October 18,2015 I have to catch up AGAIN! Amarillo, Texas / Albuquerque, New Mexico

Howdy folks,
Sorry for the lag, I have no good excuse.

We left Oklahoma and landed in Amarillo, Texas.   Nice RV park west of the city in the middle of nowhere, with a nice Love's truck stop at the interstate exit - perfect!   This park, Oasis RV, will eventually be a very nice park with trees and shrubs. It appears to be fairly new.  Nicely spaced sites, paved roads and paved sites.
Amarillo is known for the field along side the interstate with four or five Cadillacs buried at the nose, with their tail ends up in the end.  
So the RV park's riff on that was this:

I love clouds and as we entered New Mexico we were treated to some mighty pretty ones.  Sorry if you find them boring but I love them.   

We arrived in Albuquerque on Saturday, 10-17.  We are here until Tuesday, 10-20.   When we checked in the registration desk told us a "bad storm" was coming and not to put our awnings out because of the high winds.   Jeez - ok - so we hurried and set up at our site and then beat feet to find a grocery store and got some dinner then hurried back and guess what - no storm!   No rain, no wind - I was a little disappointed.   But the weather guessers say there is rain in the area.

Today, Sunday, 10-18, Mary Mickler came to our site and got the deluxe tour of the MoHo, then she graciously acted as our tour guide for the day.   She took us to Old Town which we loved.  Lots of shops and restaurants.  Beautiful old church, but services were being held so we didn't go in.  Great little shop with awesome balsamic vinegars and olive oils.  Had to make some purchases there for sure.    Very similar to Old Town San Diego but this one was much more compact.   Great area - I highly recommend you visit here someday.

Our beautiful tour guide Miss Mary

NM Chiles - they are hanging everywhere

Very old church still has services

  
Then we went to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.  Awesome museum and they had the Zuni pueblo people dancing there.   I love the drums and that they are keeping these traditions alive by teaching their youngsters.   They had a beautiful gift store and a really nice cafe.  We had lunch and it was delicious. 

 Mary took us to her house for the grand tour and then we hit the Sandia Resort and Casino.   Beautiful place and beautiful location.  The Sandia mountains are gorgeous and when we left we could see the dark storm clouds and the sheets of rain in the distance.   

It sprinkled on us on the way home but now as I sit here it has gotten rather nasty out.  Very dark threatening clouds and lots of wind.   I'm afraid our awnings over the slides will rip!   No rain yet
but it sure looks like the skies are going to open up!   Ok now we have some thunder and lightning.   

Tomorrow is Santa Fe and Taos!

October 15, 2015 Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum

We drove into Oklahoma City today, about 20ish miles west, and went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.  I don't have the words to tell you how impactful this place is and how much we were moved by it.   It is a very powerful place.  The museum documents the events of April 19, 1995.      On that day, at 9:02AM, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed and 168 lives were lost.  The outdoor memorial area is stunning.  There are 168 chairs placed across a field of green.  Each chair for each life lost, smaller chairs for the children.  The chairs are bronze and stone resting on a glass base etched with the name of the victim. At night the bases are illuminated.  They are placed in nine rows, which represented the nine floors of the building.    It sits on the site where the building stood.  There is a reflecting pool in front of the chairs and at each end of the pool are granite "gates" with the time of 9:01AM at the East Gate and 9:03AM at the West Gate.   In this area is also a 90 plus year old American Elm tree that survived the bombing and which is carefully cared for.  

The museum takes you through that horrible day.  There are a lot of video displays and stories told by survivors, first responders and families of the victims.     There were 19 children killed that day - have to tell you that really got to me.   I cried listening to their families talking about that awful day and the moment they realized there was no chance their child survived.   Unimaginable horror, pain and suffering for all.   

It's so hard to understand that kind of evil.  The suspect and his two accomplices are evil personified to me.   They were Army buddies.  You have to wonder, what went wrong?  How did they become so evil as to plot the killing of innocent people?  How does that ever happen?  

I have to say, if any of you are ever in the area, it is a must see.  It's hard to see, but everyone should see it and say a prayer for those poor souls lost that day, the families they left behind and the evil doers responsible.      

Skyline of Oklahoma City

The Survivor Tree

Gallery honoring victims

Survivor Tree

 

October 14, 2015 - It's my BIRTHDAY!! Choctaw, Oklahoma

Happy Birthday to me!   I got the sweetest gift ever - my lil C singing in his sweet little voice Happy Birthday!   I cry every time I watch it and I can't stop watching it.   He is truly the love of my life!

Well today was a travel day.  It was a safe one so I'm always grateful when we have an "uneventful" travel day.  We are now in Choctaw, Oklahoma - just about 20 or 30 miles outside of Oklahoma City.   Tomorrow the plan is to go into the city and see the Murrah Memorial.   I understand it is a very moving experience.
It's a the site of the federal building that was bombed in 1995 and 168 people lost their lives.   Not exactly uplifting but important I think.

Now back to yesterday and the bathhouses in Hot Springs.   They reminded me of the state hospital where I used to work in some ways.   The equipment they used looked like tools for torture and the sterile tiled walls and white porcelain and marble everywhere. 
But I digress the bathhouses were prescribed for some people back in the day who had a variety of ailments.    It was also a place for self indulgent wealthy people to avail themselves to massages, exercise and fresh air.   The bathhouse that is now the National Park Visitor Center is open for self guided tours.   There were separate areas for each gender, and included changing rooms, cooling rooms, even staterooms where the patrons could stay.  A beauty salon and large gym with the earliest forms of exercise equipment. 
There were small rooms with individual large procelain soaking tubs and then cold "needle" showers which were really just multi- head showers of cold water.

I have to say there were a string of people coming and going from the one bathhouse we saw that was open for business.   I stuck my arm in the public fountain, it was wonderfully warm.

This former bathhouse is the Visitor Center

Scary elevator we rode in

Massage room - scary pieces of equipment

This beautiful mosiac tile floor was in the "parlor" where ladies and gents spent evenings

Beautiful skylight made up of over 800 pieces of glass.

Beauty salon

Massage room

Gym

Tub for the immobile

Yes I did stick my arm in this yucky fountain

This is the bathhouse where people were coming and going

Cooling room