Day Four: Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK to Fort Smith, AR (438 miles)

OK, so I'm (MeShell) blogging today...mostly because I'm feeling guilty. The lack of mileage we accomplished today is entirely my fault. I had to be online working at 8 PM tonight (Worky McWorkster), and I forced a stop in the only state to "see and be seen" - the great state of Arkansas . Yes, the place where Bill learned to love politics and to love 22 year-olds .

But let's start from the beginning....sunrise. Well, our sunrise was about 10:30 AM after losing two hours during our drive yesterday. Silly time zones. We stopped at the Golden Arches for a quick Egg McMuffin (my third since Sunday) and a coffee. (To Gary's dismay, they were all out of iced coffee today). Do not be alarmed by the amount of dining @ McDonalds - this is all practice for the ultimate digestive challenge - the McGriddle. Similar to the Egg McMuffin, except that its inner goodness is trapped between two embossed golden pancakes that are given "an injection of maple-flavored syrup deep inside its griddle folds". We haven't had one yet just because it 'just hasn't felt right". It will.

We then headed over to Cadillac Ranch - I will now challenge your dedication to rollin.blogspot.com by not explaining what this place is since Gary referenced it in a past posting. It was pretty phenomenal - the cars are recessed back within a large mud field. Charley enjoyed exploring the inside of the cars. I immediately regretting wearing white pants.





Once we left Texas and arrived in Oklahoma, we decided to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial, a site to remember the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing back in April 1995. Similar to my reaction to the Grand Canyon, the monument and the surrounding grounds were massive and breathtaking. Unfortunately, no dogs were allowed near the monument, and Charley was being watched closely by the various armed guards. It reminded me of poor Snoopy when all he wanted to do was hang with his friends, see the Oklahoma City National Monument, and find the little red headed girl. Yet that voice always said "No Dogs Allowed".

The main area of the memorial consists of two large walls or gates and in between lies a reflecting pool. Gary and some other insensitive visitors of the monument gawked and took pictures of a duck and it's ducklings taking a swim in the pool. There are also 168 wooden chairs surrounding the monument, representing the 149 adults and 19 children who died on the day. See some of our pics below. We were really glad that we made the spontaneous trip to see the monument, and we couldn't help but wonder why NYC hasn't been able to figure out something of this scale to remember 09/11.




The remainder of our drive through Oklahoma pretty much looked like this. Rain. Thunder. Lightening. Did I mentioned that I haven't sat in the driver's seat of our car since Monday? Not sure what Gary's trying to prove, but I'm not complaining. I will just continue to find opportunities to say 'hey, if you want me to drive, just ask and I'm ready' and then quickly close my eyes and fall asleep.


It's now 12:53 AM, we're watching Colbert and contemplating getting Interstate 40 tattoos on our feet. Did you really think I could post an entire blog entry and not put up a picture of my dog? Here he is begging for a bite of my Egg McMuffin. Just think what he'll do when he sees those injected hot cakes.