Prior to now we have gone to every state in the vicinity except Kansas. Oversight now corrected. We left OKC headed north on I-35. Once over the border we entered the KTA, a turnpike that bypasses Wichita and Topeka with beautiful roads, through even better scenery. Rolling hills, bright green pastures, happy cows. Every 50 miles or so there is an island rest stop between the north and south bound lanes with gas, McDonald's, travel info and picnic tables. There are no hassles with getting off/on the tollroad or finding a parking place big enough for us. The choices are limited, but the convenience cannot be beat.
We camped at Perry Lake (Corps of Engineers) northeast of Topeka. Sure wish I had taken a picture, it is a very pretty spot. Worth a return trip! We walked, rode bikes and rested. We took a trip down to Lawrence; home of KU, fabulous old homes, and the Kansas River. It has a thriving downtown that reminds us of Austin in the early '60's. Another day we drove to Topeka, the capital. The setting is just as pretty, but more industrial than Lawrence.
We are now just southeast of St. Louis. Russell and I have driven through the city but never stopped for any amount of time. Villa Ridge, a very small town is roughly 40 miles out on I-44. The park is a true campground- not a fancy RV resort; great trees, a small lake, fire rings, nice picnic tables. The owner told me the same story as other parks in the area, booked up through Memorial Day. But when I explained our situation, to follow, he said, "you come on in, we'll work this out."
Our situation is that Kyle is meeting us here on Wednesday evening. He and Russell are then driving to Montreal where Kyle will be living for the next several months. so in looking for a place to stay it was important to be somewhere that I would feel comfortable not only in the park, but getting around and doing things. This is such a place, so we will be here for a month. That allows us time to help Kyle, see the city, and decide on our next destination.
Next blog: a trip to the Arch!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Oklahoma City
We had a sunny day for our downtown walk in OKC. I guess everyone begins at the Federal Building Memorial. We had seen pictures of the memorial, but couldn't visualize the before and after. The first thing we recognized was the field of chairs. The field is in the footprint of the original building. The chairs are arranged by floor and east/west location of the person who was killed. So there are 9 rows of chairs in columns of varying number (this is hard to explain) Then I noticed the small chairs. The children. Entering from the west, they aren't immediately apparent. The west side had fewer fatalities. But since the second floor was the daycare center, most of those chairs are smaller. There were also 3 children on the ground floor who came with parents for social security business. The pond on the north side of the field is where 5th St. used to be and where the truck was parked.
To actually talk about all of the scenes and settings would take more than a single blog. We passed on the museum, didn't need all of the details to mess with our overall sense of the place and time. The hurricane fence on the west side is covered with present day memorials and mementos from survivors. A wonderful ranger talked to us for quite some time about the other city buildings that were involved, a 16 block area. Maps on the grounds help to join the past and present. Why are so many people destructive? Whether it's a single death or 168, like at the Federal Building, what is the point?
From there we needed a change of pace and got that by walking south to Bricktown. We enjoyed the old buildings, the canal, the mosaics and other art. Middle of the afternoon was quiet except for the stadium where an early baseball game was going on. There are tributes to Oklahoma playplayers of the past. Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench get the most attention. We talked about going in for the $5 lawn seating, but it was the last inning. Instead we walked across the street to a Sonic. I got my all-time-favorite summer drink, diet limeade....Yum! On our walk we saw historic hotels, glittering new skyscrapers, new construction, and an oasis park. Of course the Thunder support was everywhere, as it should be. OKC has minor league baseball and hockey teams in addition to their major league basketball team. They are located in Bricktown. Wish Dallas had been smart enough to keep their sports teams downtown.
We wanted to drive around a bit and found a very odd assortment of museums; Banjo, Railroad, Homing Pigeons, China Painters, Red Earth, Firefighters, Oklahoma Land Run, Telephone History, Women Pilots, it goes on. We decided on The 45th Infantry Division Museum, a state run museum. It has an amazing collection of artifacts from every era of American history. I really enjoyed the Bill Mauldin Room containing hundreds of his original cartoons from the 40's and 50's. He was on the staff of the 45th through Europe in WWII and continued to give a view of GI life long after. His characters were true and endearing. Russell couldn't get over the weapons collection, massive! We saw items we never knew existed in wonderful condition. The staff is very proud of their Hitler collection. They have towels, photos, and other household items from his homes and the bunker that was his final hideout. This is a well kept secret that we are very glad we took the time to discover.
As usual, my order of business is out of whack. I have not downloaded my pictures yet. I'll post them later.
The rest of this weekend is being devoted to family. Matt Felty is graduating from OU Law School tomorrow and we are here to show how proud we all are. We look forward to time with all of the Felty clan.
To actually talk about all of the scenes and settings would take more than a single blog. We passed on the museum, didn't need all of the details to mess with our overall sense of the place and time. The hurricane fence on the west side is covered with present day memorials and mementos from survivors. A wonderful ranger talked to us for quite some time about the other city buildings that were involved, a 16 block area. Maps on the grounds help to join the past and present. Why are so many people destructive? Whether it's a single death or 168, like at the Federal Building, what is the point?
From there we needed a change of pace and got that by walking south to Bricktown. We enjoyed the old buildings, the canal, the mosaics and other art. Middle of the afternoon was quiet except for the stadium where an early baseball game was going on. There are tributes to Oklahoma playplayers of the past. Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench get the most attention. We talked about going in for the $5 lawn seating, but it was the last inning. Instead we walked across the street to a Sonic. I got my all-time-favorite summer drink, diet limeade....Yum! On our walk we saw historic hotels, glittering new skyscrapers, new construction, and an oasis park. Of course the Thunder support was everywhere, as it should be. OKC has minor league baseball and hockey teams in addition to their major league basketball team. They are located in Bricktown. Wish Dallas had been smart enough to keep their sports teams downtown.
We wanted to drive around a bit and found a very odd assortment of museums; Banjo, Railroad, Homing Pigeons, China Painters, Red Earth, Firefighters, Oklahoma Land Run, Telephone History, Women Pilots, it goes on. We decided on The 45th Infantry Division Museum, a state run museum. It has an amazing collection of artifacts from every era of American history. I really enjoyed the Bill Mauldin Room containing hundreds of his original cartoons from the 40's and 50's. He was on the staff of the 45th through Europe in WWII and continued to give a view of GI life long after. His characters were true and endearing. Russell couldn't get over the weapons collection, massive! We saw items we never knew existed in wonderful condition. The staff is very proud of their Hitler collection. They have towels, photos, and other household items from his homes and the bunker that was his final hideout. This is a well kept secret that we are very glad we took the time to discover.
As usual, my order of business is out of whack. I have not downloaded my pictures yet. I'll post them later.
The rest of this weekend is being devoted to family. Matt Felty is graduating from OU Law School tomorrow and we are here to show how proud we all are. We look forward to time with all of the Felty clan.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Interstate 40; Arizona to Oklahoma
We picked up I-40 at Kingman, AZ on Friday and arrived in OKC this evening, Monday. Now to arrive in Oklahoma two days after loosing in the first round of the NBA playoffs is somewhat humbling, but oh well! We are here for several reasons; it's our first time in this part of the state, we've wanted to see the Federal Building Memorial, and best of all, our nephew, Matt, is graduating from OU Law School.
We had some interesting stops along the way, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, and Pampa. After a fairly big lunch in Kingman, we had resolved to eat a salad at home that night but that was before we stopped at Black Bart's RV just east of Flagstaff. The RV park is in the OK variety, but Black Bart's Restaurant and Musical Review is way better than that. The waitstaff all sing with the awesome piano player. At times they took turns on stage, other times they all broke into song wherever they happened to be. Great fun and good salads too!
We stayed at High Desert RV just west of Albuquerque, a place we have enjoyed before. We got in early enough to have a homecooked meal and see the full moon rise over the mountains.
Pampa was our first stop back in Texas for a year. We stayed at the city park which turned out to be great! It seems that there is so much oil field work in the panhandle that it was available only because they limit stays to 14 days. We were in Pampa to get the vehicles inspected and get our driver's licenses up dated. Mine was expired and could have been handled on the internet, but we were here anyway and I felt like having a horrible picture taken today. Russell had learned that he has been driving with the wrong type of license for an RV our size. He studied all the way over and made a 90 on the written test. He also had to take a driving test and did very well on that one also. The folks at the DMV were very nice and helpful.
We'd had mail sent to Pampa because we expected to be there several days. Fortunately it was already in this morning. The post office in Pampa is a beautiful old building that I really enjoyed visiting. We had expected to be at least 2 days getting all of these things accomplished. We were gone before noon! It was really amazing to have all of these chores; 2 vehicles inspected, a driving test, a license renewal, and mail in a single morning. Small town America is great! Coming out of the post office a tall cowboy was walking in. He smiled, tipped his hat and said, "How'r yew this mornin?" How could you say anything but "GREAT!"
We had lunch in the town of McLean. Now unless you are related to Russell, you probably never heard of it, but Russsell's Aunt Irene, Uncle James and their family lived there for many years. We visited with a couple at the Shell station, which has THE BEST HAMBURGER IN TEXAS, who remembered James owning the Chevy dealership. He asked about all of the kids. Of course the kids are all about 60 now, but it was fun to share a memory.
We had some interesting stops along the way, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, and Pampa. After a fairly big lunch in Kingman, we had resolved to eat a salad at home that night but that was before we stopped at Black Bart's RV just east of Flagstaff. The RV park is in the OK variety, but Black Bart's Restaurant and Musical Review is way better than that. The waitstaff all sing with the awesome piano player. At times they took turns on stage, other times they all broke into song wherever they happened to be. Great fun and good salads too!
We stayed at High Desert RV just west of Albuquerque, a place we have enjoyed before. We got in early enough to have a homecooked meal and see the full moon rise over the mountains.
Pampa was our first stop back in Texas for a year. We stayed at the city park which turned out to be great! It seems that there is so much oil field work in the panhandle that it was available only because they limit stays to 14 days. We were in Pampa to get the vehicles inspected and get our driver's licenses up dated. Mine was expired and could have been handled on the internet, but we were here anyway and I felt like having a horrible picture taken today. Russell had learned that he has been driving with the wrong type of license for an RV our size. He studied all the way over and made a 90 on the written test. He also had to take a driving test and did very well on that one also. The folks at the DMV were very nice and helpful.
We'd had mail sent to Pampa because we expected to be there several days. Fortunately it was already in this morning. The post office in Pampa is a beautiful old building that I really enjoyed visiting. We had expected to be at least 2 days getting all of these things accomplished. We were gone before noon! It was really amazing to have all of these chores; 2 vehicles inspected, a driving test, a license renewal, and mail in a single morning. Small town America is great! Coming out of the post office a tall cowboy was walking in. He smiled, tipped his hat and said, "How'r yew this mornin?" How could you say anything but "GREAT!"
We had lunch in the town of McLean. Now unless you are related to Russell, you probably never heard of it, but Russsell's Aunt Irene, Uncle James and their family lived there for many years. We visited with a couple at the Shell station, which has THE BEST HAMBURGER IN TEXAS, who remembered James owning the Chevy dealership. He asked about all of the kids. Of course the kids are all about 60 now, but it was fun to share a memory.
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