Wild and Wooly Missouri

Left Branson (with thoughts of returning, believe it or not!) and left for KY. Taking US RT 160 across southern Missouri was wild, wooly, and very slow. Reminded us of West Virginia. Poplar Bluff and points east was much easier to drive. We took a ferry across the Mississippi River from Missouri to Hickman, Kentucky. Very pleasant. We crossed with several "older" bikers from Kentucky. Murray, Kentucky is quite picturesque, as Murray State University is there. Darrell spotted an eagle's nest, complete with eagle, as we crossed a bridge over the Tennessee River. It was good to get back to the cabin in Bowling Green, Ky.

ok ark mo

First stop: Guthrie, Oklahoma, first capital of this state. We visited a fascinating museum on the Oklahoma Territory, especially the land rushes. Among other things, we found out that the 1889 land rush only involved SOME of central Oklahoma and that there were 4 other Oklahoma land rushes after that. Can you imagine thousands of people trying to stake out claims starting at 12 noon?? We hear the lawyers were busy from the start!! The buildings are all in a time warp of 1900. When the capital was moved to Oklahoma City in 1910, property values decreased 80%.
We had lunch in Stillwater, home of Oklahoma State University, the cowboys. The campus is pretty with all red brick buildings. (Sound familiar?) Even the happenin eatery Eskimo Joe's looks like a Miami U. hangout. Very busy, etc. It was move in day for freshmen. Darrell was wearing his Oklahoma t-shirt, and got called out on it no less than 3 times. From there we blazed to Branson to see a fabulous evening show: Top Ten Rock and Roll. The entire cast was excellent, but the piano player stole the show with his rendition of Jerry Lee Lewis songs. He even played with his foot and elbow! It was very entertaining to listen to Mammas and Pappas, as well as Eric Clapton and many others.

OKC Part 2

The second day began at the Oklahoma City Memorial. It is a peaceful place, and the chairs were particularly moving, especially the small ones, to represent the children who died in the day care center. The Survival Tree is alive and flourishing. The Museum contained everything you might expect, from eyewitness accounts and video, to a room dedicated to children and promoting peace. We visited the capitol building. The evening was spent at dinner with Darrell's friend Danny Shadid and his wife Nina. So much fun!! It made the visit that much more memorable.

Oklahoma City

What a neat town! Two days was just not long enough. The Cowboy Museum was excellent. Much beautiful art and sculpture, plus cowboy history. Great sections on ranching, cowboy life, settling the west, and a wonderful exhibit on TV and movie westerns. Nancy identified correctly 12 out of 12 TV western theme songs! Northeast of town is POPS, a store specializing in bottled soda pop. We have a few examples. There were thousands of bottles and dozens of varieties. Darrell does has some additions to his bottle cap collection. Then on to Bricktown in OKC. We rode a water taxi through the renovated part of downtown, similar to the Riverwalk in San Antonio where historic buildings have been updated and made into a real happenin' place. The bronze statues commemorating the 1889 land rush were particularly well done in 1 1/2 life size.

West of Hot Springs, Arkansas

We stopped at Crater of Diamonds National Park, one of only 8 places in the world diamonds can be found, and the ONLY one open to the public. It was a rainy morning, but actually stopped while we were prospecting. Diamonds can be found just lying on the surface of the muddy field! Or you dig and sluice, like we did. We had no luck with finding a gem, but 3 other people did! It was fun, but can be quite strenuous if you do it for hours on end. Or, you can be unfortunate like Darrell, and strain your back after only a few minutes. He has been in discomfort for the rest of the day. I was helping him with learning how to post, but he needed to lay down. 

We took the beautiful Talimena Trail through western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. (Yes, there are mountains in eastern Oklahoma.) Just after crossing into OK, Nancy spied a black bear just on the other side of the guardrail!! He had turned to check us out as we sped by. 

In Heavener, Oklahoma we saw the Heavener runestone, which is the largest runestone in the US. Runestones are ancient inscribed rocks, which are pretty conclusive proof that the Vikings were in north America by 800 AD. Translated, it reads, "Glome's Valley". Taken with the other stones, they must have been staking a boundary line. Of course, not everyone is convinced, but at the very least it is fascinating to me to think that the Vikings came to middle America WAAAY before Columbus.....Spending the night in McAlester, OK, a change in the itinerary.

Hot Springs

Who can say that Darrell does not have a sense of humor after looking at these pictures? The water really does come out of the ground at 143 degrees. See photos! Over the years there have been several health spas here touting the medicinal qualities of the water. One closed spa is now a US National Park site. One is still open to the public, so we each treated ourselves to "taking the baths". Very relaxing, taking about an hour. A hot bath with whirlpool, Sitz bath, and hot box for cleaning every pore. By the way, it was 99 degrees outdoors here, so why not get even hotter in the bath?! Doesn't make much sense, but we did what so many others have done before us, even Al Capone. We have enjoyed the motel pool immensely. Lake Hamilton, just south of here, is gorgeous, with many water craft and homes to match. 

Little Rock

We arrived in LR on Sunday and were very impressed. The city is very pretty with hilly landscape. The Clinton Presidential Center extends over the Arkansas River with its cantilever design.  It recounted the 90's in great detail. Check out our 15 seconds of fame as Presidents. While touring the state capitol today, Darrell asked a young man a question, then saw his photo, and realized it was the Lieutenant Governor! Modeled after the capitol in DC, the white marble throughout makes for a very beautiful building. The Little Rock Central High School desegregation exhibit was state of the art with videos, etc. The actual high school is very beautiful, and was voted most beautiful high school by The American Institute of Architects. We learned that after the "Little Rock Nine" had been escorted to school for a whole year, students in LR did not attend school the entire next year, while people fought for each side.