Oklahoma City…

We knew it would be hot but failed to anticipate the winds today as we visited the museum and memorial dedicated to the Murrah Federal Building bombing in 1995. The museum is the best curated museum I have ever visited, and I have been to many. The simplicity of the memorial is both beautiful and moving. The museum is an emotion racking experience with vivid descriptions of the tremendous response by the various emergency services who turned absolute chaos into an organized and tremendously effective exercise in handling a mass casualty event. Should you attend, allow at least two hours to see and feel the events of the day at this National Park.

After the museum we walked the 4 or so blocks to the famous Devon building, said to be the tallest building in Oklahoma at 50 stories. We made reservations for the lunch buffet on the top floor, offering an incredible panorama of Oklahoma City and the surrounding countryside. The restaurant goes by the name Vast and was allegedly a wonderful place to enjoy an upscale luncheon buffet, replete with what is described as a terrific dessert offering. The building is an architectural masterpiece in steel and glass with the fastest elevator in the midwest.

Our anticipation did not meet the realities of the buffet. The food was very average, the selection limited to two mediocre meat offerings, a few vegetables and a soup that was mysterious and underwhelming. Sharon is a veteran of 27 tours in the classroom and elementary education and her summary of the dining experience was succinct and accurate. She described the main courses as bad elementary cafeteria food. My brutal assessment is augmented by the cost of the meal for us, in the 70.00 range. Sorry Vast……

Oklahoma City, downtown, is a super clean city that is very pedestrian friendly. We were surprised at the relatively few folks moving around during the lunch hour, being used to KC and STL downtown foot traffic. The lack of enthusiasm today may be the result of the Pacers thorough thrashing of the Thunder from Indy. We can attest…they take basketball as seriously here as we do the Chiefs and NFL.

Tomorrow we move on to Amarillo, Texas to take the pulse of this north Texas town steeped in cowboy lore. Yesterday we visited the Will Rogers museum in Claremore, another very nice place honoring this ordinary man with an extraordinary wit and ability to communicate. He is one of my favorite Americans, although we discovered he was a lifelong Democrat, a fact I failed to note over the years.

I promise not to turn my blogs into a rendition of “my vacation” but will continue to report on the neat things we see as we motor on.

Have a good week and watch the heat…..gonna be a scorcher in Missouri!

SR