Thursday, March 10, 2011

3-10-2011 Texas to Oklahoma City - Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum


The pond at the Oklahoma City Memorial!

Each person who lost their life on April 19th, 1995 is pictured in this room!

Oklahoma City National Memorial - the world changed on April 19th, 1995!

Children from all over the world sent in pennies - they received over 45,000 million pennies and created this walkway path with some of the pennies!
Story of the Pennies!
Quote at the Oklahoma City National Memorial!
A chair for each of the 168 people who lost their life that day! There are 19 smaller chairs for the children that lost their lives that day!

We had a great continental breakfast this morning at the Rodeway Inn before heading towards Oklahoma City.  About 20 miles from the Oklahoma/Texas border we pulled into a parking lot and took our bike off the car and bicycled in Texas for 5 miles.  We biked 1.75 miles in New Mexico (it was cold) and now 5 miles in Texas (to our biking fans is that enough mileage for us to be able to say we biked in those states - lol??).

We arrived in Oklahoma City around 2:45 and debated if we should just walk around outside the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial or go inside to the museum.  We decided to do both and we definitely are glad we did.  What a moving and emotional area to be in.  First off when you walk up to the memorial there is a fence that people have left notes, pictures, and other items in memory of the 168 people that lost there life in this exact spot on April 19, 1995.  Talk about emotional!

The Memorial Museum takes visitors on a chronological, self-guided tour through the story of April 19, 1995, and the days, weeks, months and years that followed the bombing of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

This is the story of one of the largest terrorist attacks on American soil. The story is told in chapters, and takes visitors through this historical event beginning early morning April 19, 1995, and ending with a message of hope for today.

The following quote is on the wall at the memorial:  "We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity".

It is an amazing and emotional memorial/museum and we spent 3 1/2 hours there (the museum closed at 6:00PM or we would probably still be there).  They have done an incredible job of telling the story of exactly what happened that day about the people that died, those that survived, and the hero's that came to help in any way that they can.  They indicated that if the news mentioned that there was something needed at the bomb site such as gloves, rain gear, food, etc. numerous people would drive up to the area to drop these items off.  The city of Oklahoma City really came out to show there support and help during this time along with other people from all over the world. Following is the web site if you want to read more about this:  http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/

We would recommend that anyone who gets in the area take time to stop at this memorial/museum. 

It is a truly life changing experience to go here. I was an EMT for 7 years but I can not imagine the devastation of dealing with this type of a situation.

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