Amarillo through Oklahoma City and on to Little Rock

On Sunday we left Texas and kept heading East. We had slept in Amarillo and were ready to hit the road...but first we had to make two very important stops. First, Home Depot and second, Cadillac Ranch!! (The Cadillac Ranch, located along the tatters of historic Route 66, was built in 1974, brainchild of Stanley Marsh 3, the helium millionaire who owns the dusty wheat field where it stands. Marsh and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective, assembled used Cadillacs representing the "Golden Age" of American Automobiles (1949 through 1963). The ten graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west "at the same angle as the Cheops' pyramids.")
We had a great time adding our own graffiti. Don't worry Mom, it's not illegal, its encouraged.

After expressing our creativity, we got back on the road and headed for Oklahoma. Of course we sang the song SEVERAL TIMES (in case you don't know...yes, Katie and I are huge dorks, and yes, we did make sure to load our ipods with all of the appropriate songs we would need for the journey.) Therefore, this point of the voyage was provided with a soundtrack from Broadway's show tunes.

In Oklahoma, we stopped in Oklahoma City and went to the site of the bombing. The memorial is built into the remains of the building with a museum created by the building next door that amazingly survived the blast. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which took place on April 19, 1995, claimed the lives of 168 people including 19 children and injured more than 680 people.

The lawn of the memorial is lined with empty chairs honoring the lives lost and the huge tree near the museum building is the survivor tree, honoring the lives that are still effected by the bombing to this day. The black stone entry walls are marked with the times, 9:01 and 9:03 signifying the "lost minute" (9:02) The minute where many lives were changed forever. This was a pretty powerful pit stop on our cross country trek, so we loaded back up and headed to our usual lunch stop at Subway. Then, onward to Arkansas!

We were pleasantly surprised by the scenery in Arkansas. I must admit, before this trip I didn't really have much knowledge about Arkansas and really didn't care to. Now, I can wholeheartedly say that I really like Arkansas. It has very pretty rolling hills, a lot of greenery and plentiful rest stops along the interstate (which is very important to me!) I was even more impressed with Little Rock. We stayed at a hotel next door to the Bill Clinton Presidential Library. It was beautiful! And, Little Rock has a lot of fun and culture. It is definitely a place I would go back to.

Next up: Put on your Blue Suede Shoes, we are heading to Memphis!!