Day Three Oklahoma City Visit

Today was a sunny but windy day, we decided that we would stay another day in Guthrie and drive into Oklahoma City, since it is only 25 miles away. Our first stop was Stockyard City Main Street, on Mondays the stockyards have cattle auctions that are supposed to be very exciting, we had forgotten that today was a holiday, so not much going on at the stockyards.  The shopping in the area was fun, lots of western ware and boot shops.

 Our next stop was the Oklahoma City Memorial. This Memorial honors the victims, survivors, rescuers and all who were changed forever on April 19, 1995. It encompasses the now sacred soil where the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building once stood, capturing and preserving forever the place and events that changed the world.  The experience was very touching and emotional; especially the field of empty chairs, each of the 168 chairs symbolizes a life lost.  The smaller chairs represent the children killed.  We were lucky to talk to one of the Park Rangers that work as guides at the Memorial she was a wealth of information. It is truly a beautiful tribute to a very sad day in our American History.

Then it was on to the Oklahoma City Zoo. Monday just happened to be a free day so the trip was even better. It was very crowded but we were able to see everything there was to see. The elephant exhibit was our favorite; they have quite a few elephants and a huge area for them to romp in.  All in all it is a very nice zoo and we were very glad we made the trip.

We stopped at I Hop for a bite to eat and then back to Guthrie.  We both really fell in love with this town and just had to stop one more time before leaving the area, it was getting late but some of the shops were still open. Our favorite was Derwart Boots. Ray Dorwart is a cowboy who was injured in a riding accident and had to change careers after 20 years of working as a ranch hand, he chose boot making and studied under a boot maker in Utah and has been making boots for 32 years. What an interesting man, his boots are beautifully handmade; he showed us patterns and some of his works in progress. The price starts at $2800.00 a pair and it takes one year to delivery date. Needless to say he has a long waiting list of customers. We had such a great time visiting with him.

Field of empty chairs

 Chairs symbolize a life lost, with smaller chairs representing the 19 children killed.

                                                                         Reflecting Pool

                                                                          

                                                 The inscription reads..."And Jesus Wept"

Afterwards a trip to the Oklahoma Zoo.

 R.A. Dorwart, a custom boot maker.