Painting the town orange.

We began our Tuesday morning with a visit to Route 66 park near Lake Overholser. After spending a good chunk of our June vacation traveling along Route 66, Katie and I felt obliged to pay a visit to OKC's homage to the Mother Road.

Upon arrival we were disappointed to see very little at this particular park. But once we got out of the car, we could see the centerpiece of this recreational area: an inlaid map of Route 66 there in the plaza.

Katie insisted that we walk the route, beginning in Chicago.

"Sirup"? REALLY?

And I wonder who Will Roger is. Will ROGERS I have heard of, but his famous highway would not have an apostrophe after the "r"! Seriously, how do you go to the trouble and expense of creating this massive mural in the ground and mess up the punctuation?

And look! Will Roger gets his own memorial! Too bad Will ROGERS didn't get the same respect!

ANYWAY, we continued our walk down Route 66, pausing in Oklahoma to acknowledge our current locale.
Then we got to relive some of our vacation memories, like the Big Texan in Amarillo,

Tucumcari, New Mexico,

and then Holbrook, Meteor Crater, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.

We ended our trip down memory lane in Santa Monica. It's been three years since THAT vacation, but we still recall our fantastic afternoons spent on that beach.

After our visit to Route 66 Park, we made our way downtown to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. We had visited this sacred ground before, but Katie really wanted to go back.








Even though we'd seen the outdoor memorial and toured the museum before, this was still a powerful visit. Now that Katie's older, she was able to better understand what happened during not only the bombing, but throughout the investigation and trial afterward.

From there we drove out to Uncle Mike's store to meet him for lunch at Freddy's Frozen Custard.
Since it was Mike's birthday, he got a free sundae, which he promptly gave to Katie!

After our birthday lunch with Mike, we went shopping for a few hours. We wanted to head to Bricktown, but we weren't all that anxious to be there at the hottest time of day! Eventually we drove back downtown to ride one of the Bricktown water taxis.

One HUGE improvement since our last visit to Bricktown? Covered boats and misters! (No, not THAT kind of mister, Mister!)

Again we saw the land run monument.
And again we heard about how the sculptor, Paul Moore, depicted himself in one of the statues.
After eating dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse there in Bricktown, we went back to the canal for another tour.




Of course, I always have to pay my respects to the Sonic corporate headquarters!

After that river taxi cruise, Katie and I walked down to the land run statues to get a better look. The tour guides had told us that it was OK to touch and even climb on the art, so Katie really wanted to get up close and personal with them.








It's an impressive monument! I'm glad we took the time to walk around it to see all the details the sculptor included.

And that was day 2 in OKC!

Northbound.

While Ryan was at Camp Cornerstone, Katie and I made our own little trek northward to visit Oklahoma City and Uncle Mike.

The fun started in Gainesville, where we stopped to shop at what's left of the outlet mall.

Not long after we crossed the Red River, I got a call from our friend/real estate agent. He had good news for us: a buyer had accepted our counter-offer! We had contract #3 to sell our house! With my mind racing, thinking of all that would need to be done in the next month, it was hard to imagine relaxing for a few days on the road. But once we got into OKC, I took a brain-break and just enjoyed the time away from home.

As we were driving into the big city, we passed through Norman.

I asked Katie, "Why don't we pull over and take a look at the ou campus?"

"Ew! WHY?!" was her response. (That's my Texas girl!)

In any case, we did set foot on the land thieves' land.
As we drove toward the visitor center, I made the comment that the campus was certainly pretty.

"It's ugly in MY eyes," Katie said.

We were definitely strangers in a strange land!
The visitor center had already closed for the day by the time we got there, but we did get to see this cool statue.

From there we drove on into OKC where we ate dinner at our traditional fine dining establishment:

Cracker Barrel!

We also paid a visit to the new Half Price Books store. We wanted to say hello to the assistant manager there! After visiting with Uncle Mike, we made plans to meet him for lunch the next day. Then we were off to get settled in our hotel. Aaaaaaah...

Canine cousin.

Frisco's not much of a swimmer, but her cousin Coal surely is!

Kelly and Coal came over, and Coal had no problem jumping right on in!
Isn't he proud! Too bad he always swims directly to his mama, Kelly. She was all scratched up by the end of the afternoon.
Frisco was pretty concerned by it all. She really didn't want to get in the water.
In fact, when Coal started swimming, Frisco ran around the edge of the pool, barking like she wanted to save him.
Coal is a regal swimmer. He swims like a horse trots!

But not our Frisco! Brett threw her in the pool just to calm her barking down. She swims like a champ and straight to the steps, but she's much happier on the side than in the water. Besides, it's much easier to get your ears scratched when you're out of the water than when you're in, right?