Oklahoma City Day

Day 9 Oklahoma City Touring Day

We woke up to a damp foggy morning here in Oklahoma City. Thought we'd head into the city to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. They're created a beautiful memorial out of such a horrific event. It was very informative yet so touching and sad. At the end of the tour, there is a room with all the victims photographs and a little memento of that person. It was very, very difficult to walk past the photographs of the babies and toddlers with little toys or stuffed animals. Who could have ever imagined anyone could do such a thing?

Later, on a much lighter note, we went to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum. This was quite a surprise. Beautiful building, grounds, real and TV and movie cowboy exhibits, indian arts/crafts and a fantastic western art collection. Also had a wonderful/healthy buffet lunch.

Jim with his idol...The Duke

We were pooped from all the walking. Slow walking like that kills our backs. You don't realize how long you're on your feet. So glad we went, it was a great place, I would recommend it to anyone.

Got back to the RV and rested for a bit before we ran out for some errands. Luckily there was a Camping World almost across the street from the RV park...clever. We replaced afew things and picked up a new Campground guide. This one is two years old and some of the places have slipped since it was written. We need the latest ratings.

Then on to the nearby WalMart (where ISN'T there one nearby?) where Jim had the pleasure of dealing with perhaps the surliest deli lady in the northern hemisphere. She was actually slamming the lunch meat down on the scale. He asked for thin sliced and she was slicing slabs. He wasn't going to try to correct her, I'm sure she would have flung it at him! I'm sure she was having a REAL bad day, because almost all of the WalMart employees that we've dealt with have been wonderful.

We picked up a rotisserie chicken and dinner was easy and good! Walked the dogs a little...I'm sure there are cattle grazing not too far away, because when the wind blows from a certain direction...I can tell!

Tomorrow on to Amarillo and the country of Texas. Texas is like a whole other country!

How Gnorman the Gnome Got his Gname!

I wrote about this last year, but I realize there are a few new 'riders' with us this year, so I'll explain.

It's one of those 'family' jokes. You know, when someone in the family uses a wrong word, and from that day on everyone calls it by that name, just to tease.

I think we do this because the 'wrong' word is such a funny thing is this family. My mother- in law- practically had her own language...most of the time we could figure out what she meant, but sometimes we were left scratching our heads. Such was the case the time she was telling us about a friend who got a foot infection after 'she stepped in cat fetuses'. Huh? Took me a minute to decipher that into 'cat feces' and all the while trying to keep a straight face! But, then again, I'd been doing it for so many years...

In our case it was my grandson. Two years ago,when he was 19, he was watching TV with his parents. A commercial came on with the Roaming Gnome for Travelocity. In front of his parents he referred to it as a *Norman*, which caused his parents to practically slide off the sofa laughing. Poor kid, he didn't even know what he'd said that was so funny. Soon my phone rang. My son couldn't wait to tell me his son's faux pas.

I reminded my son that my grandson came by it naturally, some of grandma's genes will always be with us!

So, from that day on whenever we see a gnome we say, "There's Norman"!

Poor James will never live it down...