Trepedaciously, but informed, we headed into Oklahoma. We had to work and try to stay in between two big storm systems whipping through tornado alley. When we crossed the border from Arkansas into Oklahoma, the sun was shining and we listened to Surrey with the Fringe on Top (from the musical Oklahoma!). I did not remember all the words.
This is what it looked like by the time we got to Oklahoma City. We only had to pull over once to wait out some epic rain, and luckily, no tornadoes developed from this system, though watching OK weather men and their radar systems in fascinating. We bedded down for the night and then headed out early to see a few things before getting out of the way of the second round of storms.
We started at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, which is massive. Things are definitely bigger the further west you get. One of their special exhibits this month is Madonnas of the Prarie. Fabricated images of women in the west as advertisements for people to homestead from the mid-1800's on.
They even have a replica side saddle so I could pose. Christiana of the Prarie.
As the museum is massive, it has a full replica of a wild west town. Here's Jim at the saloon.
One of the saddest pieces of art we've seen in a while, this is named the end of the trail, a heart wrenching reminder of how the west was won and who it had to be won from.
On to nearby El Reno for the local quisine, fried onion burgers. A culinary tradition dating back to the great depression when stretching beef rations was the only way to stay in business, the thin beef patties are served on a tasty bun, with about equal weight of griddled onions, delicious.
Though Route 66 is now defunct, thanks to the Eisenhower Interstate system, you can still visit kitschy stretches in this part of the country (OK, NM, AZ). The original Route 66 connected Chicago and LA, and enjoyed it's hay-day back in the 20's. Here we visit the Elk City National Route 66 Museum Complex.
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