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| Picture by Ashley |
We left our hotel just after sunrise and drove by the Oklahoma State Capitol building (Oklahoma City population 681,054) and Devon Park, which is the "Softball Capital of the World." Unfortunately, both the Capitol and Devon Park were not yet open, so we just had to take pictures from the street.
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| Picture by Ashley |
The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum site is not fenced, so visitors can visit the site any time of day or night.
On the morning of April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked a rental truck filled with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City and then detonated the explosives. A total of 168 people were killed in the blast, including many children.
The site was designated a U.S. National Memorial on October 9, 1997. It is now administered by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation, with assistance from the United States National Park Service staff.
On the east side of the monument are The Gates of Time that stand in front of a Reflecting Pool that has a thin layer of water over polished black granite base.
On the north side of the Reflecting Pool is the Survivor Tree that was heavily damaged during the blast, but somehow managed to survive. Hundred of seeds from the Survivor Tree are harvested annually and the resulting saplings are distributed each year on the bombing anniversary.
The Journal Record Building is just north of the Survivor Tree and now houses the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. Blast marks are still visible on the south side of the building.
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| Picture by Ashley |
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| Picture by Ashley |
A section of the Alfred P. Murrah Building still standing is on display near The Gates of time.
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| Picture by Ashley |
Located on the south side of the monument are one hundred and sixty-eight empty chairs hand-crafted from glass, bronze, and stone, representing one chair for each person that lost their life. The nine rows represent the nine floors of the Murrah Building. Each person's chair is in a position that corresponds to the floor where they worked.
Shamrock (population 1,789) is located along Historic Route 66 just across the state line in Texas. The town is known as "The Gateway to the Southwest" because it is 110 miles east of Amarillo, 188 miles west of Oklahoma City, and 291 miles northwest of Dallas.
Shamrock was founded in 1890 and the first mailman was George Nickel. People that had settled in the community decided to let George pick a name for the new post office, so George picked "Shamrock" because he was Irish-American and his mother had told him to always rely on a shamrock to bring good luck.
When Route 66 was completed through Shamrock, business boomed and Shamrock became a major stop along "The Mother Road." Although the population of Shamrock has declined over the years, many of the original buildings and businesses still exist. Today, Shamrock is high on the places to visit for people traveling along Historic Route 66.
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| Picture by Ashley |
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| Picture by Ashley |
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| Picture by Ashley |
A chunk of Blarney Stone from Ireland has been located in Blarney Stone Plaza since 1959. The people of Ireland were so against removing a chunk of Blarney Stone from Ireland that the stone had to be transported by guards and an armored truck.
It is believed that kissing the stone gives a person the "gift of the gab" and "great eloquence or skill at flattery." Ashley kissed the stone for us.
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| Picture by Ashley |
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| Picture by Ashley |
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| Picture by Ashley |
The Magnolia Gas Station has been refurbished as a museum, but they do not sell gasoline.
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| Picture by Ashley |
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| Picture by Ashley |
The Tower Building Conoco Gas Station was constructed in the 1930s and is one of the most famous commercial building along Route 66. It includes an automotive garage and the U Drop Inn dinner that is still open. The art deco style building was designed by architect J.C. Berry and build by a local contractor. I have never been in Shamrock at night, but I have been told that the neon lighting at night is really amazing.
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| Web Picture - Photographer Unknown |
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| Web Picture - Photographer Unknown |
The Leaning Tower of Britten is a roadside attraction in Groom (population 552), Texas, for people traveling along Historic Route 66 that can not afford to fly to Italy to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. At one time the structure was a functioning water tower that was scheduled to be demolished, so Ralph Britten purchased the tower and moved it to his truck stop as an advertising gimmick. The tower leans at approximately a 10-degree angle. In the mid-1980s the truck stop burned down, but the tower remains.
Cadillac Ranch is an "art installation" in Amarillo (population 200,393), Texas, that was created in 1974 by three guys from San Francisco that were affiliated with the Art Group Ant Farm. The work consists of ten Cadillacs buried nose-first into the ground at the same angle as the sides of the pyramids of Giza.
It is a short walk from the road to the art work, but we could not get too close to the cars because it had been raining in the morning and there was a lake of mud surrounding the cars. Since some visitors apparently had excess paint from their car designs, they have also painted the roadway in front of the installation.
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