Thur., October 9, We left Bridgeport before nine (amazing) to travel to Minden, NE, 260 miles, to a museum Gary's sister Carol had told us about. The complex included a motel, RV park and the museum all built in 1953, we don't think any maintenance has been done to park and motel in all that time, very overpriced dump but the only RV park within 15 miles. We discovered the first space we were assigned to had a faulty electrical receptacle only after we'd put the jacks down and slides out. I noticed there was a quilt store in Kearney about 15 miles up the road so I took off only to find when I got back Gary had to change
spaces, then found out we couldn't get satellite reception. Oh well! The quilt store I went to was very nice, three floors of quilting and fabric. I did end up buying a quilt kit to work on when I get to Rockport. (I gave up on the scarf I was knitting.)
Friday, Oct. 10, The Harold Warp Pioneer Village museum is on 3 city blocks, 100,000 square feet in 26 different buildings that show the 120 year progression from open hearths and ox carts to television. All items were purchased by Warp excepting a few. He wanted to show our children how our country was built, preserving everyday items in the order of their development, from the mundane kajillion button collection to antique horse drawn buggies, sewing machines etc. The antique car building was two stories, we wondered how they got the cars and trucks upstairs, even a motorhome. Several outbuildings, a school, a church, a sod building, train station, firehouse were moved only the property. We spent about 4 hours there, I'm sure you could spend a few days and still not see everything. Harold Warp, a Minden native made his money developing the first plastic although it was called something else (I forgot). In the afternoon I went to the Nebraska State Quilt Show in Kearney, I was pleased to see our visit coincided with the show. It was a good show, a few of the quilts I stood in awe, "how did they do that?" I kept looking around for someone I knew, then realized I was in Nebraska not Oregon, I felt a little sad. Gary went to the Great Platte Arch Monument just a few miles from Kearney on I-80. It spans 310 feet across I-80, a tower on each side of the freeway to anchor the arch weighing 1,500 tons. It was jacked up vertically then set across the hwy onto each tower. I wasn't there but Gary said there was quite a museum telling the stories of the pioneers struggles and triumphs. You could walk across the arch to the second tower and look down at the cars and trucks on the freeway. The Oregon, Mormon and California trails split from there, of course the Oregon Trail to Oregon, the California trail to California and the Mormon trail to Utah. The Pony Express and Stage Coach lines started from here.
Saturday Oct. 11, We left Minden about 9:30 heading toward Wichita, Ks. only about 150 miles south. The weather has stayed "cool" and windy since we left Montana except for the brief respite in Bridgeport. Wichita is a larger city than I thought with a population of almost 400,000. We arrived at 4 Seasons RV park about 4:30, some travel days are tougher than others, although it was a relatively short drive we both arrived drained and cranky. Gary fought a crosswind most of the way , I don't have any excuse for feeling so "whipped". After we got settled we decided to go out for dinner, since it was "football Saturday" we chose a sports bar so we could catch a game. BIG mistake! The Kansas City Royals we playing the third game of playoff series with Baltimore. The place was packed and noisy, we were lucky to get a table. The food was good and Gary said the beer was "pretty good". Ducks won!
Sunday, October 12, The weather was still cold and windy but we decided to go downtown to the riverfront walking trails. Another BIG mistake, there was a marathon going on. It took a while of skirting around closed streets to find a parking spot, well worth it though, great trails along the river on both sides. The wind was still blowing but we did get a nice walk in, picking up a few geo caches along the way. We had lunch at the Pumphouse in Old Town Wichita. After lunch we drove through neighborhoods with beautiful old homes and churches. Seahawks lost.
Monday, Oct. 13, We were scheduled to leave today but the forecast was for high winds and 3 inches of rain, so we decided that wouldn't be a good idea to hit the road. We were coach bound for most of the day, we were getting a little stir crazy so we went to a movie, The Equalizer with Denzel Washington. It was violent in places and a lot of nasty words but other than that (Mrs. Lincoln) we enjoyed the movie.
Tuesday, Oct. 14, The weather cleared and the wind died down so we took off for Oklahoma City a little over 170 miles arriving at Tinker Air Force Base about 2:30. Tinker AFB was named for Major General Clarence Tinker, the first Native American Major General. It is a joint Air Force , Navy and Department of Defense base, a world wide manager of aircraft. They are home to a wide variety of aircraft including AWAC's, refueling planes and fighter
squadrons. It is always fun to watch all the planes do touch and go's.
Wednesday Oct. 15, We took Luci to a doggie day care and headed downtown to do the walking tour. We started at the Oklahoma City Memorial and Museum, the location of the homegrown terrorist bombing in 1995 where 168 people were killed at the federal building. You enter the memorial grounds through the bronze Gates of Time, one has 9:01 and the other side of the reflection pond the other one said 9:03, the bombing occurred at 9:02. The Field of Empty Chairs represent each man woman and child killed in the bombing, 163 in the building itself and 5 that were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The chairs were handcrafted and made of bronze and granite, the children's chairs were smaller. We got a little turned around so we missed the art museum, there was a lot of street construction going on. We walked around the Myriad Botanical Gardens& Crystal Bridge Tropical Observatory, we didn't go in, the grounds were beautiful, will go back another day. The fourth stop was Bricktown, fashioned after the San Antonio River Walk (we think) they dug a mile long canal with restaurants all along the way. Beautiful sculptures but the amazing structure was a series of horses, carriage, wagons depicting the Oklahoma Land Grab crossing over the canal. Very well done. We skipped the Boathouse District, it was getting hot and we were tired, we'd walked several miles at that point and still had to walk back to the car near the Memorial. We did have lunch in Bricktown (almost all the buildings were made of brick)a brew pub of course. The food was delish! On our way back to pick up Luci we stopped at the State Capitol. I wasn't impressed, it looked dingy to me. Out front was an oil derrick, we don't know if it was functional or just window dressing.
Thursday, October 16, we started our day with a nice bike ride on the trails here on base, Gary tracked the ride, 4.69 miles, I had to push the bike up a steep hill, I haven't ridden since Salem so I was a bit out of shape and a little shaky. Didn't fall over though. After prettying up a bit we took off for the Overholser Mansion built in 1903 at the time on the outskirts of the city. Henry Overholser made some of his money bringing "kit" houses to OKC during the land grab since there isn't an abundance of trees here for construction. He was 43 when he married his 18 year old bride. The house has hand painted canvas ceiling and walls, probably 95% of the household furnishings are original, the last heir donated the place to the city and left everything behind. Beats garage sales.
Guess what! We had lunch at a brew pub, the food was "ok", Gary said the beer was good. We came back to the coach, we'd left Luci behind. The last couple of days the weather has been borderline hot but nice, the next week looks like it'll be in the high 70's. Wah Hoo!!!
Well, TTFN,
Gary and Pam
Our camping spot in Bridgeport
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