Before leaving Oklahoma City, we made a stop at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Not only is this a fine museum with many cowboy and Indian exhibits and artifacts, but it also hosts an annual western art contest, so there is much fine art on display. Much was for sale at over $60,000, but we didn't see anything that would hang in the RV! The centerpiece of the lobby is the famous 'End of the Trail' statue by James Earle Fraser. This represents 'The End of the Trail' for the lifestyle of the American Indian. The white man took over their land, slaughtering many, and forcing them onto reservations. The statue depicts the final feeling of defeat. The 'barbed wire' room had about 50 of these pull-out displays of about 1300 different types of barbed wire. Over 8000 more are stored in the basement. Apparently this is a popular collectible. Who knew?? We only had two hours here, and was enough, barely. We could have stayed longer, but they were closing. So we left there and headed for Kansas. Kansas is known as 'America's Breadbasket' because of all the wheat grown here. It didn't take long to get into it. We overnighted at the Walmart in Wellington, Ks, then went on up to Wichita. We had thought about trying to tour the Cessna Aircraft plant there, but couldn't find anything about it, so we settled for touring the Coleman RV Air Conditioner plant instead. These are the rooftop units that go mostly on RV's. My company buys thousands each year. They make over 250,000. Their plant is un-ostentatious, in an industrial area. Copper tubing bent and ready to install. When copper prices are high, some of this may disappear. Several stamping machines stamp out and form sheet metal parts from large rolls of sheet steel. See one just to the left of the yellow thing. One of two assembly lines. Almost finished units come from the pressure test on the right, come around to the left where a lady attached a freon hose. A computerized dose is applied according to the size/capacity of the unit as determined by a bar code on the unit. A hydraulic clamp crimps the copper fill tube, and the fill fitting is removed. Pretty slick!! Finally the two-piece shrouds (covers) are snapped together, ready to be installed on the finished product. Our visit here was interesting and informative. This was in the morning, so we had time to head north to Abilene and visit another attraction. Stay tuned.
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On the road again! It's been two years since our last big trip and we are glad to be 'on the road again'. In our quest to see as much of our great country as we can, we are heading north thru the mid-west to the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming and back down to the scenic parks of eastern Utah. As usual, we only have a rough idea of places to go, and we will probably find lots of things to see and do. We left home last Sunday afternoon and made to Dallas to overnight at the home of daughter-in-law's sister, where we were able to have family time as well as visit some dear friends nearby. After we visited our friends the next morning, we got underway for Oklahoma. We found the Chickasaw National Recreation Area on Lake of the Arbuckles south of Oklahoma City, where, with the Senior Pass, we camped for two nights for half-price. We spent the day relaxing (after that long bit of traveling) and a bit of kayaking. Moving on to Oklahoma City, we met with my cousin's daughter at the Oklahoma City Stockyard. She works for the US Department of Agriculture, and sends in statistical reports of cattle sales. Acres of stock pens. That's the auction building in the background. On Mondays and Tuesdays, these pens are full of cattle. This stockyard is now the largest in the country and one of the two surviving stockyards. On a drive downtown, we visited the site of the Federal Building bombing which occurred in 1995. A quote from Wikipedia: "The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It would remain the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11 attacks six years later." This is a photo taken from another website. The bomber parked his truck loaded with fertilizer based explosives on the street in front of the building. This is our picture. The water is where the street was, and the building was to the left, facing the street. On the left bank there are rows of symbolic 'chairs', one for each of the 168 people who died here. OK, enough of that. I'm going to close this report which is overdue, since we've been gone almost a week now. It's taken me awhile to get back in the groove. More on Oklahoma City later. Stay tuned.
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Who are We?Chuck and Mary Lou have been traveling Trip Reports
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