Feeding time at the zoo.
Part of the deal with the Comfort Inn at Lawton Ok., was a free hot breakfast, well it was disgusting, not the food but some of the observed behaviors, they must have been eating for the next week...safest food here was orange juice, sugar flakes, and yoghurt .....nothing yet convinces us that the Americans(generally) can make a cup of coffee, so we went back to our room. Set up the clan lab, and made our own.
Left Lawton, anticipating a two ish hour journey north to Oklahoma City, only to get five miles north and the road is blocked...every adversity has an opportunity. The road was just bollarded up, and a very wet and lonely DOT employee not being helpful. Trying to head back into town, we had another road block, this one with a very helpful constable who could tell us..
"Yo'all (true)won't get though this way...you can take the 82 West to the 183 North then the East I40 and you'll take a diversion for a couple of hours, and will get yo'all where you want to git to."
So it goes...
There was a dead black and white thing on the 183 North.
"There was a dead skunk"' says Nathalie
"In the middle of the road"she adds
"And it's stinking to high heaven" Andrew offers, suggesting it could be a good chorus for a song
Alas, Louden Wainwright, has already done it.....
The gardening show on the radio offers a different view of the world. If you ever have a problem with moles skunks and armadillos, use mole max...'three or four times a year, or once a month.'
The country we travelled though was a good indicator of how bad things are in these parts. Many of the smaller towns we passed through don't have any obvious business or shops open...they are ghost towns..... abandoned, desolate. Even for a Sunday. The only buildings that were not falling down were the multitudinous churches, First Baptist, Second Methodist, Open Arms, Loving Heart, Catholic, episcopalian, Salvation Army, to name but a few....have never seen a 'Second ' Baptist church though. This is hopefully an indicator that at least there is still a sense of community.
This is a wheat and corn belt, and there has been pretty poor rain fall over the last ten years or so, but by the looks of the buildings, the downturn's been longer than ten years.
Washita county seat ok. Mostly abandoned or closed left and right.
Even the Sherriff' cars are abandoned and for sale.
Rocky Lake, Rocky Ok.first time in ten years water has come over the spillway.
Not wanting to miss out on accommodation, we booked and as is the process paid for a place that had good reviews, but arriving it is relatively new, but.....there is a suspicion that the ground floor rooms may be hired out by the hour....and it may be an accommodation of next to last resort for many of the residents rather than 'travellers'...so we made sure we got a room on the top floor, and the 'Concierge' sensing our discomfort, also got us a room at the back...a lesson learnt 'Value Place' is the Formula One. There is also a suspicion that of the 95 travellers reviews, 95% were completed by the long term residents. And only three of the reviewers had reviewed outside of OKC, and only one a 'disgusted' Aussie from 2006 had reviewed anywhere overseas.
It's at the corner of two major highways/freeways. But wait there's more...in the weeny small print we find out that 1. We have to pay extra to have our room made up for the two days,..Not a chance if that happening. 2. Pay extra to hire the utensils, cups saucers etc(thanks Droni) and 3 . Pay extra to access the internet. If we die in our sleep, this will be on the blog to let you know what happened.....so there's Andrew's next crusade to Trip-advisor re the push polling of reviews, and to Expedia re the hidden hidden costs.
Note the ambiance. The Fuhrer Bunker would win awards...
Travelling is learning.
Killing a few hours waiting for our room to be disinfected, we wandered downtown to Stockyard City. The most awesome cowboy-wear shop Langstons was the first stop. www.langstons.com/.it is enormous. From lizard skin rhinestone studded belts, with your choice of (boxing title sized) belt buckles, through to $350.00 Stetson hats, and the most amazing selection of not only boots, but slip on fancy cowboy and cow girl boots...
No laces in those suckers...only a tiny selection of the boots in the shop, but there must be many one footed cowboys.
Thought we bought two pairs of jeans (about half the price of same brands at home AND without the provenance of Langstons) but got to the checkout and there were three pairs in the bag. Nathalie advises she has never seen so many jeans in the one place (other than at a Marilyn Monroe convention.)
Then it was time for an early dinner at the Cattlemen's Cafe, across the road.
At each end of the pool there is a wall one with 9:01 at one end and this at the other.
Being a vegetarian could get a fellow kilt' 'round these parts pardoner.Yee Ha
Good feed, bit posh, but all up about $50.00
Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial Park
Wandered into the CBD with the intent to find and visit the OCBMP.
Built on the site where at 902 am on 19th of April,1995, and enormous truck bomb exploded outside the Murragh Federal building, killing 168 people including 19 children in a day care centre. The murderer was later captured, tried and executed.
Being a Sunday evening, and on a holiday weekend, it was a very beautiful and peaceful place.
One hundred and sixty eight empty chairs in nine rows representing the dead. Each row represents the floor the deceased person was at, and the little chairs represent the little people killed, from the creshe on the first(one up from ground) floor.
Back to the Normandy Beach Pill Box charm of the 'hotel'.
And moving the fridge across the doorway, just to give Nathalie some comfort
