Captain’s Log, 0720121 – 072221
I must apologize for not posting a report yesterday. After driving 8 and a half hours, when we arrived at our hotel in Oklahoma City, I just collapsed in the bed and laid there in a comatose state for a few hours. Or as my wife says, a normal Wednesday. I think I figured out how the truck drivers do it. Watching the way they tend to wander all over the road, they must be taking short naps along the way. If any of you publish the description of my car and license plate number, I will find you.
My wife finally poked me enough to get me up and out for dinner but my brain was fried so I decided to take a day off from writing. How to know when to take a break is simple. My wife asks me to spell my name and when I fail, I’m taking the night off. Heck, I’m on vacation, I’m supposed to take the night off.
To bring all of you up to date, Wednesday, we started in Albuquerque and drove to Oklahoma City. Eastern New Mexico is beautiful, western Oklahoma the same and the strip of Texas in between… my mother always said if you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything. I’m pretty sure on the welcoming sign it said that as you enter the state, stop by the visitor’s center and pick up a firearm. No I.D. required, unlike that pesky voting thingy.
I was surprised by how green it was on the whole drive. Coming from California, where crispy brown is the color of the year, it was surprising to see so much green landscape and standing water on the ground. I keep being told that the west is in the gripes of an historic drought. With the amount of rain I have driven through and the miles of green in front of me, apparently no one told New Mexico or West Texas.
We arrived in Oklahoma City late in the day and we were staying in a hotel in the center of the city. I was very impressed with the downtown area. What I thought OK City was and what I saw were two different things. It was very cosmopolitan and quite modern. We did see the tribute water tower to Garth Brooks in Yukon, OK just before entering the big city. I guess I expected more of that.
After a good night’s sleep, we packed up the car and made one more stop before leaving the city. We visited The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. This was the site of Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing by Timothy McVeigh. It is a very solemn, beautiful but disturbing site. It is the worst case of domestic terrorism in this country, by a twisted young man who did not like our government. A plaque talked about how the tragedy brought the people together instead of tearing them apart like the bomber wanted.
We then took a drive through Oklahoma City and found a really nice city that was worth visiting. Our next stop was Branson, Missouri. We started out on the Oklahoma Turnpikes which may be the best maintained interstate highway I have ever been on. When we reached Tulsa, we had to leave the turnpike for a while before getting back on the next stretch. The difference was night and day. I was happy to pay $5 to travel there. Other states could learn from OK.
The drive through eastern Oklahoma and western Missouri was amazing. Rolling hills covered in trees and very few buildings. And to think I thought of an open lot between two buildings on the 101 Fwy. was open space.
About 50 miles into Missouri, we headed south off the main interstate and headed to Branson. Our 48 mile drive took us into the Ozarks and my wife and I were both in awe of how beautiful the scenery is. One of the prettiest drives I have ever taken. We then arrived in Branson. A bit of a contrast. It is nationally known as being the entertainment capital of the mid-west…that is if you think impersonators of dead celebrities and Yakov Smirnoff as world class entertainers.
We decided to drive through the entertainment center of the small city and it was one lane each way and packed. Along the way there are some of the most unusual store fronts I have ever seen. One was a very large building that was actually built to look like it went through a major earthquake. It made me long for my California home. Another had a Mount Rushmore with John Wayne, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin. How patriotic is that? There was a massive traffic jam due to so many people trying to get to the 5:00 shows that started at many of the venues. At 5:10 traffic cleared up.
One of the shows was Dolly Parton’s Stampede. A kind of wild west show. We decided not to go. Since we are in Missouri, we were concerned when the performers started shooting blanks from their guns, the audience might return fire. Better safe than sorry.
We stopped at a place for dinner and should have figured it might not be too good due to the lack of cars in the parking lot at dinner time. It was a warning sign we should have heeded. When we walked in, there were very few people and many open tables and it still took awhile to get seated. There was also entertainment. Some old cowboy, who lost his voice years ago, doing cover songs from all different kinds of genres, very badly. I had a sandwich that wasn’t too bad but my wife ordered scallops. She should have known not to expect fresh seafood in a town thousands of miles from any ocean, in a town that uses bacon grease in all it’s recipes. They were terrible of course and we could not have been happier to shake the dust from our sandals as we left the town.
My wife summed up our visit in the best way. She said, “I never realized my standards are too high.”
Another long drive tomorrow, so may see you in a couple of days. If you’re not too inconvenienced, you could take a turn driving.
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