Friday, Oct. 17, Happy Birthday Talena, you were only 8 when I became your "spare" Mom, now you're a beautiful, grown, successful woman. Time does fly. We started the day with a 3 1/2 mile walk along the trails on base, we are able to (against the rules) let Luci off the leash and let her run with the butterflies and jump with the grasshoppers, it's so fun to watch. Today is the day we went to the Oklahoma City History Center, which showcases the states history with thousands of artifacts and interactive exhibits. Many movies have been made in Oklahoma starting in the 20's to present, the exhibits show props and costumes. Another section was interesting, they opened a time capsule, about 8 feet by 4 feet, placed in the early 1900's with a wide variety of items. Outside Devon Energy Corp. had an exhibit with oil rigs and equipment including an oil derrick. Devon Energy Corporations us a leading independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company home based in Oklahoma City. Their operations are focused offshore US and Canada.
Saturday, Oct. 18, We wanted to see a section of Route 66, the first major highway from Chicago to California. Route 66 travels 400 miles through Oklahoma the longest of all the states. Our first stop was at the Round Barn about 30 miles north east in the city in Arcadia. The reason for round barns, when horses walked in circles thrashing wheat a farmer decided to put a roof over their heads, from there they became barns. It was built in 1898, in 1988 the roof collapsed and a group of retired carpenters restored building in 1992. The highway traveled through forests and rolling hills with quaint restored buildings along the way to Chandler. We stopped at the Route 66 Interpretive Center in a former National Guard Armory, built by the WPA during the mid-30's. The outer walls consist of hand-chiseled blocks 20 inches thick. It fell into a state of disrepair after a number of business came and went. Locals were going to tear it down but the walls were too thick. In 1998 they turned it into what it is today by donations, no taxpayer money went into the project. The drill hall is used now for many local activities, weddings, proms etc. The six video stations in the museum have car seats (65 mustang bucket) so you can sit and watch in comfort and one even has a bed. In 1959 a college bound student from Chicago drove to Tucson for school in his 1939 Chevy, every night he would send his folks a post card (an early blog) telling them how the day went. A few years ago the last of his parents died, as he was going through their things he found all the cards and letters he'd sent them from the trip. He decided to do the trip again, 45 years later with his wife and in a Corvette. Some of the places they stayed were still in business. Our next stop was Stroud where we had lunch at the Rock Café, another building made of thick stone walls. Lunch was good old home cooking. We took the freeway back to base. After a lengthy trip to the commissary to stock up on groceries we "prettied" up and went downtown to the Devon Energy tower 79th floor, since the dinners were a little out of our budget we had an appetizer and an adult beverage. Beautiful view, locals claim you can see all the way to Texas. On our way back to base we stopped at the Oklahoma Memorial, it is open 24 hours a day, all the chairs are lighted to give you a different perspective.
The Ducks won!
Sunday, Oct. 19. Oklahoma City is normally windy, with the winds blowing freely off the prairies. This morning there was only a slight breeze and overcast. A perfect day to wash 4 states of dirt off the coach. A few days earlier I'd washed my car, by the time I finished it was water spotted so bad I had to use a damp towel first then a dry one to finish up. So after washing each section of the coach we dried it before continuing on to the next side. Sure is pretty!! After that I spent several hours cleaning the inside, it gets a little deep inside when you're "playing" every day. Seahawks Lost!
Monday, Oct. 20, We left about 10:00 for Arlington, about a 225 mile trip. As we entered Texas we stopped at a beautiful Visitor Center/Rest area, loading up on travel brochures. We are staying at the Tree Top RV Park, in Arlington, a pretty big park probably 200 spaces, all good sized with patios and gas BBQ's. The trees are thick which are great for shade but lousy for satellite reception. Most of the spaces are pull-thru's. Happiness is a pull-thru! After getting all settled we made a run to Costco, about a mile and a half away, we haven't been close to one since Montana. Wah Hoo!! We grabbed a bite to eat at Applebee's and watched a little football.
Tuesday, Oct. 21, Warning: if you get bored with football "talk" don't read todays entry. As everyone knows, I'm a HUGE football fan so I had to go see AT&T Stadium, better known as Cowboy Stadium, we took the 11:30 guided tour. We dropped Luci off at PetSmart Hotel for doggie day camp so we wouldn't have to worry about her. We are not Cowboy fans, well actually Cowboy haters, but we wanted to see the famous stadium. We waited for our tour to start in the Pro Shop, we wanted to buy a souvenir but everything had those stupid blue stars on them. I'm glad I wore my walking shoes, one of the first things our guide told us was it was a mile and a half walk. Mary (the guide)said that the Cowboys have the cheapest tickets in the NFL, $29.00, 10,000 standing room only, and have sold out every game this year. (Rotten Cowboys beat Seattle a few weeks ago) Before construction started, the city of Arlington committed $325 million dollars to build the new stadium with Jerry Jones matching that amount and would pay any cost over runs. Well it did go over budget, JJ had to come up with another $375 million. Do the math. It took one whole year to dig the bowl 50 feet down, 1.2 millions of dirt was hauled off. They did implode the old stadium but they kept the roof, the ring of honor and the statue of Tom Landry that was in front. We went into the "owners perch" where you see JJ and his two sons on TV, a fairly small room, almost "office" like. An elevator brings him up from underground parking to the locker room, his suite and his perch. His wife sits in the suite just below, of course on the 50 yard line. They rent out the stadium for concerts, wedding, parties, etc. Sometimes they just rent the suites, locker rooms, the field or the clubs. Mrs. Jones, as the guide referred to her, had a big hand in the decorating of the stadium, she wanted it to be as nice as a 5-star hotel. They even have special guided art tours. The guide told us she wanted the lockers to be made out of the same wood she has in her Bentley, I'd never heard of it before, Sapealy (or something like that) my Jeep has fancy plastic. Some fun facts; at Super Bowl 2001 they sold 12 tons of nachos, there are 1600 toilets in the stadium, 60% women's 40% men's but can be reconfigured depending on the venue. The big doors at the end of the stadium, if you'd had to watch the Cowboys last sunday like we did, they opened the doors and the sun was in everyone's eyes including JJ's. The doors were a present from Mrs. Jones to JJ, they are 180 feet tall, it takes 7 minutes to open them. I gave Gary a card for his BD. The roof splits in the middle, taking 10 minutes to open. There are 368 suites, 5 clubs and 3 helipads. You can decorate your suite any way you want, the Mary Kay suite looks like Pepto and an oil billionaire has a derrick in his. There is a Wal-Mart across the street from the stadium, the NFL, for security reasons did not want it open the day of the Super Bowl. The NFL asked the manager what was the biggest Sunday receipt and paid him 3 times that amount, they closed the store that day. On our way to the locker rooms we walked through an area where they store the "college" turf. Who knew? I thought they just put a little temp paint on the field. No, they take up the NFL turf, takes about 6 hours and put down the college turf, it takes about 12 hours. The rolls are 5 yards wide and run the length of the field. It was fun to stand on the star in the middle of the field and look up at all the seats.
View of the capitol from the Oklahoma History Museum
Round Barn in Arcadia
As I said, I'm a Cowboy hater but after visiting their stadium I must admit I have to like them a little.Well that's about it for this week.
TTFN
Gary and Pam
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