Oklahoma is OK!

We woke up Saturday morning to find ourselves in Amarillo, Texas.

We thought it would be fun to get a big US map, and mark our path along it as we go so that our kids could see our progress, and really appreciate how big this great country is and how far we have traveled. We will take more of these pictures through the whole trip (if I can remember to do it.)

We love Texas, but it sure is easier driving across the pan handle than the entire state like we did last summer. Dylan is our climber. If you ever lose Dylan, look up. He is probably up there somewhere hanging on something. I love this picture of Luke. See the cool Texas shadow?

We hit the road early, and made our way all the way to Oklahoma City. By then we were starving, so we found the perfect place - something we saw on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." I think this place might have to fit in the "dive" category because it is a little nowhere place it what looks like a yellow double-wide trailer with an unpaved parking lot. But when we saw Guy Fieri eat their speciality, our mouths were watering, and we HAD to try it for ourselves. SO glad we did!

This place is everything soul food should be. They served masses of collard greens, candied yams, mac and cheese, black-eyed peas, macaroni salad, homemade yellow cake (don't you love how that cake is piled up on that table?), and banana pudding, of course. Oh yah, and fried chicken! - Which brings us to the name of the joint: Mama E's Wings and & Waffles.

Now, when we first heard the name, we figured it was because they specialized in two things: waffles for breakfast, and wings for lunch and dinner. Nope.

When they say wings and waffles, they mean just that, emphasis on the AND! They put three hot and huge fried chicken wings on top of a large homemade Belgium waffle, then topped it with powdered sugar, syrup, and, get this, Louisiana hot sauce!!!!

It was a little tough to navigate around the plate with the bones and everything, but, so dang good! Who ever thought topping waffles with fried chicken was a genius.

Yummy! Along side candied yams, mac and cheese, and finished off with banana pudding, it was some good eats!

Look at Dad. He is in soul food heaven!

So, you might have noticed there was a bit of graffiti on the walls of the joint. This is encouraged! After your meal they hand you a thick permanent marker and tell you to have at it. After a bit of hesitation (what kind of an example would I be setting for my children, after all?) I jumped up on top of a table (moving the table cloth aside, of course) and did it. Yep. That was me, mother of six and good citizen, in Oklahoma City, standing ON a table, in a restaurant, writing graffiti on a wall!

And of course, following their mother's example, all my kids had to follow suit.

We all left our mark on Oklahoma!

Now this is the stuff dream road trips are made of!

With full bellies, and sticky fingers, we decided to explore the city a bit.

Of course, the most important thing we wanted to see in Oklahoma City was the memorial for the bombing of the federal building in downtown on April 19,1995 where 168 people were killed. The first thing you see when you go there is this long chain link wall filled with mementos of love and support for all those who were killed and their families. There are stuffed animals, flags, and everything you can think of. After the disaster the entire grounds was surrounded by this fence and there are millions of such mementos that have been collected and put in archives. This was just a sample.

The memorial is flanked on both sides by these gigantic gates representing 9:01 am and 9:03am, on April 16. The bombing happened between those minutes. The gates are enormous and quite striking.

There is a beautiful large reflecting pool where the street was, and where the footprint of the building was, there are 168 chair sculptures, each engraved with the name of a victim. Sadly, there are several small chairs representing children. There had been a day care center in the building.

It was scorchingly hot the day we visited, so we couldn't spend more time there, but it was worth seeing.

It was such a lovely and well thought out memorial. We were touched.

Right across the street from on of the gates is this smaller memorial done by the church across the street. It is a huge statue of Christ with his back turned to the memorial, as if he could not bear to look at the violence. The inscription reads: And Jesus Wept. There are 168 niches in the wall were candles could be burned. It was touching.

While we were downtown we had to run over to the Oklahoma History center so Derek could get himself a pressed penny. Since Oklahoma City is built on oil, they had a large display of oil derricks. I could help but snap a picture of Derek with a derrick.

Oklahoma is OK!

Another long day on the road, wondering what the days ahead would hold.