The Last Drive for Home

After leaving Oklahoma City, we spent a couple of days of R&R on a rustic farm campground in Missouri. Shortly after we set up on arrival, gunfire commenced from the bush lot across the road. A bit of target practice by a dozen rednecks I suppose. After a few ricochets whizzed over the campground the cops were called and  the peaceful calm returned. Now that's rustic. Scratch this place off our return list.

Even though we're on our final leg of the journey home, we still like to stop and see some local history along the way. We've traveled this road before so we decided to spend our days off at different stops than last time. So after leaving the firing range, we picked a lovely quiet campground just out of Vandalia Illinois.

Now one of the reasons we picked this area to stop was because we had heard that they had an arch just like St. Louis (you remember, the one Grammie went up in last year, if you don't, check out last years blog). And darned if they didn't have an arch as advertised. A good try. 

The thing we didn't know about until we started snooping around was that this was where Abe Lincoln got his start. Vandalia was the capital of Illinois and it's here that he became a lawyer and then a politician. That's the capital building in the background. We're sitting with a young Abe as he reads the paper. 

In this room, Abe started his political career and gave his first speech about slavery in 1837. The people of Vandalia are not big Lincoln fans because he was the one who pushed through the bill moving the capital from Vandalia to Springfield where it was moved to in 1838.

The building has been restored to what it looked like in the 1830's. So, guess what this is. No, not a kitty litter box, but close. A wooden spittoon. Everyone chewed and spit back then and the wooden ones were cheaper to make than the ornate metal ones; and easier to clean. 

Around 1800, the colonies didn't have a mint to make coins and England stopped shipping them so Spanish doubloons were used as coins in the remote areas like Illinois. They were cut as needed to make smaller coins. Can you see the original quarters? How about the lower right corner? That's where pieces of eight came from. Cool, right?

We seem to be hitting the more primitive type of campground on this trip. By trying new areas, our choices are a bit more limited, but that's OK, we're only here for a couple days.

Anderson, Indiana was just down the road so a closer look was in order. It's a very typical midwest town. Excellent old architecture in the downtown area with a bit of boarded up and abandoned buildings as well. They are doing a great job of restoring the downtown with parks and broad sidewalks. I found these young ladies cavorting about; trying to attract tourists I guess. Attracted me! 

Just out of the downtown area, they have a beautiful park with long hiking paths and terraced flower gardens. We spent a couple hours just walking around enjoying the flowers and gardens.

A lot of work has gone into making the paths interesting and fun to walk along. After our hike, we headed back to the hay meadow we call home to hook up and get ready for the final leg home. 

After an overnight stay in Michigan, we made it home in the rain and wind. But in no time we were set up and welcoming visitors. McKenzie brought some friends out for us to meet. 

After a long day of driving we all needed to relax a bit. Kyle and McKenzie were excited to have Grammie and I home and it was great to be back. Boy, have they grown over the winter! This will probably be the last blog for awhile. Hope you enjoyed them. TTFN.

Oklahoma City

Its time to leave Amarillo and head east and continue our trip home. The last night before leaving, a big thunder storm moved through and hailed on us. Fortunately they were only the size of peas. 

A nice tailwind got us to our camping destination in Oklahoma City. We've stayed here before and like the resort, especially its great wi-fi. 

A crowd showed up to watch us park. Fortunately I didn't give them anything to laugh about. Or crow about.

The last time we stayed here, we didn't have the time to get to see the memorial to the Oklahoma City bombing so we made sure we had the time this time. On April 19, 1995 at 9:02, Timothy McVeigh set off a 4000 pound load of explosives in a Ryder truck just in front of the Murrah building. This is called the Survivor tree because its just across the street from the explosion. Pictures show cars all around the tree destroyed and on fire. It lost all its leaves, but survived. 

Where the Murrah building sat, is the "Field of empty chairs", 168 chairs each representing one of the fatalities. The front tree on the left is about where the truck was parked. The road was removed and a reflecting pool was put in its place. 

The chairs are lined up by floor showing those persons killed on each floor. The lower floors had more fatalities so those rows are longest. There was a pre-school on the second floor and 19 of the chairs on the second floor row are smaller to denote the loss of children. 

Each of the chairs has the persons name on it. There are multiple family names together because they were dropping their kids off or helping out at the pre-school. This is one of the children who died. 

The bomb was so powerful that buildings were damaged over 2 miles away and 16 had to be torn down due to structural damage. This building was across the street and sustained major damage but it was restored as a fitting building to house the museum and memorial artifacts. 

This shows the roof line of the museum where the original roof was blown off and the new glass and steel roof was put back on. Parts of the original fire escape show damage from the blast. All the windows were destroyed and black boards now fill the openings. The original wall shows damage from shrapnel and the blast heat and has been sealed to protect the damage and prevent weathering.

This is one of the fire escape doors that was on the side of whats now the museum. It was blown into the building by the blast. The picture behind shows the parking lot where the Survivor tree stood. 

Timothy McVeigh was arrested within hours on a traffic offence and the investigation led to him within days and he was found already in jail. This is the rear axle from the Ryder truck. It was found two blocks away. The registration number on it lead to who had rented it. 

This is a tire rim off the same truck. Parts of the truck were found almost two miles away. He had filled the truck with 4000 pounds of ammonia nitrate and diesel fuel and set it off with stolen dynamite caps. He was tried, convicted and hung as the first home grown terrorist in U.S. history. 

During the recovery and cleanup, this fence was erected to keep the site protected. It became part of the final memorial and people still attach mementos to it. Its been a very sobering visit. They do a good job of putting  faces and stories to the dead, especially the children.

While we're here, we thought we'd head on down town and see what its like. This is called the Bricktown area and its where all the sports arenas and ball parks are. Its full of great eating places and we had one of the best burgers ever here. Its almost empty but I can imagine what its like on a game night. 

They have a lovely canal system that runs through part of the downtown area. Its not on the same level as San Antonio was but still very impressive. 

This is part of the canal. You have to admit its peaceful and serene. 

A few blocks away is the Myriad Botanical gardens. Its a lovely lush park in the centre of the city. Perfect for romantic walks and picnicking. 

The centre glass cylinder is full of lush tropical vegetation like palm trees (as if we haven't seen them all winter). Its a very striking building and is surrounded by quiet trails and gardens. Downtown Oklahoma City is a lovely place. Its obvious they have taken downtown revitalization to heart. A number of streets are torn up as they widen and add boulevards to make it even more attractive. After the somber memorial visit, walking around downtown by the canal and through the parks has improved our moods immensely.

Flagstaff to Amarillo

The drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff wasn't too long but we gained about 5000' of elevation so Harvey was huffing and puffing by the time we got there. Snow on the ground told us we were a lot higher than Phoenix.

This is probably the most rustic campground office we've ever checked into. Cool. The far building was a steak house but we never partook. We weren't around much. We went to the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater from here. 

After camping on the desert sand for weeks, it was nice to see some trees, even if there was snow amongst them. It also got to well below freezing each night; we haven't dealt with that for awhile.

Leaving Flagstaff, we're on our way to Gallup New Mexico. Terrain changes make the drive more interesting. 

This is more like what we're used to. Desert sand and level for miles around. 

Some of the latest in RV's were on display. Apparently the gas mileage is a lot better. 

We're following the same direction as old Route 66 and once in a while the roads are the same. Businesses along Route 66 like to advertise as such. Here Grammies being entertained by a travelling minstrel.

Now were on our way to Albuquerque, NM. The terrain along the drive is constantly changing. After a couple hours of flat prairie any change is welcome. 

Our next stop was in the hills just east of Albuquerque. The campground was terraced with railroad ties. The roads and sites were dirt so every vehicle going by threw up clouds of dust. Its the first time we closed the windows and ran the air conditioning since leaving home. We love open windows and breezes but not here. 

We tried some rough hiking trails but they sort of petered out and we did a lot of backtracking. That's OK, we were after exercise anyway.

We're here for a couple of days so we went for a short drive up the Turquoise Trail north east of Albuquerque. We stopped at a quaint town called Madrid which used to be a mining town but now its mostly artists and tourist traps. Imagine our surprise when we found out this was the town that "Wild Hogs" was filmed in. This was the diner in the film. It was a false front for the film but a local bought it after and built a small store in it. 

This building was used as the gas station in the film. 

Now, if you've seen the film (and who hasn't), here is the main street where the bikers came in and a lot of the action took place. Just behind me is the park where the bull slapping scene took place as well as the chili festival and dance. They sure look bigger in the movie.

This is looking up the other way. If you have the DVD, check this out and see what you can spot. It's amazing what you stumble over wandering around like we do.

The next town a few miles down the road was another mining town but its almost deserted. Only about 50 people left. Its called Cerrillos and was used as the town where "Young Guns" was filmed a few years ago. A regular Hollywood East out here. Just outside this town is where the big biker bar was built that blew up in the Wild Hogs film.

Imagine our surprise when we pulled into our next stop in Amarillo. Its either a sinkhole or tornado debris. 

I made sure the site we settled on was stable. It looks like we're back in the desert, no more trees or snow. 

It sure blows here. After a few hours of watching the satellite dish wobble to and fro, I threw everything I had on it. It still wobbles but shouldn't blow over. I also parked the car right in front of it to block some of the wind. It does blow in Texas. 

If you haven't heard of the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, google it or better yet, read on. A farmer got the idea to partly bury 10 Cadillacs in his field near the interstate. It got so much attention that the highways dep't had to put in a wayside stop so people could get out and look. 

Over the years it has gotten to be tradition to spray paint messages on the cars. It's hardly possible to tell what year they were never mind the colour. 

Isn't it weird the things we find as we travel? Its certainly not the Grand Canyon, but we had heard of the Cadillac Ranch so it was still fun to see it. As you've probably figured out, we've finally gotten internet and I've been busy doing blog updates. Sorry this post is so long but now I'm caught up. We're in Amarillo Texas and will be leaving in 2 days for further adventures so stay tuned.