Day Eleven - Tuesday, 1 July

The RV was to stay in Oklahoma City a few days, so the Road Book was put aside.

I was all packed up and ready; laundered my sheets and towels; filled Rita’s car with gas at the 7-11. I thought I would be joining Bill at the RV, but it turned out that he planned to come stay with me after all. Again, completely typical of how well we don't communicate.

For the day’s tours, the youngsters and the oldsters split up. Jane reckoned that Simon had had enough of being the ‘kid’ and being instructed by the grown-ups. I got picked up about 9 am and we drove through Nichols Hills to look at the houses (the link I found does OKC proud!). Chris had wanted to see the Overholser Mansion, which we found quite by accident – having seen Mesta Park and Heritage Hills as well by now. The Mansion was shut for some reason I didn’t quite catch. Maybe they were looking for more ghosts.

So we went to the main thing planned for that day, the Memorial Museum. This commemorates the bombing of the Federal Building in April 1995. Bill and I had been before and so were perhaps better prepared for the emotional impact this place makes. It begins by using pictures and a sound recording from a nearby official hearing to help visitors very nearly experience being near the actual explosion and the unfolding of events on the day. Then it carries through day by day describing the rescue, recovery and reconstruction phases from the point of view of family members, the news media, local community groups and the emergency response workers. I'm always pleased to read about how Oklahomans supported the emergency response teams throughout their work on the site: food, supplies, shelter, phone service, massages even haircuts were provided (for free, unlike elsewhere) to the FEMA teams that gathered from around the country to work in Oklahoma City.

The survivors and the family members are recorded explaining their experience of the bombing.There is a room in which each of the people who died is memorialised with a photo and some little momento provided by their family to represent what was important to them. It is a very difficult room to tour. The chairs outside are arranged in rows to represent the floor of the building each victim was located, including smaller chairs for the children who were in the daycare center there. The Museum and the gardens are beautifully and tastefully done, but I'm not sure I will want to visit every time I go back to Oklahoma city. It's exhausting.

Thank you, Bob, for these pictures from the Memorial Museum.

Apparently the youngsters had toured only the outside and the gardens. Simon said after he saw the outside chain link fence covered with messages he decided he couldn’t cope with the inside. After our tour we ate lunch at a Markies Deli, a cafe with too many staff and not enough brains: they were all standing around chatting, but somehow lost our order. I was not impressed.

If walking all over the Memorial Museum wasn't enough, we apparently also toured the Myriad Gardens (as I have pictures that follow on from there). First of all we passed this amazing fountain outside the library. I don't know how or why, but somehow the water looked as though it was jumping. Something technical about the trajectory and timing that I'll never be able to understand, along with probably a computer program. It wasn't just us, lots of people had to stand and watch it.

Then there was the Myriad Gardens themselves --

in the middle of downtown OKC -- with all sorts of exotic plants

and waterfalls

and a sort of gangway... I guess that's what they call the Crystal Bridge.

It's pretty cool, but I was glad to sit down.

For dinner that evening, we decided to eat in Bricktown and I requested Mexican so we had dinner at Abuelo’s. Bricktown used to be the old brick warehouses by the railway line near the older downtown area of OKC. Maybe about 20 years ago, someone converted one to a big, fun restaurant, Spaghetti Warehouse, and the area started being re-developed. More recently the Canadian River has been channeled into a canal and this has added to othe attractions of Bricktown. When I was growing up in OKC, I thought it was a fairly dull place. It's got a lot more sophisticated in recent years than I ever remember it being.

Our waitress was a tall, bulky young woman. She asked where we were from and then told us she was from the Ukraine, but had lived in Isreal a while before coming to OKC. I asked what brought her to OKC and she said a basketball scholarship. Apparently she’d finished college, but now as working as a waitress (?)

After dinner, Simon dropped Bill and me off at Jack's. I dont' know if I didn't sleep well because the air mattress was too hard with two people's weight or whether it was that my stomach was too full...

Day Ten - Monday, 30 June

Bill's Road Book

Day 8, 30 June: 550 Miles, 10 hours, Note 3

I-40: 60 miles to Clines Corner, 55 miles Pecos River, 60 miles to Tucumcari, 40 miles Texas border (change to Central Time, one hour back); 70 miles to Amarillo, 92 miles to Shamrock, 15 miles to Oklahoma border, 20 miles to Sayre, 50 miles to Clinton, 40 miles Canadian River, 20 miles to ElReno, 30 miles to Oklahoma City. Council Road RV park, see map. Leave I-40 at exit 142, turn right into Council Road.

Note 3 Albuquerque - This will be a long hard day on the road in the RV. It is 565 miles to OKC. Bob and I will be off on the road by 7:30 as it could take us up to 10 hours. New arrivals might want to think about staying in a motel. The cars should make it in about 7 hours plus stops. We also lose an hour today with the change to Central time at the Texas Border

Bill and Bob set off first; Simon & Rhiannon went to fetch Jane & Chris; Martin and Helen were in the 2nd car. The plan was that all would meet at the Cadillac Ranch at Amarillo, but B&B got tired of waiting for the others so they plowed on. They jogged along at 75-80 mph and arrived at the fair City of OKC (Bill's words) in due course and of course they rang me up.

Along the way B&B were amused by a very foolish driver of a Volvo estate car (AKA station wagon). Apparently this tried driving across the central grassed area which included a nice muddy ditch after the rain storms across the area. This in spite of a sign that says not to drive on the central reservation – such signs of course don’t apply to Volvo drivers, that’s universal. But of course he got well and truly stuck. The girlfriend got out of the car and went for help and this must have been quick in coming as the car was gone by the time the Tourists arrived. Bill enjoyed capturing the whole stupid thing on film.

They pulled over at the famous Cadillac Ranch.

A group of kids on an organized school trip were just arriving with their keepers.

After the Old Gits left, these school kids were just leaving about the time the Tourists arrived. Some of them gave Simon the remainder of their spray cans so he could make his contribution.

Now, I believe Simon is in a band of some kind called Drone. I forget if they do grunge or garage or what. It's all noise to me even if his 94 year old Grandmother thinks it's brilliant (sorry, Simon). The reference to Helium, well it just floats over my head...(couldn't resist).

I think whoever came up with sinking old Cads into the mud out in the middle of nowhere was a genius. I've not seen it and Simon's pictures had my mouth hanging open. This reminds me of the Graffiti Bridge in OKC, which seemed to get a new coat of paint every single weekend and provided an outlet for kids from all over OKC on a Sat night. Even I helped paint the thing once. It's been torn down for a long time now.

Oklahoma City

(this looks like the drive into Oklahoma City to me...)

I was watching the clock from about 2:30 on. Bill rang about 6pm and gave me some directions to the RV site on Council Road just off I-40, which took me a while to find. Bill and I had each assumed the other would be staying with them; typical of us to be confused like that. I didn't bring my things to stay with him at the RV and he wanted to show Bob a cool place to run the next morning.

Everyone was ready for dinner and since OKC is my hometown one might assume that I knew my way around it, which isn’t necessarily true! It’s been 17 years since I left there and a few things have changed, my capacity for remembering among them. I faithfully carried the Yellow Pages for the maps and the address listings in Rita's car with me. Everyone thought that was funny, but I couldn't have survived the week without it.

Bill wanted to do chicken fried steaks at Del Rancho but I couldn’t find one listed in a neighbourhood I was happy to go to at night. Bill’s next choice was the Outback Steakhouse but it wasn’t listed in the phone book and I wasn’t happy with his guessing the location (when we passed it later, it was now a sushi house).

I had the Tourists following me, Bill was getting quite goofy and grouchy -- which I choose to attribute to low blood sugar and I'm sometimes right. Bob was quieter and quieter and I decided any food was a priority. When I spotted the Cimarron Steak House I whipped the car into the parking lot. This turned out well: it had interesting décor, good service and food (but I was the only one who had a chicken fried steak). Jane was absolutely enthralled at seeing an older man at the next table with a long white moustache wearing a black cowboy hat. I thought about taking his picture but decided, even if I asked him, he might not feel it was very polite.

Helen & Martin were staying a nearby motel. S&R slept over the cab, Bill on the dining table, Bob was on the couch and C&J in the back bedroom.

I drove home across town down Pennsylvania Ave, as the entrance to I-44 from I-40 was closed for works. I enjoyed the drive, though I was quite tired and not altogether happy driving in the dark – not sure my contact prescription is as up-to-date as it should be for driving. Because of the high price of gas I’d not spent a great deal of time just exploring OKC and so this trip did show me part of the city, including the place where Grandma and Grandpa’s house used to be. I’m pleased to say that the developer who forced me to sell to him has yet to find a buyer for the block he bought up.

I got home about 11pm. This wasn’t the way I had envisioned things going, but it was what it was…

Day Six - Thursday, 26 June

I met my cousin (her Dad, Belmont, is my mother's cousin) Joanne and her husband Gene and their granddaughter Leesie (no idea how it's spelled, but that's how it sounds) for lunch at Souper!Salad. It's not the most exciting place to eat but at least it has lots of healthy options. I had lots of healthy options - lots.

They were telling me about their upcoming church mission to Peru. It wasn't going to be the touristy part and a lot of what they knew they would be doing sounded kind of scary to me. For example, eating bread made with some ingredient that if it's made wrong, it's poisonous. I asked who got to test the bread first... Riding in a canoe on a river through the jungle, staying in a village where the water source is a stream. I wished them luck.

Then we went over to Belmont and Mona's for a visit. Mona had just got out of the hospital and Belmont had stayed with her most of the time, so I was amazed to find them looking as well as they did - they are both over 90 years old. I didn't intend to stay very long, particularly after Joanne and Gene left, but every time I got up to go, another strand of the conversation started and I was there for over 3 hours. I don't know what we talked about - family stuff, reminiscences, we just talked. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Everytime I see them I am conscious it might be the last time. I did finally have to go as I'd agreed to meet up with Doris and Don across town.

I managed to get on the right highway for a change and so the trip to the Southside went smoothly. Rita's Acura was a dream to drive and I really enjoyed listening to the music stations she had set - classic rock, light rock, western, etc. At one point towards the end of that journey, came on and I just cranked it up and cruised down the road, remembering why it was so great to drive a car in the US.

Doris and I met up with a handful of other old friends of ours, LaQuita, Oneta and Jackie. I really enjoyed that. Afterwards I had intended to take Don and Doris out for a meal, but Don and Doris' brother had already made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and so we ate in. Doris's 5-year old great-grandaughter, Brooklyn was there. She insisted on showing me her dance repertoire. I stayed at Doris's visiting until about 10 or so -- Donald P was already asleep in his chair... It was a lovely day, but I was glad to hit the air mattress back at Jack's.

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Bill Road Book:

Day 4, 26 June, 200 Miles; 5 hours.

R 66: 5 miles to Kingman, Cross I-40 at Jct 53; 100 miles via Hackberry, Valentine, Truxton, Peach Spring, Grand Canyon Caverns to Seligman. Keep on R66, do not join I-40 (see Map); 15 miles to I40 junction 139; turn left onto I-40 East.

I-40: 25 miles to Jct 161. See Map. I-40 business through Williams onto 64 North

Hwy 64: 30 miles to Valle. Straight on

US 180: 28 miles to Mather. RV Village

The guys abandoned the RV in a Wal-Mart car park and went in the cars out over the desert again through Seligman Pass to Oatman, Arizona, an old mining town.

They were impressed with the wild donkeys (or burros, according to the website)

(picture from website linked below)

and maybe they have another name.

Classy cars, too.

Bill says Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon here in the Oatman hotel in 1930-something. I had to look this up for myself - they say the Gables couldn't get enough of the place.

This place was a mining town until the mines closed; since then it has survived as a Route 66 attraction.

Having done Oatman, the guys retrieved the RV at Wal-mart and carried on round the hilly bits on Rt 66 on a good modern road, which had been well maintained … until just before they got to I-40, apparently. Anyhow, they made it that night to the Grand Canyon.

And, as always, many thanks to Simon for sharing his pictures.

Day Five - Wednesday, 25th June

Having made my usual list of things I wanted to accomplish, I sketched a calendar in my notebook of the week (AM, PM, EVE) and spent some time on the phone. I had to push myself to do anything at all, I felt so weighed down with sadness the lethargy was hard to fight. Eventlly, I filled in appointments with family and friends and the realtor who manages my rent house in OKC. I particularly wanted my Uncle Pat to come along with me to the rent house to help me verify that they had actually done the work they said they had.

Then I crawled up in Rita’s attic, over the garage. I’d never been up there before, but Jack reckoned there was stuff up there and sure enough there was. The loft space was only about a third of the width of the garage, which was probably fortunate. There was a variety of furniture, Christmas ornaments and stuff.... I made some notes, took a shower and picked up a few cookbooks to browse.

Rita had an interesting collection of really fattening cookbooks from touristy places they’d visited and from local fund-raising projects. Then there were the low-fat, Weight Watchers, Ultra-low fat cookbooks, which were of more interest to me. Rita apparently believed she was pre-diabetic and had a collection of diabetic cookbooks as well. I don’t know if she was right or not. She certainly seemed to have had virtually every other life threatening illness one could develop, so why not…

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Bill's Road Book:

(do you know, I'm fed up fighting with the table in blogger.com?)

Day 3, 25 June - 270 miles, 6 hours, Note 1

Hwy 138, 16 miles to Cajon Junction. Turn right on I-15 North

I-15, 10 miles to Victorville. Exit hwy 18, bear right onto 7th Street. Turn left at D Street (ca hwy 18)

R66, 30 miles via Helendale, Hodge and Lenwood to Barstow. Keep on E Main St. Do not join I-40. 7 miles to Daggett; cross I-40 to Newberry Springs. 12 miles to Junction 18, I-40. 23 miles, cross I-40, join National Old Trails Highway. 8 miles to Ludlow. 30 miles to Amboy. 30 miles to Essex, cross I-40 onto Mountain Springs Road. 5 miles to I-40 junction 107. 12 miles to Goffs. Turn Rt onto Goffs Road. 12 miles to Arrowhead Junction, turn left onto US-95. 5 miles Junction I-40, cross over and turn left onto I-40 East.

I-40, 13 miles to Needles. 12 miles to Colorado River, turn left at Jct 1, Topock (Map).

Rt 66/Hwy 95, 40 miles via Oatmen and Sitgreaves Pass to McConnico, cross I 40, Continue on old 66 on other side (Map). 4 miles to Kingman.

Note 1 Sitgreaves pass This is a switchback mountain road past Oatman. We have been recommended to go via I 40 with the RV and leave the hedonists to do Route 66 in the SUV

Again, Bill and Bob were up early to go for a run around the woods.

Bill said the drive down the valley on this day was almost as horrendous as the one the previous day. They bought only $50 worth of $5 gas then down to I-15 and then onto Route 66 proper. They stopped for breakfast in Victorfille at a place called Johnny Reb’s (Put some South in Your Mouth), which apparently was an adventure. Bill described it as a square box shaped sort of cafe with rough wood walls. All the windows were different and at odd angles -- no right angles to be found in the place. Also, they seemed to have lots of sound effects: pigs oinking in the bathroom; cows mooing in the kitchen, dogs barking in the yard. Sounds more Beverly Hillbillies than Southern Living. They also had a thing with peanuts. Each table had a bucket of peanuts and in return for those you were to make donations to their chosen charity. Part of that deal is that you throw the shells on the floor. Sounds like an interesting place… Of course everyone had a Pig-Out Pancake breakfast.

Continuing on Route 66, past a cement factory and through Barstow. On the other side of Barstow they discovered a Marine Corp depot where Rt 66 used to be, but was no longer. They had to go back onto I-40 to get around the depot and then off through the desert again.

They were struck by the interesting local architecture,

the long trains

the local wildlife

and a unique species of plant, the shoe tree.

At a place called Essex the road crossed over I-40 and became Spring Mountain Road. They guys took the RV off and and went on the motorway because a big sign said "This road is no longer maintained". But the Tourists went charging merrily along and enjoyed themselves tremendously. They all met up at Kingman, where they stayed the night.

I'm very grateful that Simon has taken and shared such wonderful photos; Bill had managed to misplace his camera early on in the trip; unfortunately this was also a recurring theme. I think he was so excited to finally be on his dream tour, he just sort of lost it all...

Day Four - Tuesday, June 24

I spent most of the day hanging out with Jack in between his running errands. He told me what he really wanted me to do was to go through the house and tell him what things I would be upset about if they were got rid of. Rita collected a lot of stuff in her lifetime and while she was a master at organising it all, the house still was quite full. I had written him earlier about a number of items that came from Grandmother's house that I would be sad if they were lost. My mission this week was to identify other important items. Being given permission to 'snoop' probably would have been fun had it not been so sad. As it was, I found a number of things I didn't know still existed.
The other thing I did on this particular day was go through a basket of cards and letters Jack indicated had to do with Rita's death. Needless to say I soaked several handkerchiefs, but was rewarded with being reminded how special she was to so many people.

I hadn't realised that Rita was an organ donor. There was a letter from the organ donation people saying that a 67-year old mother of 7 children in California was Rita's recipient. They sent Jack a medallion in recognition of her donation. Seeing all this and talking with Jack made me decide I should be an organ donor as well, something I've always shied away from. My niggling worry was that doctors might try less hard to save me for the benefit of potential recipients, but after talking with Jack this seems less than likely. My sorry photographic skills are again highlighted here, but if you can't read the letters, it says

Give Hope Give Love Give Life

Now, back to the exciting part...


Bill's Road Book:

Day	Road	Mileage	Destination	Action
Day 2 24 June	hwy 95 hwy 62 I 10 hwy 210 hwy 18	20 17 20 22 55 15 10 8 10 23 20 7 16	Parker Vidal Junction Rice Jct hwy 177 Twenty Nine Palms Joshua Tree Yucca Valley Morongo Valley Palm Springs Beaumont Redlands San Bernardino Lake Silverwood	Turn Right Cross US 95 Bear Right Map1 Turn Right onto hwy 210 Map2 Turn Right onto hwy18 NP Campground	245 miles 6 hours

Note 1 Sitgreaves pass. This is a switchback mountain road past Oatman. We have been recommended to go via I 40 with the RV and leave the hedonists to do Route 66 in the SUV.

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Bill and Bob were up at the crack of dawn to go for a run. This might not have been quite as awful as it sounds as the jet lag would have been in their favour, but you should be well impressed all the same. The temperature difference will have been as bad or worse than the time change.

As you can see from Simon's pictures, everyone had to fiddle with their technology a bit, and pose doing it. This is a continuing theme, I'm afraid.

I chose to go on to OKC because of this family business, but also because I've seen most of this countryside before. It's great, though, looking at Simon's pictures and seeing what grabbed him.

The wide open barreness is strikingly different to the usual English scenery.

As are the straight roads going off into the heat-induced haze.

And the license plates are different, though Bill tells me that ZBB on a UK license tag indicates a car from Newcastle. But so much for the Tourists, which became the name for anyone in the cars; the guys in the RV were having some high adventures of their own.

According to Bill they didn't know what was the lay of the land between San Bernadino and the next campsite. They got through SB with a quarter tank of gas and pulled into the first gas station they could find, only to learn it had no fuel to sell. They thought they could make it to the campsite and could tackle this problem the next morning. What they didn't realise was that they would have to go all the way up this mountain and back down again


Bob was driving down the steep pass, watching the fuel light blinking, knowing that without power they had no steering and no brakes. He told me it was about the worst driving experience of his entire life. Bill said the road was only 7' wide, but the camper was 8.5' wide. Whilst I'm fairly sure this is a slight exaggeration, I'm pleased I missed that part of the journey. In the week and a half that I was in the RV, I asked frequently how the gas gauge was doing.
They did obviously make it to the campsite without falling off the mountain. Simon was sent to find gas and came back with a can at the unheard of price of $5 a gallon. They had missed the turnoff for the campsite and gone about 40 miles beyond, but Lake Silverwood apparently lived up to its name (except that Bill tells me this was, in fact, Lake Havasu...oh well).

Thanks again to Simon, for his great photos.