More Oklahoma City

We ended yesterday scouting out things to do and see today.  There are so many things in Oklahoma City to choose from that I did not expect to be talking about going to the Museum of Osteology.  That's right, we are going to go see bones.

But surprise, surprise this place turned out to be way more interesting than I would have ever expected.  Seems that the proprietor developed a knack for assembling and articulating bones he found in the woods as a kid.  That interest stayed with him into adulthood and now he is sought out by museums and science institutions world-wide.  His collection in OKC is the largest in the world.

The museum is not just big in the number of exhibits but the size of the exhibits too.
That's a full-size giraffe in the foreground, Humpback Whale in the center and West Indian Manatee above the whale

Just as impressive as the big exhibits were the tiny ones.  One exhibit has a hummingbird skeleton (Ruby Throated) as if caught in mid-flight.  It even has feathers in place at the tips of its wings and tail. Really remarkable looking.

The museum is arranged in several themes.  Such as locomotion, species, pathology, etc.  In the locomotion exhibit there was this display of a lion taking down an antelope.

Our original plan was to only spend a short time at the Osteology Museum but more than a couple of hours had gone by before we knew it.  It was past time for some lunch so we grabbed a quick bite on our way to the next stop, the site of the Oklahoma City bombing.

The visitors to this blog are diverse.  While about half are from the U.S., the rest are from all over.  Russia, Europe, South America, New Zealand, Australia, and more.  I'm not sure how many know what the OKC bombing is so to be polite I'll give a short synopsis.

On April 19, 1995 two gutless cowards - McVeigh and Nichols committed an act of domestic terrorism by setting off a truck bomb of diesel fuel and fertilizer in front of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma city.  The explosion completely destroyed the building and took the lives of 168 people, including children in a first floor day care center.  There were another 680 injured and 324 other buildings destroyed or damaged.  Both perpetrators were caught quickly, one has since been executed and the other is spending the rest of his life in a maximum security prison.

As described, the damage was horrific, unsurpassed until the twin towers on 9/11.  In 2000 the memorial was completed and dedicated by President Clinton. It encompasses the full city block that the federal building was on, most of it outdoors.  For us, the most poignant part of the memorial were the empty chairs, one for each person killed.  Small chairs are for the children.

Reflecting pool with a stone monolith on each end, known as the Gates of Time.
One marked 9:01 and the other 9:03, the moment before the tragedy and the
time when we knew that things were changed forever.

Empty chairs of stone and steel.  One for each life lost with small chairs representing the children. 

We paid a visit to the indoor memorial/gift shop but it was getting late and they were about to close so our time was short.  We would have liked to go back outside and take more pictures but once again it was so hot that we were thoroughly wilted and had to seek the air conditioning of Big Gulp and be satisfied with a driving tour of downtown OKC.

We are going to head back to the rig and start preparing for a change of scenery tomorrow.  We'll see what we can do about getting moved in the direction of the Kansas factory and less pricey campgrounds.