Life is getting back to normal! We’re experiencing far fewer mask mandates and cancelled events. Time to get back to exploring, and the Midwest Wanderer newsletter will guide you to some fun and interesting places to explore.
Oklahoma City, sophisticated state capital or laid-back cowboy town? It’s a little of both. The city captures the essence of a cowboy town in a big-city way. Oklahoma City culture is apparent in many of the attractions that we visited during our three-day stay. Here are seven that especially impressed us.
We’re excited that some tourism sites are reopening soon, including the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Like many of you, we’ve been cooped up in the house for the past two months. A weekly trip to the grocery store or a walk around the block is as much as we get out. Our only travel excitement has been taking the long way home after dropping mail in the box at the post office.
Now that the weather is finally warming up here in Illinois, we’re taking longer walks along park trails, and the itch to travel has hit us hard. Fortunately, states are beginning to reopen, some faster than others. While Illinois remains largely closed, Oklahoma is well on its way to reopening—with proper health safety precautions. The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, one of our favorite Oklahoma museums, is scheduled to reopen the latter part of May.
Like many large cities, Oklahoma City is comprised of many neighborhoods. In OKC the neighborhoods are referred to as “districts.” There are fifteen Oklahoma City districts, each with its own distinct attributes. During our 48-hour stay there, it wasn’t possible to visit all of the districts, but Skip and I did explore several of them.
“Just like communities everywhere, it is the start of a day like any other day.” This is the opening point as you enter the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum tour. A timeline goes on to outline what was going on that morning in downtown Oklahoma City: people starting work, children being dropped off at the daycare inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, an Oklahoma Water Resources Board meeting about to begin in the Journal Record Building directly across the street. A typical Oklahoma City day. No one had an idea of the horror about to occur.
