the chairs, each symbolizing one lost life, organized by building floor, with smaller chairs for each child. Each chair is inscribed with a name, and has a translucent base that is lit after dark. What was most amazing is what is NOT mentioned, ever, in any way shape or form. How difficult to memorialize the victims of this tragedy without in any way grandizing the perpetrator or the act. Yet that was achieved. Nowhere is there mention of the actual act, always the tragedy that followed it. Nowhere is mention of the perpetrator, only the victims. Furthermore, the street has been closed off and replaced by a block-long shallow reflecting pond. Unlike in Dallas, there is no place to paint an "X" or to stand to glorify or honor the cowardly attacker. Instead, one must stand aside or walk about and focus, again, only upon the victims. Most amazing, the moment of the tragedy is actually missing. On one gate is the time "9:01" (the last moment of normalcy) and the other is marked "9:03", the first moment of the tragedy. This memorial truly disables even one iota of recognition to anybody except its victims. It is a touching memorial that should be visited by everyone. Adding to the strange situation, was the fact the our visit coincided within two weeks of the originally scheduled execution. There were no protests, nor anger. Oklahoma City seems only to feel pain and anguish. As we all know, the execution was delayed but eventually carried out a few weeks later, long after we had returned home. We drove around "bricktown", the rebuilt area south of downtown with the new minor league baseball diamond. There were a couple blocks of new restaurants and we enjoyed a relaxed dinner before driving once more around the city and heading home. We stopped to have an ice cream just as a very serious thunderstorm broke out. The rain was so heavy we were actually held prisoner at the ice cream shop (good timing!). We just enjoyed our treat and watched the show through the picture windows.To our surprise, the power was out at the Courtyard, and a tornado warning was in effect. They asked all the guests from the second and third floor to stay in the lobby until "all clear" was sounded. For once, our ground floor room didn't seem so bad. But the worst of the weather had already passed by and it was bedtime. Original Web Upload May 2001 Last Update: August 26, 2001