Day 2: Oklahoma
25 June 2008I’m already about a week behind in updates, which should shock no one, but I’ll try harder. Right now it’s technically day 5 and we’re at the grand canyon, but I’ll dig deep and see what I can remember about oklahoma.
In the span of 150 miles or so I bought myself two hats. At rest stops. I bet this is an excellent way to get head lice or hepatits but I don’t care (much), as squinting is worse (I hear). I’ve been favoring the pink and white fedora which makes me look like Hilary Duff as cast in a brat pack movie remake, or the cartoon version of robin hood.
I am having entirely too much fun at every rest stop we go to, and I’m worried that the people around me can tell that I’m enjoying myself ironically. But I don’t really know any other way to enjoy myself at stores that sit under billboards reading “You call it abortion- God calls it Murder” that carry such fine wares as these:
While en route to the Cowboy Museum, we stopped at a place suggested by one of my dad’s InnMates called Pop, which boasted over 500 types of soda. I’m not really allowed to drink soda because if I have any of it I want all of it RIGHT NOW, but this place was still pretty cool. I got a phenomenal peach flavored soda and we headed for Oklahoma City.
To say that I loved the Cowboy Museum is putting it mildly. I would have slept there if they’d let me. I hope it would have been more successful than my attempts to sleep at the Museum of Natural History in NY, which are still being thwarted by their events team because I am not a child age 8-12, but I won’t get into that here. The Cowboy museum rules. Did you know there’s a difference between a cowboy and a buckaroo? This blew my mind. Like the time I was reading that book on pirates and it told me there’s a difference between a pirate and a buccaneer. Semantics rule!
Don’t be scared, those aren’t real cowboys stuck in that box for all eternity. Considering these setups are my favorite ones at the AMNH, I automatically loved this one, which was titled “Chuck Wagon.”
And there was, naturally, an entire wing devoted to the rodeo. Yee Haw! I was a little freaked out by how realistic these horses looked.
One of my favorite rooms at the museum was the one that contained every single type of barbed wire available. I don’t know why, but it made me oddly happy that barbed wire was finally getting its due.
But my FAVORITE favorite part was a wing of the museum they call Prosperity Junction, which was set up to look like a frontier town. As we walked through I said to my mom that I kept expecting there to be a shoot out in the middle of town, and my mom reminded me that they used to take us to a frontier-themed amusement park every summer near Lake George that had staged showdowns in the middle of that fake town and that I was probably just having flashbacks to being really, really freaked out by that as an 8 year old. That combined with spending all of my college years living in Colonial Williamsburg has really messed me up in terms of historical reenactments. There were no “frontier interpreters” running around Prosperity Junction and it was close to closing time for the museum so it felt like a ghost town and I got legitimately spooked out. Not too spooked that I couldn’t take a ton of pictures, though.
Here I am at the saloon. It’s off camera, but this building had a player piano that was playing itself while we were there, which I think was the main reason I was scared of Prosperity Junction. That and the large heads of dead animals that were everywhere.
Prosperity Junction schoolhouse which, I can only assume, is haunted by dead school children.
Anyway.
We had a fantastic time at the Cowboy museum and in oklahoma in general and I highly suggest both to anyone passing through the area.
My other favorite thing about being in Oklahoma is how it inspired everyone we talked to at home to sing songs from the soundtrack. Peej immediately busted into Surrey With The Fringe On Top, which I think he probably knows more from When Harry Met Sally than he does from the actual play itself. It was appreciated either way.
We weren’t allowed to take photos through certain parts of the Cowboy museum, which I got around by video taping and then hastily throwing the clips together when we were in Texas. This is almost guaranteed to make you seasick. Enjoy!
OK City from Cristin Stickles on Vimeo.
4 Responses to “Day 2: Oklahoma”
June 25th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I LOVED that video! More please!
June 26th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Ah, crap. I’m about to go to bed and now I’m going to be singing “Oklahoma, OK!” in my head all night. Dammit, Stickles.
June 26th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Loved the video and your hats. Very jealous as my dream as a child was to be a cowboy or Davey Crocket . Either one would work for me. Glad to see you’re having agreat time. Talk to you soon.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Ahh, as soon as you started talking about Prosperity Junction, I immediately thought of that Lake George amusement park! I think I still have the clip on gold sheriff star badge thing I got there when I was six.
I hope you are collecting crushed pennies along with those hats!