October 11-17, 2020 - Oklahoma City, OK, Ponca City, OK, and Wichita, KS - A SOBERING SUNDAY and yet A WONDERFUL, BUSY WEEK

October 11-17, 2020 - Oklahoma City, OK, Ponca City, OK, and Wichita, KS - A SOBERING SUNDAY and yet A WONDERFUL, BUSY WEEK

Sunday, October 11 - Oklahoma National Memorial Visit

We made plans yesterday evening with friends Larry & Gayle to have breakfast together, followed by a trip to the Oklahoma National Memorial in downtown Oklahoma City.  Dean offered to drive.  Gayle inquired of local Heartland members, about a good place to have breakfast.  Jimmy's Egg was mentioned and it was a great choice for two reasons....it was very near the Memorial and the food was excellent!  We all enjoyed our meals.

It didn't take us long to find the Memorial and we parked in the Post Office parking lot across the street which was almost empty since it was Sunday.   They did a pretty good job of self distancing groups - approximately 15-20 people were allowed in to different sections at a time.  Fortunately we arrived prior to the Museum opening so we were in one of the first groups.  

Dean and I were in Las Vegas when the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building occurred.  We were getting ready for the day.  The TV was on and I was standing right beside it when the news came on with pictures of what had happened.  I was horrified when I saw the footage of the destruction that occurred in front of me.  It changed our day; thinking about all of the people impacted by this horrible destruction.  It was even more horrifying when we learned it was due to a bomb and not an accidental problem.  It was unthinkable!  We were in for a shock when we arrived at the airport the next morning and how it too changed in less than 24 hours.  It was a little frightening to even think about getting on the plane due to the high security that was put in place in such a short time.  

The Museum is wonderfully done, giving a thorough account of what happened before, during and the aftermath of this unthinkable occurrence.  If you haven't been here, I would recommend it.  The outside Memorial is a somber, yet peaceful setting.  The one thing that stood out to me more than once during our visit was how 1 minute can change your life forever.  Here are a few pictures:

The first thing we saw as we approached the area were the many things that people bring to the site regularly to leave in memory of those who were killed or injured in this horrific act of violence.

The reflection pool - from one wall to the other at each end of the pool is a reminder of the minute that the building exploded and lives were changed when the bomb went off.  One wall shows the time of 9:01 - when the bomb went off, and the other wall shows 9:03, with the pool being the minute when the building was bombed and destroyed.

The two walls at either end of the reflection pool.

The Oklahoma Memorial Museum

The empty chairs representing each person who was killed in the bombing.

The tree on the right of this picture is known as the Survivor Tree.  Below is a closeup of the tree, along with a couple of signs about the tree.

A very interesting story about a young man who was booted from a train in Oklahoma, how he worked hard and persevered in his desire to make something of himself.   We are so blessed that our country gives us opportunities, that if we work hard enough we can do anything.  Sometimes it takes, guts, determination and prayer.  If we set our mind to it our goals our unlimited.  

A picture of one of the cubicles within the Museum of how things looked after the bombing.

Notice the clock and the time.

Of course, you can click on any picture to enlarge it in order to read the signs I've included.

Taken from inside of the museum looking out over the Memorial garden.

Our visit here was a somber one, thinking of those innocent individuals who came to work that morning, like a normal day, leaving their children in the daycare area in the building, and in one minute their lives and their families lives were changed for ever.  

We returned to the RV Park and rested awhile before going back to the meeting room later in the day where leftovers of our previous meal were set out for those who stayed the extra day.  It was a much smaller group but again, we enjoyed each other's company.  Tomorrow we will pack up and move north to Ponca City.

Monday-Wednesday, October 12-14 - Spending Time with Misti

Monday, October 12 - We pulled up our jacks and left the Roadrunner RV Park in Oklahoma City at 10:03am heading north on I-35 toward Ponca City, OK.  My daughter, Misti moved here a few months ago, and we were going to spend some time with her.  We decided to stay at Coon Creek Cove Campground on Kaw Lake, located just northwest of Ponca City.  Our friends Stan and Linda, who live in Ponca City had told us about this campground, as they take their grandsons their to camp on occasion.  I had contacted them prior to leaving and they told us the site they usually stay in.  Fortunately for us, the site was available.  We drove the entire loop to check things out before Dean stopped and backed into the site.  Our large windows were open to the lake and we could watch the birds and see out into the lake.  There were a number of pelicans so we really enjoyed watching them.

Dean cooked breakfast for us this morning on his new Blackstone grill.  

We left in the afternoon to drive to Misti's where we met up with her within minutes of her arrival at home after work.  Tonight we are going to try out one of the local restaurants that is touted as a favorite by the community.  Enrique's is located at the Ponca City Airport.  We were soon seated.  When our "chips" came we were surprised they were more of a puffed tortilla (smaller but similar to a Sopaipilla), other than the thin, crisp chips we are accustomed to.  They were quite good as was the cheese dip.  From visiting with our friends, Stan advised the restaurant is well known by many pilots who fly in to the airport, that occasionally may include a celebrity or important person.  Unfortunately, there did not seem to be anyone of that status their during our visit.

Back at Misti's we visited and gathered pictures she wanted to have help in hanging while we are here the next couple of days.  After visiting for awhile we left to head back to the campground.  We will meet up with her for lunch tomorrow as we have some things we want to do around town.

Tuesday October 13, Dean made breakfast on our Blackstone grill outside under the covered picnic area.  He hasn't had much time to use it since we've been busy every since it arrived.  

We headed into Ponca to meet up with Misti for lunch.  We picked her up at her work, and drove the short distance to a pizza place where they offer a nice smorgasboard of salad, pizza, dessert pizza and a few pasta dishes.   We had a nice visit before taking Misti back to work.  Dean I drove around Ponca City to get a lay of the land, and made a few stops at a couple of businesses.  We returned to the campground where we rested a bit before heading back into Misti's shortly before 5.  Every time we came or went we seemed to take a different route which was fun to see the different areas around the community.

This evening we are going to Pawhuska to eat pizza at The Pioneer Woman's, P-town Pizza.  When we arrived we discovered we would have to be on the "waiting list".  They took my email, advising they would send a text message when we could come back to be seated.  We walked into a nearby store to look around, then walked across the street to The Mercantile.  I bought a new t-shirt, that I really liked.  While there, I received a text message we could be seated.  We hurried back to P-town.  The pizza parlor is on the second story of a building downtown.  They have a large open room upstairs with a balcony outside where a few people were sitting.  It was getting a little cool outside, so we chose to remain inside.  We were seated near the wood fired pizza oven, where I was able to watch the pizzas come and go.  It didn't take long to get something to drink (water) and place our order, but we were surprised it took so long to get our pizza.  They were making pizzas as fast as they could but a number of them were to-go orders.  We chose the "meat" pizza and it did have lots of meat on it.  While the pizza was good, we were disappointed that there was very little cheese on the pizza, which is an important part to us.  In fact I like quite a bit of cheese on my pizzas.  

Loved this mural in the downtown area

Old Drummond Ranch truck on display at the Mercantile

Pictures from inside Charlie's

After dinner, we walked next door to Charlie's Sweet Shop, The Pioneer Woman's ice cream parlor where we enjoyed ice cream treats.  Dean and I chose vanilla ice cream with homemade salted caramel on it.  Oh yum....it made up for not having enough cheese on the pizza.  We shared a small bowl, which surprisingly was quite good sized.

By then it was dark, so we headed back to Ponca City.  It's a good 30-40 minute drive so the evening went by fast with the drive over, the wait, ice cream and our return trip.  We stayed at Misti's to visit for awhile before heading back to the campground.

Wednesday, October 14 we decided to have breakfast in town.  We chose Perkin's and the meal was quite good.  Dean has his normal, 2 eggs, sausage, and hash browns with toast.  I like variety, so I had a 2 egg omelet with tomatoes, green peppers, ham and avocado and a Mammoth pumpkin with cream cheese muffin.  I did not want toast or hash browns.  My omelet and muffin were delicious!  

Afterwards, Dean and I visited a number of businesses to buy a few things.   Afterwards, we headed back to the RV where we spent the afternoon resting, before going back to Misti's shortly before 5.  Dean brought the Blackstone to Misti's, so we could grill hamburgers for dinner.  After our meal, we helped move her bedroom furniture around, moved her treadmill from the garage to the second bedroom, hung pictures and visited one last time before we leave tomorrow.  While we were out and about this afternoon, one of the things Dean purchased was a wooden mover, to move furniture, tables, etc. and it sure came in handy this evening.

We had a great visit with Misti.  Next time we come back it will be over a weekend so we can spend more time with her.

Thursday-Sunday, October 15-18, 2020 - Spending Time with Heath & Jarred's Families

Thursday, October 15.  We are thankful it's not far from Ponca City to Wichita - slightly over 94 miles almost straight north.  We left Coon Creek Cove Campground at 1:16pm, arriving at All Seasons RV Park at 3:28pm.  We easily moved into site 7, one of our favorite spots in this campground.  We are here so often, the staff know us now.  

Once we were set up, we gathered up some much warmer clothing, jackets, hat, ear muffs, gloves, blanket, etc. as we are heading to grandson Abram's last football game of the season.  I have to say wearing a mask was never so welcome as it was tonight with the wind blowing so hard.  It sure kept our faces warmer.  Abram's team won the game and we enjoyed watching Abram play.  

Abram's football game.  He's the guy in the middle pushing the runner back in close contact.

Afterwards, we stopped at a nearby McDonald's to grab some food and then headed to Heath & Casey's to eat and visit with everyone.  We had a great time catching up before heading back to Bentley.

Friday, October 16 we had plans to spend the afternoon with Jarred and Emmy.  Emmy's school is having an outing at Marietta Farms Pumpkin Patch.  Baby sister Hayden was at the babysitter's.  Dad Jarred, and us drove the to the pumpkin patch, where we met up with Emmy, her classmates, teachers and parents.  Emmy can be the sweetest little princess, who loves to dress up, but today she was a first class tomboy.  That girl has more energy than any I've met in a very long time.  I wish I had a fourth of her energy, although we did stay up with her most of the day.  We definitely got a workout.  What a fun place this was.  The kids were having so much fun running from one activity to another.  Emmy's favorite things was the building maze that was probably 4 "short" stories high, that you had to move through from the front to the back to exit.  I don't know how many times she did this but I'd say well over a dozen times.  

We walked the Maze - with Emmy leading us through.

She also loves the monkey bars, and despite the fact she had a blister on one of her hands, she kept going back for more.  She has recently learned to move from one bar to the other using one hand per bar, rather than moving one hand, then the other to the same bar before moving on to the next in the same manner.  About half way through she switches back to one bar at a time.  By the time we get to see her again, I'm sure she'll be an expert at hand over hand.  

She's growing up!

She also loved the large slide and the corn bin where she buried all but her head.  I'm not sure who was more tired us or Emmy.  

We headed back to the house where we met up with Andrea and Hayden.  Hayden is such a happy baby and she loves her big sister.  She was all smiles for her.  

Andrea needed to pick up some hay bales, so we loaded into Jarred's truck and drove to Goddard, not too far from their house to pick those up.  Afterwards we drove to Andrea's parents to drop the hay bales off.  Tomorrow Andrea, her mom and sister are having a baby shower for her cousin, and the bales are part of the decorations.  We visited for awhile before all of us going to eat BBQ.  Emerson came home with us afterwards to spend the night.

Ready for bed.

Saturday, October 17 was Roman's last soccer game.  Fortunately for us, since we haven't been to one of his games yet, there were two, back to back.

Roman is third from the left.

After his game, we stopped at a Quick Trip for sandwiches and something to drink, before we went back to Heath & Casey's and spent the afternoon with them and the boys.  

After visiting for awhile, Dean and I went outside with the boys.  I watched them throw a football around.

L to R - Roman, Abram, Dean and Gideon

L to R - Roman, Dean, Gideon and Abram

Jewel - one of their dogs.