Oklahoma City and Beyond

After leaving Graceland we beelined for OK City to visit the new National Memorial at the bomb site. Pictures don't do the memorial justice and I would encourage everyone to visit this site. It is every bit as poignant as the Vietnam Memorial but even more so because of the chairs representing the children killed. The site is set into the remains of the foundation of the Murrah building and you can pretty much walk anywhere within the memorial grounds. One thing that astounded me was the sheer destructive force of the blast. There were so many buildings (literally dozens) damaged by the blast that had to be torn down that the whole downtown are is revitalized, clean, and brand new.
The memorial itself is so striking and elegant with 2 large gates inscribed with the time before and after the blast standing at each end of a large reflecting pool. On the site of the building sits the more than 200 chairs inscribed with the name of each victim (the smaller chairs are the children).

We spent the night a couple of hours West of the city near the Texas border and made our way to Santa Fe today but not before viewing the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere (not that impressive compared to the giant wind farms across OK, TX, and NM). More pics from Santa Fe tomorrow - provided we have internet access in Crested Butte.