Day 5 Oklahoma City/ Driving to Santa Fe

Yesterday, we woke up knowing that it was another long travel day. -It's only an 8 hour drive, but after yesterday's experience, I know it will feel like a lifetime. - I had very low expectations of fun. We went down to the lobby, and started off our day with a very tasty and filling breakfast. We then took out our scooters and rode them around the city. We rode down to Brick Town, a water front canal similar to San Antonio. It used to be an old, rundown, and dilapidated warehouse in the 1940s. They dug down 40 feet and made a man made canal. We decided that a great way to tour the city was by riding on a river boat tour. Our tour guide, Mason, taught us about everything that we passed. I think dad's favorite thing that he saw was the sonic head quarters. (His Favorite Restaurant) There was another family on the boat that had 3 little boys. One boy was sitting behind me and kept holding on to my shirt. It was so cute. :)During the tour, we saw these large, incredible statues. Mason told us he would drop us off, and come back and get us in a little bit. They were statues of Horses and People traveling during the westward expansion. There were 20 statues so far, there would soon be a total of 46. (46 because Oklahoma is the 46th state) After the statues are finished, it will be the longest set of bronze statues in the world. One of the men in the statue, was suppose to resemble the designer, some of the other men, where supposed to resemble his 'golf buddies' and the dog, was supposed to resemble his dog. And for a small 250K donation, you can be bronzed too.  We got to climb all over the statues. It was tons of fun. After Mason picked us up, we learned a little more. By the end of the tour, he and my dad were only talking about how expensive baseball tickets were. BORING.
We headed back to the hotel, and headed over to the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. We walked to the gates, and saw the Reflecting Pool. The reflecting pool stood where the street used to be. Behind me stood the Field of Empty Chairs. There were 168 chairs, each standing for the people who died. The 19 smaller chairs stood of the children that where killed. The chairs were set up in the in the form of where the building was bombed. Each chair has the name of someone who was killed. Next to the chairs, is the survivor wall. It is actually part of the wall of the original building. The names of the people who survived also placed on the wall. The trees, which stood in the field of empty chairs, would soon be as tall as the building was. On the two sides of the reflecting pool, there is a gate that says 9:03 and on the other side, it says 9:01. The 9:01am east gate, represents the 'innocence of the city' before it was attacked. The 9:03 am west gate, represents the moments and days after the bomb. I loved the fact that everything was placed in their spot for a reason.
Now let's get to the treacherous part… THE CAR RIDE. Well, it wasn't really that bad. It felt much better than the ride, the day before, even thought it was a longer ride. Passing throught Amarillo, something caught our attention. Convincing dad to make a 'U' turn, was a tough sell. We went back and visited the cars that stick out of the ground. We spray painted our names onto them. When I was spray painting, i got stuck in the mud. Basically, my shoes are still there. We stopped in Santa Rosa to try to hit some golf balls, only to discover that the course was closed. The fairways were brown and the greens were dead. Whatever. We learned from the night before, not to postpone dinner, so we ate in Santa Rosa and kept on moving. For the next 2 hours, my mom droved in pitch black and pouring rain. We were told that it was the most rain Santa Fe as gotten at one time, within the past year. Periodically we saw a sign for a school bus stopping, but there wasn't a single home in sight. The hotel was nice, and perfect for a good night sleep.

We're getting one step closer to the west coast, and I am SOOOO excited.
Talk to everyone soon,
Torey :)