Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum

Don spent about three days of tough driving in very high winds across the Eastern half of New Mexico, West Texas and Oklahoma. Even at night the wind continuously pounded the side of the motor home.

Most of the scenery we drove through those days looked like this... _________________________________v_________________
(That blip was a rabbit by the side of the road.) If you think I am exaggerating, check out this picture.

Opps! Sorry, I missed the getting the rabbit in the picture...

A lot of the highway was on the old Route 66. At one point there as a big sign saying that this was a historic Route 66 bridge. I thing even the state (I don't know which one, they all looked alike at this point.) was stretching to come up with something interesting.

Historic Route 66 bridge. I can tell you are impressed!

When we reached Oklahoma City, we needed to get some repairs done on the RV. Nothing serious, but it meant spending two days there.

Since we had time on our hands, we spent the first afternoon at the Oklahoma City Federal Building Memorial. This this memorial was built after Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people, including 19 children.

They have done an impressive job with this memorial. Outdoors in the area next to where the Murrah Federal Building sat, there is a very large elm tree which survived the blast, now surrounded by a plaza.

Survivor Tree

From the plaza you can overlook the block-long reflecting pool with huge "doors" on each end, called the Gates of Time. One is marked "9:01" and the other, "9:03." The blast was at 9:02 that morning of April 19, 1995.

The Gates of Time

"9:01"

"9:03"

On the far side of the pool you can see, and walk through, the "Chairs." There is a chair for each person killed. The person's name is engraved on each.

They are positioned according to which floor in the building they were when they died. There were nine floors in the building, and so there are nine rows of chairs.

There are smaller chairs for the children. At night each chair, which has a glass base, is lighted.

The Chairs

Five people were killed outside of the building. Their representive chairs are separated a little way from those of the people who were inside the building.

Inside the museum, there are many artifacts from the blast, video stories of many of the survivors and some about those who didn't survive.

There is a separate room with a picture of each victim along with a small item indicating a special interest in that person's life.

It is all a very impressive memorial as well as quite moving and emotional. There is a lot more I could tell you about this memorial, but in the essence of time and space, I'll just suggest that more information can be found online.