Happy Birthday Grandpa and OKC

Today is Grandpa's birthday and when asked what he wanted to do, he suggested driving to Oklahoma City to see the Bombing Memorial.  The Man and I agreed this would be good, as neither of us have ever been there. 

But before we could go, we had to get the van key unstuck from the ignition.  You see, last night when we got home from our date, the van ignition would not turn all the way back to the locked position, thus the key wouldn't come out and with the key stuck in that position, but doors won't lock when you are outside the van.  safety feature not to lock your keys inside. Some dilema, only us.  But I managed to go out this morning and pull the key right out, go figure.  After which, I get out of the van and am talking with Grandpa about our trip and discover a screw in my tire.  UGH!  You know M.E. and my ability get things in my tires.

So off to Midas, but luckily it didn't go all the way through and no charge, so back home to load everyone up to go to the city.  Now we don't live close to the city so it would be quite the drive.  And its about 40 degrees outside, so it would be a short visit.

The only thing I remember about the bombing is the image of the building or rather the shell of a federal building and that it was a ryder truck.  I wasn't even sure when it was, I just knew I was in college.

At the site, there is two large mouments with a reflecting pool between them and this would have been where the street originally was.  Here's the Man, Buddy and LG.

Where the federal building was is now a grassing lawn with chairs representing all the victims.

Seeing these chairs which are currently decorated for Christmas all lined up and seeing the little chairs like the one on left is very sad and erie, much like Arlington National Cemetary.  There was 163 victims and they all have a chair here. 

Here is the reminents of the corner of the federal building.

 

It was absolute amazing the devistation that this bomb created.  Here's Buddy.

In the building next to the Memorial is a museum and I have to say it is one of the best museums I've ever been in.  It is laid out really way and I think does the victims some justice in keeping their sacrifice alive.  I will admit though, that I was unable to really complete the entire tour.  After arriving in the hall of victims, I had to hurry through the rest of the aftermath displays because it was just too much.  Especially thinking of those babies and the mothers that are still morning after 14 years and how all of them would have been in high school now.  It was too much. 

After leaving the museum, we headed for Route 66.  A friend of ours told us about a diner that serves over 500 soda pops.  We were like o.k. And sure enough we arrive at this really far out art deco modern building in the middle of nowhere for some lunch.  Buddy was the only one to have a "soda" that it Spirit with a splash of strawberry malt.

The front and back walls are entirely glass and lined with shelves of soda pop.  I was really curious to see if that an Ale-8-1, a local ginger ale in Eastern KY.  The furtherest west I've ever seen it is Somerset KY.  So imagine our surprise when in the very front cooler label 'Top 25' sellers, there is a 6-pack of Ale-8-1 all the way from the hills of East KY.   Cool, Very Cool.