Oklahoma

March 8-13, 2020

TL;DR; We saw a lot of intense things in Oklahoma, from the Race Massacre site to the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial. Sprinkled in between were terrible roads, good food, and a must-see Travolta movie.

The sights

Tulsa

Walked up to the Greenwood Cultural Center, where we learned about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and Black Wall Street. The riots basically started because a black boy ran into a white girl in an elevator and 5,000 whites, including Klansmen, descended on the black neighborhood and burned it down. On top of that, insurance companies then denied the black families’ claims. Insanity.

We also walked down Archer Street, past a couple cute stores, down to Guthrie Green, which was quite pretty if a little desolate.

Wanted to walk to a brewery we thought was under half a mile away, but it ended up being over a mile. Sort of a random warehouse-type area, but had lots of breweries and brew pubs (just not all open)! Started at Marshall, then Nothing’s Left, where they “brew weird beer” indeed, i.e. bacon maple and “deez nutz.”

Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City

Walked up to the museum at about 10:03, just as a huge busload of kids were coming in. We started practicing extra vigilance today; using towels to open doors and being aggressive about washing our hands

Highlights were:

Dorothea Lange exhibit: Lange was one of the first people to affect policy through pictures. She focused a lot on the plight of the worker and how people get stuck places when the jobs leave. Lots of photos of refugees. Shockingly relevant to today, so many decades later.

Andy Warhol exhibit: Warhol’s stuff was really interesting, too, about Lonesome Cowboys and his love of western culture.

It was a really wide-reaching museum with a pretty good amount of exhibits on western and Indian art.

Saw John Wayne’s Oscar he won for “True Grit.”

Didn’t park in the main lot even though we probably could have. There was a convenient, huge overflow lot right next door with rough gravel.

Oklahoma City Bombing Site

This (free) memorial was super well done and impactful. Saw “The Fence,” with all the original and subsequent offerings for the bombing victims.

The empty chairs represent the floors and all the people that died in each one. Unfortunately, there were a lot of little chairs representing the kids, which we didn’t realize had died—they were in day care : ( .

There were also two large gates: One had 9:01 a.m. on top, which represented the moment just before the bombing, and the other 9:03 a.m., which was the moment “we started healing.” The bombing occurred at 9:02.

Inside was extensive. We started on the first floor, which was backwards. We didn’t remember a ton about the bombing, but the video of the south side of the building is insane: it completely disappears. The surrounding area was totally ruined, too: 25 buildings had to be demolished and 300 were damaged, with $600 million in damage.

Each story is more heartbreaking than the next. If you had gotten up to go to the copier or to the bathroom, or whatever, your fate was totally different. Lots of evidence from the track was intact, which was crazy, but helped them catch McVeigh (who was actually arrested 90 minutes after the bombing because he had a missing license plate!). They also had a map that showed they were all over the country preparing for it, which is scary.

After the bombing, the Coloradans were very welcoming to the Oklahomans who needed to be there. The “Oklahoma Standard” also came from the bombing, because there was just such an outpouring of help and things people needed.

OKC Underground

We decided to walk a few blocks to the “OKC Underground” which is 20 blocks of underground tunnels with different colored lights and “exhibits.”… there were some cool pictures from OK’s statehood and how fast it popped. But otherwise not much to see/pretty quiet and a little eery. Came out by the botanical garden and walked around there. Pretty tulips. Decided not to go in.

Details, details, details

Since we stayed in Broken Arrow one night, we had to watch “Broken Arrow,” even if it took two hours to download it in Barnes and Noble. Worth it. Fun fact: Same director as “Face/Off”.

Bought a couple day passes at Downtown Fitness. Was nice to get a non-RV workout in.

There were a lot of really beautiful, expansive, and interesting murals in Tulsa. Apparently one of them was even made by the mayor.

And then this happened…

We were gonna use our own cups at Panera but they said they weren’t allowing it because of COVID. Was quite anxiety-producing to be wiping things down and such. Overheard tons of chatter about the virus. Watched the stock market drop 10%.

Now we know

Oklahoma has incredibly bad roads.

OKLAHOMA ROADS SUCK. DID WE MENTION?

OKC has pretty good parking on 7th in between Harvey and Robinson, just north of the bombing memorial. (Google Maps did try to take us under an 11-foot overpass; so Bri made an evasive maneuver across the train tracks to get around it successfully.)

Road food

Happy hour at Hodges Bend in Tulsa’s East Village is an ice cold martini and juicy, brioche-bunned burger with fries and pimento ketchup.

Tulsa’s Dilly Diner serves an all-day breakfast that includes the hefty “Jed” — a doughy cinnamon roll that arrives on a dinner plate with a steak knife.