Notice: This post is being written during the COVID-19 pandemic and at this time, the Oklahoma City National Memorial is closed to visitors. Please stay safe and follow your state or country’s guidelines for travel in your region. More information on the museum’s current status can be found here.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

On that fateful morning, the clock stopped. It was 9:02 AM and people were just starting their day. In that instant, lives would forever be changed and for 168 men, women, and children, their lives ended. Across the street from the Alfred P. Murrah Building, a meeting of the water commission was just getting underway. The moderator started a recorder to document the events of the meeting and began the opening statements.

On that tape, a large blast interrupted the proceedings. At that moment in time, a truck bomb exploded. The large box truck was packed with explosives so powerful that it ripped the facade from the building laying bare the entire front of the structure. The hours and days that followed were consumed with first responders searching for survivors and law enforcement beginning to unravel the trail of the individuals who would perpetrate such as heinous act.

Outside the building, a lone tree, severely damaged, remained standing. An American Elm stood providing shade in the parking lot of the building. Early arrivers to their place of work would be rewarded with a shady parking spot underneath the giant elm tree. It was nearly removed to recover evidence of the bomb blast, but the tree was spared. Nursed back to health after being nearly destroyed by the bomb blast, it has become a signature memorial. Cuttings of the Survivor Tree are found all over Oklahoma. From the Memorial website, “The Survivor Tree is a symbol of human resilience. Today, as a tribute to renewal and rebirth, the inscription around the tree reads, ‘The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us.'”

Each anniversary, the museum hosts a remembrance where families of victims gather to remember those who were taken from us so violently. It is a tragedy of timing that on the 25th Anniversary, the museum is closed and gathering is not an option due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is gripping the world right now. To honor the memory, an Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony video is posted on the National Memorial’s website. You can view the video here. More images and a tour of the memorial from my visit in October 2017 can be found here.

On the side of the old Journal Record building, now the home of the museum, next door to the Murrah Building, Rescue Team 5 left an angry message in red lettered spray paint. The red pigment is now gone, faded to a dull blue, but the message is still as angry and as poignant as it was the day it was written.

Team 5

4-19-95

We search for the truth.

We seek justice.

The courts require it.

The victims cry for it.

And God demands it!

John Steiner

Arcadia, Oklahoma.

Do you like all things Route 66 but don’t have time to travel the entire Mother Road? There is but one place to go, then. OK County 66, just out of Oklahoma City near the little town of Arcadia, Oklahoma.  John Hargrave apparently needed something to do after he retired, so he bought some land adjacent to Route 66 and built a roadside attraction.  Here you can see miniature versions of attractions found all along Route 66. For example, just outside of Flagstaff, Arizona there are two large telephone poles done up to be giant arrows. At OK County 66, you can view the twin arrows without having to drive all the way across New Mexico and half-way through Arizona toward Flagstaff. Alright, so they aren’t telephone poles, and they aren’t actual size, but they are big in spirit, just like John Hargrave.It isn’t often that I get to meet the person or persons behind the attractions I share with you here at Journeys with Johnbo. While wandering around the grounds, we happened upon the owner who was more than willing to share his love of all things Route 66. Interestingly enough, he’s only traveled sections of the road in Oklahoma, but that didn’t stop him from bringing those out-of-state roadside attractions here to his OK County 66 attraction.

Wandering inside, we found a replica diner that would seat a good number of people. There is a lot of detail, but it isn’t an actual open-for-business restaurant. Before John retired, he spent his working life as both an aircraft mechanic and a school bus mechanic. We chatted at some length about our mutual respect for aviation, though I spotted only a couple of aviation related items.

Yes, in the gallery below, there’s a replica of Herbie, the Love Bug sticking out of the second floor of the building like it had burst through the wall of a parking garage. If you climb the stairs just inside the diner, you can park yourself in Herbie’s driver’s seat and enjoy the second-floor view out Herbie’s windshield.

Outside again, near the Twin Arrows, another Volkswagen sits nose down in a tribute to the iconic Cadillac Ranch along Route 66 near Amarillo, Texas. Apparently he couldn’t find a Cadillac to bury as they must all have been buried in Texas. On the property that John bought when he retired, he also built a tribute to the Wigwam Motel, a chain of motels with cabins built like a TeePee, one of which is located just off Route 66 at Holbrook, Arizona.

Near the entrance to the parking lot, you’ll find Petro Man ready to put some Gulftone in your tank (not really.) A Kachina Doll and a “Tucumcari Tonight – 2000 Rooms” honors the small town of Tucumcari from where hundreds of similar signs stretched for miles along Route 66 inviting travelers to stop for the night in New Mexico.

After a morning that focused on the tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing, our visit to OK County 66 at Arcadia restored our faith in America and reminded us of those times when the automobile was relatively new and the open road beckoned bringing families to visit new and interesting places. Route 66 remains a pleasant time in our country’s automotive history. The gallery of images below features snapshots of John Hargrave’s OK County 66 attraction. It’s worth a stop if you’re travelling the Interstate. When you stop, tell John that I said, “Hi!”

John Steiner

Arcadia, Oklahoma.

After last week’s Travel Tuesday visit to a site honoring those lost in one of our nation’s tragedies, it’s time to take a ride on one of our nation’s good time highways. Route 66 winds from Chicago to L.A. (is there a song here somewhere?) Leaving the Oklahoma City Memorial, our hosts Jacques and Dorothy suggested a trip down a section of the Mother Road that still exists between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Next week we will visit a unique venue dedicated to that historic highway. On the way, we passed through a small town of some 269 residents. What attracted us to stop was a giant soda bottle sculpture, oh, and it was time for lunch.

The combination gas station, restaurant and soda pop emporium boasts a full day’s service of breakfast, lunch and dinner punctuated by your choice of over 700 flavors of soda and other cold drinks. My lunch consisted of typical roadside diner fare of a burger and french fries, but they do have other, less pedestrian sandwich and salad choices. Prices are quite reasonable and I can speak for the enjoyment of my own cheeseburger selection.

As you can see by the photo above, the building has a unique architecture fitting with it’s main attraction giant soda bottle featured in the opening shot. There aren’t a lot of seats in the diner and we got there around lunchtime, so we had a short wait. We were entertained by browsing the large selection of Route 66 memorabilia for sale as well as cartons of soda pop stacked high for our selection.

The photo above, yours truly in front of the giant soda bottle, is featured to give you a perspective of the height of the bottle My 5 ft. 6 in. frame wouldn’t rise up to five of the 38 rings that comprise the structure even if I were to stand up straight. Add to that the height of the soda straw. I was hoping to find the height of the sculpture on their website, but was disappointed that it isn’t listed there. All in all, Pops is an interesting stop on an interesting highway. Get there in time for a meal, savor the atmosphere, and don’t worry about all those bottles on the little glass shelves falling on you. They are all glued in place.

I don’t often leave YouTube video links in my posts, but with a focus on Route 66, I decided to feature one of my favorite clips. Crank up the audio and listen to Asleep at the Wheel’s version of the iconic ‘Get Your Kicks on Route 66’

John Steiner

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

I am sitting here in the wake of another national tragedy reflecting on the lives of 58 gone in an instant and over six hundred wounded at a concert in Las Vegas. However, this post is a remembrance of April 19, 1995. It started out as a normal day in the lives of a typical American citizenry. At 9:01 AM, the day was just getting started. Workers at the Alfred P. Murrah Building were just settling into their morning’s work. The day care providers on the lower floor went about the work of entertaining those too young to be in school. Across the street, a meeting of the water commission was just getting underway. The moderator started the tape recording at 9 AM and began briefing the attendees of the business meeting rules.

At exactly 9:02 AM, the meeting and the lives of hundreds were irrevocably changed. On that tape, a large blast interrupted the proceedings. At that moment in time, a truck bomb exploded. The large box truck was packed with explosives so powerful that it ripped the facade from the building laying bare the entire front of the structure. It was in that moment and the subsequent minutes that 168 people lost their lives. The hours and days that followed were consumed with first responders searching for survivors and law enforcement beginning to unravel the trail of the individuals who would perpetrate such as heinous act.

At 9:03 AM, the long journey of recovery began. There were many stories of rescue and the tragedy of recovering those who were lost forever. Ultimately the building, too far damaged to rebuild, was brought down and on the site today, they erected a memorial and built a museum dedicated to the memories of those lost and those whose lives changed forever.

The panorama above constructed on the site features large walls, one representing 9:01 AM, the other 9:03 AM. A large reflecting pond separates them. Click on the image to enlarge it and you will notice the rows of chairs on the opposite side of the pond.A plaque on the site describes the field of empty chairs, 168 in all, each representing one of the Americans who were killed. There are nine rows of chairs with each row relating to the nine floors in the building. Each person’s chair is positioned in the row that represents the floor where they were working or visiting. The five westernmost empty chairs represent those who lost their lives outside the Murrah Building. The names of the victims are memorialized there and in the museum’s Gallery of Honor.

Outside the building, a lone tree, severely damaged, remained standing. An American Elm stood providing shade in the parking lot of the building. Early arrivers to their place of work would be rewarded with a shady parking spot underneath the giant elm tree. It was nearly removed to recover evidence of the bomb blast, but the tree was spared. Nursed back to health after being nearly destroyed by the bomb blast, it has become a signature memorial. Cuttings of the Survivor Tree are found all over Oklahoma. From the Memorial website, “The Survivor Tree is a symbol of human resilience. Today, as a tribute to renewal and rebirth, the inscription around the tree reads, ‘The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us.'”

When you visit, be sure to take the time to go through the museum. In addition to telling the stories of the events surrounding the tragedy, the Gallery of Honor consists of shadow boxes featuring a photo of the victim and a memorial item that once belonged to those who didn’t come home again that day. The walk through the gallery is heart-wrenching.

The museum, which underwent a complete rededication in 2015, 20 years after the event, now is laid out in ten chapters from “A Day Like Any Other” to “Hope”. The exhibit above, from Chapter 5B – Rescue and Recovery features stories of trapped survivors, rescue workers and many volunteers. The photo above depicts a sculpture created as an inspiration from a Pulitzer Prize winning photo by Charles H. Porter IV. Firefighter Chris Fields is shown cradling the dying 1-year-old Baylee Almon. Baylee was one of the 15 children killed in the building’s daycare center. She died on her 366th day of life.

On the side of the old Journal Record building next door to the Murrah Building, Rescue Team 5 left an angry message in red lettered spray paint. The red pigment is now gone, faded to a dull blue, but the message is still as angry and as poignant as it was the day it was written.

Team 5

4-19-95

We search for the truth.

We seek justice.

The courts require it.

The victims cry for it.

And God demands it!

That Old Journal building is now the Oklahoma City Memorial Museum. The gallery of images below were captured in the museum and on the grounds of the memorial. In most browsers, you can click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the collection.

John Steiner

McAlester, Oklahoma.

A few Sundays ago, I posted a single cell photo of a composite sculpture called “Cattle Drive”. Located at the junction of highways U.S. 69 and U.S. 270, a small herd of cattle, two cowhands on horseback and a blue heeler appear to be moving along the hillside, assumedly going to market. The sculpture was created by Pendleton, Oregon’s Michael Booth, commissioned by Gary and Ruyana Fugitt of McAlester in honor of Ruyana’s father who spent his life ranching. You can read more about the sculpture and its history here.

In that post, I promised a closer look at the sculpture in a gallery of images. In the photo above, a blue heeler and steer face off. I submit for your review, a small gallery of cellphone images captured on my Samsung S7. Click on one of the images. If your browser supports it, the image will be enlarged, and you can scroll through the collection in a higher quality format.

John Steiner

McAlester, Oklahoma.

At the junction of highways U.S. 69 and U.S. 270, there are a handful of cattle, two cowhands and a blue heeler on the hillside. How do I know they are still there? They are parts of an elaborate dyed concrete sculpture on the property of the McAlester campus of Eastern Oklahoma State College. The design, sponsored by Gary and Ruyana Fugitt, was created by Michael Booth, a sculptor from Pendleton, Oregon. Commissioned by the Fugitts in honor of Ruyana’s father, the art project was installed in 2009. You can read more about the sculpture here.

About the photo: This cellphone capture is sort of an overview of the multi-piece sculpture. Captured on my Samsung S7, and cropped to square format. The rule for Cellpic Sunday is simple. The image must be captured by a mobile device. Expect a more detailed post with a small gallery of images that provide more detail in the near future.

John Steiner