Museums and hikes

Hi All,
Thursday we toured two museums in Oklahoma City, the Osteology Museum and the Oklahoma City Memorial Museum.

The Osteology Museum was pretty neat, if you like skeletons. Skeletons of all kinds of mammals and other animals. I think Susan could have spent the whole day in there. It was really quite fascinating.

The Oklahoma City Memorial Museum was excellent. It is laid out in a timeline that led up to April 19, 1995- what happened that day and then what happened in the aftermath. There was a meeting at the Water Resources Board, across the street from the federal building, that started promptly at 9 AM. The meeting was recorded. You listen to the recording and hear as the meeting starts. Two minutes into it, you hear a huge explosion and then chaos. It's hard not to relive the day with all the news reports coming out of Oklahoma City. The museum is very well done and I highly recommend anyone that finds themselves in OKC take the time to go see it.

Friday was a travel day. We headed west from Stratford and crossed back into the Texas panhandle, That night we stopped in an RV park on the eastern edge of Amarillo.

Today (Saturday) we did a 5.5 mile hike in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the US. It is quite impressive. Gorgeous is a more accurate description.

After our hike we stopped at the Texas Air and Space Museum at the Amarillo Airport. There was some pretty neat stuff there and our volunteer guide was very knowledgeable. After our hike and the two hours we spent at the museum, we were done. Sunset tonight will be followed very quickly with sleep.

Take care.
Brian

On the road again

Finally!

After a couple of months of dealing with Ford and truck issues we gave up and bought a new truck. We are now driving a new a new Dodge 3/4 ton diesel. It is soooooo much better. We ended up driving back to Texas to get it as there are a lot more options in Texas than in Georgia.

Our new truck

Anyway, yesterday we left and headed north. Last night and tonight we're in Stratford, Oklahoma. Stratford is about an hour south of Oklahoma City, where I grew up. Yesterday we drove by my old house as well as my elementary and junior high schools. It was a nice walk down memory lane.

Last night we went by the memorial at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. We heard it was impressive at night and we were impressed, and saddened. On the lawn are empty chairs for the 168 people that were killed in the bombing. The base of the chairs are glass cubes with the name of the person it represents etched in the glass and a light inside. The chairs are arranged by the floor the person was on when the bomb went off. The saddest part is seeing the smaller chairs that represent the children that were in the day care or with their parents that morning. A sad day in American history.

Today we'll go back into the city to tour the museum and see a few other sights.

That's it for now. Take care.
Brian

A quick update

Within an hour of posting the update, the dealership called to say they ran into a problem getting the old turbocharger off, now another part is on order and it'll be at least Monday before the truck is ready.

Not so fast

Hi All,
Well, things didn't go quite as well as we had hoped. We picked up the truck from the Ford dealer and the next day headed north. After a stop in Jasper, Ga to get some groceries the check engine light was back on. We turned around and headed back to Atlanta and took the truck back in (fifth time). After a couple of days the dealer returned it to us having replaced an air line that had a pin hole leak.

With the hopefully repaired truck we headed out again the next day. This time we made it 100 miles and into North Carolina before the light came on. We turned around and headed back. The truck is now in a Ford dealership for the sixth time. After a couple of conference calls with Ford Motor Company they were finally able to make one of the turbos fail. This is after the truck has been there over a week. Today is two weeks it has been in the shop this time and HOPEFULLY we'll be getting it back today or tomorrow. Fortunately the drive train is still under warranty and Ford ponied up for a rental car. But our plan was to be in Atlanta for 2 days and we've been here three weeks. We're ready to get on the road again.

Not wanting to waste our time here we had a construction project to raise the carport at Susan's farm to allow us to get the trailer under it. Our friends Mark and Tammy helped each day. To say Mark "helped" would be a huge understatement. He was the brains and most of the muscle for the project. Here are some pictures as we went along...

The carport as it was when we started.

The first "wall" is up and completed. On to second one.

Tammy supervising

Yes, we're using a car jack to raise the carport.

My dad would be so proud. But this doesn't show the multiple cinder blocks stacked three feet high when it came time to move the carport on to the wall.

Mark's truck and some chain helped keep the carport from sliding down the hill and off the cinder blocks. OSHA would not have approved of any of this

All done!

Take care!
Brian