Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Another day, another two new tires! These are the eleventh and twelfth tires to grace the Cougar since we purchased it a year ago. As we were leaving the campsite in Oklahoma City Teressa noticed a bulge in one of the tires that we had purchased in Ohio in August. I pulled back into our campsite, plugged back into power, and spent the next hour calling dealers all over Oklahoma City before finding one that carried the right trailer tire. They are the same brand, so technically I could have just replaced the bad tire, but decided to get two new perfectly matched ones on the front axle. That leaves me with two good spares, so the next blowout I won’t have to buy any more tires (no matter which tire blows).

The day started innocently enough. I got up at 4:30 and got a lot of things accomplished before Teressa and the kids stirred. We left the trailer and drove down to the Federal building memorial in Oklahoma City, the site of the bombing back in 1995. The reflecting pool was frozen over due to the cold temperatures, but the site was beautiful. Across from the reflecting pool are rows of chairs, one for each person that died in the bombing. Two park employees greeted us and provided lots of history about the site and event – we were the only ones out on such a cold weekday morning. I think the kids are getting tired of seeing so much death and destruction (e.g. Revolutionary War battlefields, Civil War battlefields, the Holocaust Memorial, 9/11 memorials, etc.), but it gives them a much deeper understanding of our nation’s history. Life’s not just iPods and roller coasters!

The Goodyear dealer was located right in the middle of downtown Oklahoma City. They didn’t have a facility large enough for our trailer, so while they stopped traffic on the main street, I backed the trailer into their main driveway and as close to the building as possible. Luckily I was able to avoid hitting any cars or their building, as it was a rather tight squeeze. Our tire adventures did allow us to sample a great little Thai restaurant across from the Goodyear shop. When the owner found out we were from Portland and on a trip around the country, she sent us out the door with two additional “take home” containers of food from the buffet, so we had Thai food for lunch and dinner yesterday! With our late start in Oklahoma City, we violated my “no driving after dark” rule by an hour, arriving at the KOA in Arlington at 6:30.

Other than the propane running out in the middle of the night (I had to go out at midnight and switch to the backup tank) and the water line freezing (it was 5 degrees colder than forecast last night), it was a perfect day and evening! ;-)