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
Afterwards a trip to the Oklahoma Zoo.
R.A. Dorwart, a custom boot maker.
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