AN OKIE DOKIE DAY

So we arrived at the National Memorial this morning around ten, to discover the main museum doesn't open on Sundays til noon.  But the actual site of the Oklohoma bombing on 19 April 1995 is now a space of tranquility and reflection.

Each of the 163 chairs represent someone killed and they are set out in nine rows, for the nine floors, at approximately where each body was found.  The pool is very shallow and the water constantly ripples softly.  The tall trees outline where the Federal Building was and will only grow to about the height of a nine storey building.

So we headed upto the Art Gallery, to find it too would not open until noon. So we walked further, through basically deserted streets, to the Botanical Gardens.  There was less lawn, trees and garden beds than we expected.  In fact, it is quite a dynamic place.  A stage surrounded by a moat has rows of seats in a semi circle round it, which in turn is set in a U shape of buildings.  There is them Crystal 

Bridge, a huge glass house with plants from around the world.

I loved the water features all about, especially the rows of water sprouts spraying into a really shallow rectangular pool, which was very popular with children.

We returned to the Art Gallery, which had three distinct displays.  Faberge work from Russia, old European and American painters with some modern American works too, and our favourite, a glass artist named Dale Chihuly.  His large glass pieces were so colourful and amazing.  We walked under a glass ceiling on top of which so many glass shapes lay.

The shapes, colours, patterns were amazing and when en masse was astonishing.  The foyer of the Art Gallery had one glass sculpture made of hundreds of glass pieces, in a column which rose the three stories high.

We finally wound our way back to the National Museum, which tells the story of the bombing.  What a sober, sad story.  The filing cabinet drawer below was found in a building across the street!  People's glasses and shoes were either blown, or knocked off by debris.  Buildings a block away were  later condemned.  We heard the mundane recording of a Water Board hearing, across the street, which commenced at 9 am, then the chilling sound of the explosion on the tape at 9.02.  

There are various videos screening about the exhibiton.  Survivors, those who lost loved ones, law enforcement, rescuers, politicians, all tell their story.  The saddest aspect is two different child care centres were in the building.  The loveliest is the huge glass windows that overlook the memorial we saw earlier this morning - the pool, chairs and lawns.

Next we walked to Brick Town and had an early dinner.  But downtown Oklohoma has a strange feel as you walk through late on a  Sunday afternoon.  Very little traffic, street parking available, no shops, restaurants, etc at all, just huge buildings, like banks and energy companies. Very clean streets, no graffiti, and very few people walking about.  It was almost eerie.  

We have been using the same taxi driver and we phoned her and she sent her husband Gerry, also a cab driver.  Gerry would not look out of place with guitar in hand on a country and western stage.  He has long, grey hair and moustache and kept calling me "m'am" even though he is a grandfather.  But he got lost on the way back to our accommodation.  So many highways, flyovers, exits and on ramps, even he got confused.  He has left his phone at home when we called for a ride, so I called his wife Kathy for directions.  Tomorrow we pick up our rental car, so the big question is: Will we even find our way out of Oklahoma City?