Mid-April we raised our jacks and after hugs and “see you later’s,” with Cori and Greg, we headed north.

Our first stop was Arlington (DFW area) TX Elks Lodge. We had visited this lodge before, back in late December of 2019. At that time, it was a quick one-night stop but this time we had a couple of days planned.

First thing was dinner with Gary, a long-time friend from High School. Sadly, his husband Ernesto wasn’t feeling well and didn’t join us. There was a highly rated Mexican restaurant very close to the Elks and we enjoyed a wonderful evening catching up.

The following morning we ventured into downtown Dallas to visit the George W Bush Presidential Library. Bill and I were both impressed with the displays.

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Dallas is also home to the site where President John F Kennedy was shot back in November 1963, and we wanted to see it and the surrounding area. We found on street parking nearby and it was a quick walk. While we both had learned a lot about JFK assassination in school, actually seeing the site was not what we expected. There is actually an X on the street on the exact spot where it happened, and the street is actually an on ramp to a busy highway. After looking at pictures, the highway wasn’t quite so big back then.

Afterward, taking advantage of the beautiful sunny day, we walked along Elm Street in the West End District and headed back to the car on Main Street and the Main Street District.

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Oklahoma City was our next stop, parking up at the Midwest City Elks Lodge. I originally tried to get us a spot at the Edmond Elks Lodge, but their sites with electric hook-ups were all full. They had room for boondocking, but since the weather was to be hot, we preferred to have electric. The parking at Midwest City was fine with one exception, it was directly below the flight path for planes landing at nearby Tinker Air Force Base. Thankfully they stopped before it got too late in the evening, nor did it start too early in the morning, but when they were overhead, it was very loud.

We had two places we wanted to see in Oklahoma City area. The first was the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. I remember very clearly the day of the bombing, the day they caught the perpetrator, and also the day he was executed. As we entered the Memorial, we could easily see how it was set up with chairs in rows on a lawn. There were 168 chairs, one for each of the victims that were killed that day. The chairs are arranged in 9 rows, which represents how many floors there was in the building and within each row, they are arranged with their location within that floor taken into account. As I walked along, I saw how some of the chairs were much smaller than others and realized they were for the 19 children that were in the day care center. They were grouped together in the row for the second floor, along with their caregivers. I had to pause, as the impact was palpable.

Before we entered the museum, we had read to allow between 1 1/2 and 2 hours for a visit. We took almost 3 hours. There was so much information and I didn’t want to miss any of it.

While checking out TripAdvisor for other things nearby, we learned there was an underground walkway that was home to local art. It sounded interesting and we wanted to walk off the heaviness of the Memorial and Museum. We found an entrance easily and walked along. To be honest, as interesting as it sounded, it wasn’t all that in person. Didn’t help that once we were back on the street we got turned around a bit and dare I say a little lost? Those who know me, being lost is one of my worst things. Thankfully we didn’t waste too much time and made our way back to our car.

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For day 2 in OKC, friends had recommended we see the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, telling us how great it was, so that was our original plan. However, when scrolling through “Things to Do” on TripAdvisor, I noticed a different type museum, the First Americans Museum. It sounded different than other museums we had been to (the Buffalo Bill Center of the West for example) so we decided to visit there instead.

The pictures I’ve chosen tell about the things I found most impactful, so rather than retell, you can easily read the displays.

While I obviously can’t compare The First American Museum to the cowboy museum with first hand knowledge, I think it was a great alternative. If you read the displays above, they tell the cliff-notes version of how European settlers and early Americans treated the people who were already here when they arrived, and how that continues to effect those First American descendants to this day. It was thought provoking, very well done, and was definitely worth a visit.

Previous posts: Back in TX and Israel Visit

Next time: Family Visit is Manhattan KS

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