Oklahoma City - More Time with Kirk and Susan

We left Amarillo for Oklahoma City after an overnight stop at a Spring Hill Suites hotel. We like that hotel chain because they are about the same price as a Hampton Inn or Fairfield Inn, but they have a little more room for all our stuff.

And since we have a truck with lots of storage, we have a lot of stuff. We travel with food for snacks and sandwiches, a laundry sack, a very small “pod" coffee maker, our meds and toiletries, pillows, and our suitcases and some miscellaneious bins.   It takes a couple or three trips to unload the truck and move it into the hotel room. 

When we get ready to leave each morning, I repack the truck.  Our truck bed cover began leaking, so I use a couple of tarps and put each of our suitcases in a yard and leave bag.  So far my waterproofing techniques have worked out fine.

Enough on logistics - we got to Oklahoma City to stay with Kirk and Susan before noon.  We drove to their home in Nichols Hills and met Kirk there.  We unpacked for our over night stay and then all went do the First American Museum in Oklahoma City.  It’s a large, new museum with a restaurant.  

One thing I learned was the Indian Code talkers were not only from Arizona and New Mexico.  In fact, the original Code Talkers were part of the Choctaw Telephone Squad going back to World War I.  Later, members of the members of the Cherokee, Comanche, Osage, Pawnee and Poncha people were part of the 12,000 who volunteered in WW I.

Susan joined us for lunch at the nice museum restaurant and then we went back to Nichols Hills and came upon a Home Show that was underway.  We decided to take it in and see a multimillion dollar mansion that was decorated by local designers as part of the 50th Anniversary Symphony Show House 2023 supporting the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

If I understood it correctly local designers propose up to three rooms they want to decorate. Once chosen a room, they can repaint, redo and bring in all the props they want to decorate a room with furniture, paintings etc.  They pay for the privilege.  That, as well as admission tickets for viewers like us, generate the revenue.

We wandered through all 35+ rooms and found it different and interesting.

The last stop was the garage which served as a gift shop of sorts.  These bags were on display with amusing sayings.

From there Kirk went to a local church that has a nationally ranked tennis club (BCC Tennis Academy) where he volunteers. In high school and college, Kirk was champion tennis player.  I went to watch and helped by picking up hundreds of tennis balls for the instructors and kids.  It was kind of amazing.

Afterwards we had a quick visit to see their daughter Mandy and her three kids.  Mandy is the same age as our two kids and we knew her growing up.  Its great to see her as a wife and mother and teacher. 

That evening we had a delightful dinner of grilled talapia and fresh vegetables for dinner with Kirk and Susan.  We reminisced some more that evening.  As a talented woodworker (Kirk) and artisan/embroiderer/quilter etc (Susan) we love to hear and see their creations and projects.

We packed a lot into one day before saying good-bye and getting back on the road to Albuquerque and our Warner Bros / Wives Reunion.  That’s next  on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Thanks for joining us!

Thorncrown Chapel and Bentonville

Daughter Kelly is an (among other things) Interior Designer.  In the process of getting her Master’s Degree in that field a few year’s ago, she became acquainted with building design and architecture.  Brother Brad pursued a degree in architecture before serving as a pilot in the USAF.  One of his favorites is the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.  The architect of the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka, Springs, AR -- was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.  The chapel and support building reflects his influence.

Kelly knew Thorncrown Chapel and suggested we stop by and take it in.  So we did.  It was beautiful and simple.  Millions of visitors have seen it.

                                      

The design has been labelled “Ozark Gothic” and stands 48 feet tall with over 6,000 square feet of glass and 425 windows.  

You can read more of the inspiration and history of the creation of the chapel here.  Located in the hills near Pine Bluff, AR, Jim Reed bought some land for his retirement home in the beautiful Ozark Hills. Others became aware of the beauty and would stop by and take in the scenic area.  Instead of limiting access, Reed invited others to see it.  

Then he came up with the idea of building a glass chapel there in the woods.  Next he enlisted an architect who followed the design influences of Frank Llyod Wright and the simple, beautiful chapel was built.  Construction began in 1979 and was finished in 1980.

This book is about the chapel.

After an hour or so there, we continued on our way to see Bentonville and the Walmart Museum. Approaching the downtown area, we found the museum and were disappointed to see that it was closed for an 18-month renovation.  But they created a Walmart Heritage Lab a few blocks away to tell Walmarts story.

The town was picturesque. It was a beautiful day and the small town center was full of flowers and color.  

A Walmart Fresh Market was a block away and we picked something up for our microwave dinner.  Not surprisingly, the store was spotless and showcased an amazing variety of choices.  One would expect that in the town of the home offices of the worlds largest chain.

We quickly found out that the town has a number of beautiful murals on buildings throughout the town.  Apparently 19 artists have decorated the town.  But that’s another story...

We returned to Roadrunner 2.0 and drove over to the Walmart Home Offices and the Heritage Lab (temporary museum).

The Heritage Lab museum was a modest but fact-filled presentation of how Sam Walton created the worlds retail chain.  They even had a life size hologram (Mr. Sam hologram) where he speaks.  That must be part of the guided tours but we wandered around for awhile on a self-guided tour.  

We had lunch and continued our day on to Tulsa for the night.

It was a full day and we stayed at Spring Hill Suites.  Once we got into town we found a Costco and filled up.  It was rush hour so it took some extra time to get back to the hotel and relax for the evening.

Thanks for joining us for another day on our Coast-to-Coast trip in Roadrunner 2.0.  

Time in Branson

 The Sight and Sound production of Queen Esther is playing in Branson MO so we planned our stay around that show.  Good friends Kirk and Susan (from Oklahoma City) joined us there at an AirBnb condo that worked out very well.

We met them mid afternoon and hung out for a while.  It was great to see them again.  If you type “Kirk” in the search bar at the right you can see a few other times we have met up with them over the years during our RV full-timing days.  

Dinner at Landry’s seafood was delicious.  They did something we don’t do often enough - split a meal.  We shared a serving rainbow trout and rice pilaf and it hit the spot.

We did more catching up that evening and called it a night.  Our condo had 2 bedroom overlooking a golf course and it was quite nice.  Tuesday morning after breakfast at the condo we went on a hike on a city trail that was fun. 

We found the Roark Creek Trail in Branson which was a short and picturesque trail.  It follows the Roark Creek from Lake Taneycomo up through the Roark Creek Valley.  

It was the perfect way to get out and enjoy the day.  Next we stopped a Panera Bread for a great lunch and then went over to the Tanger Outlet Mall.  We didn’t find anything we couldn’t do without.  We went back to the condo and putzed around for the afternoon.  Kirk and I checked out the golf course near the condo and then we went and washed the truck.  We fixed dinner back at the condo and then got ready for the main event: the Sight and Sound production of Queen Esther!

The play/musical did not disappoint!  It was fantastic!  The story is an account of Mordecai and Esther from the Bible.  As described in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, “Esther is a Hebrew Bible heroine who catches the eye of the hard-drinking King of Persia, during a royal beauty contest of sorts, and becomes his queen.  She uses her influence to save herself and the rest of the empire of Persia’s Jewish countrymen from the evil Haman who seeks their demise."

The whole production was so well done.  We had a great view of every scene and it was a fast-moving story in the Bible.  The mesmerizing, captivating tale was so well done.  The singers were strong and always on key and the music was great.  The pageantry, costumes and stage was top notch.  Just excellent. It might have been the best musical production I have ever seen!

Not surprisingly I highly recommend it.

It was a great time in Branson and we headed onward the next morning.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

The Amazing Gateway Arch - St Louis

St Louis is so full of history.  

We knew when we were planning this trip there was going to be no way to absorb all the history and story in the founding, growth and development of the city.  We remembered some accounts of the influence of the fur trappers and traders back in the early days (1700’s) when they traded pelts there with the Indians and French along the Mississippi River

We couldn’t with to get there and stayed mixed it up some by staying in a Fairfield Inn hotel in Collinsville, IL, about 15 miles east of the Gateway Arch National Park.  We ordered tickets on line and printed them out a month ago.  We arrived in plenty of time for the 9:10 tram ride to the top of the Arch.

We could see the Arch from miles away as we drove into town.  We found a parking lot a few blocks away and arrived before the visitor’s center opened at 9:00 am.  

The park commemorates a number of things in our country’s history.  First it is a memorial to Thomas Jefferson’s role in opening the West, most notably commissioning Meriwether Lewis (and William Clark) to seek a northwest passage to the Pacific Coast. 

The expedition left in 1804 and returned triumphantly in 1806.  After reading Stephen Ambrose’s account - “Undaunted Courage” I was stuck by their courage and Clark’s ability to pull it off.  I think it is no less significant for their time than landing men on the moon has been in our time.

Our ride to the top on the tram was at 9:10.  We got in line and it was well organized.  The guide offered a few historical facts as we climbed into our tram. I was surprised how tight it was and had not read about that in the reviews.  It was a 4 minute ride to the top which went fairly quickly.

Once at the top, we had 7 minutes to go from side to side to take in the spectacular views.  It was awesome.

Interesting Facts:

The Gateway Arch is a symbol of the role St. Louis play in the westward expansion of the United State in the 1800’s. It is 630 feet tall and 630 wide.  The Arch is designed to withstand earthquakes and lightning strikes and designed to sway up to 18 inches in 150 mile per hour winds. Construction of the Gateway Arch began on Feb 12, 1963 and completed on October 28, 1965.  Here’s a 3-min YouTube video of the Gateway Arch National Park: click here

After the tram to the top we spent more time in the museum.  First we saw the orientation movie: Monument to the Dream. We watched the movie on YouTube the day before in our hotel room.

After that, we walked around the museum and could have spent hours.   It was very well done and reminded be of the museums underground at Ford’s Theater and the nation's capitol Visitor Center, both in Washington D.C.  The Gateway Arch underwent a $380M upgrade/renovation in 2018.

We enjoyed our time in St Louis and got some ideas of things to see if we can revisit at some point.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles, Coast-to-Coast 2023 travels!