We were actually able to sleep in a little bit on this final morning of our road trip. We were only about 1.5 hours from Oklahoma City, and the National Cowboy Museum did not open until 10AM. So we took our time at the hotel, and enjoyed the free breakfast there before getting on the road. So why did we choose this museum, I don't know, I was looking for something on this last day, and it was an Out West trip...so I thought visiting the cowboy museum would be cool The boys were cool with it, but when they saw an advertisement that showed the giant mountain lion, they said, Yes, Let's go there, as long as we get a picture with that big cat.
And it was surprisingly a really cool museum. They had a lot of art and paintings that we thought was the whole museum, but luckily we found the other exhibits that included cowboys in movies and shows (really cool), a whole exhibit of rodeo champions (ok, sure), and some cool exhibits about different nationality cowboys that was pretty interesting. They had a whole room of thousands of types of barb wire...so that was a thing. Our favorite brand was pictured below...the "2 lazy to pee" brand.
And then at the end was a large mockup of an old west city. That was pretty neat seeing a school room, and the bank, and the jail. Of course we had to get some silly pictures here. And then as we were leaving, we found the saddle horses for probably the coolest picture of the whole trip. In the museum store, Davis found a cowboy hat that he wanted, and was sold after finding out it was the same hat that Sylvester Stallone wanted when he was in the museum a few months prior. True Story, surely that sales lady would not make that up. While the museum was really cool, and we could have spent another 1 or 2 hours here, we had to hit the road, as it is still a long way from Oklahoma City to Chelsea.
That last day of driving was a blur of fun memories that slowly became delirious in our attempt to make it home that day. We saw a sign for a Buccee's stating it was only 1,092 miles away. We listened to the Words and Music story of Alice Cooper. We passed an exit on the interstate just past a large lake, the name of the exit was Lotawatah Road. I was taking too long in the gas station one time, and Davis told Sam that I was probably getting stomach medicine, then the both laughed as I can out of the store holding potato chip Reeces I bought for us all to share. And mostly Pearl Jam and Weezer Radio on Pandora...but the song that resonates in my mind from this last journey is "High and Dry" by Radiohead.
We stopped just past Memphis to allow a major thunderstorm to get ahead of us. Sam had driven completely through Arkansas, and I took over just outside of Memphis. From there, it was just a long long long boring drive as the end of all great journeys are...you just want to be home, but that thought actually slows down all time, and makes each mile double. We rolled into the house around 12:45AM on Wednesday morning. We had been in the car for 61 hours and 39 minutes on this trip, covering a total of 3795 miles. Mom and Belle had waited up for us, but Ruby said she would just see us in the morning. Everyone liked their souvenirs, but I have sadly only just realized that Belle just wants jewelry, don't get her a t-shirt, or a water bottle holder, just a cool bracelet. Ruby loved loved the Billy Goat I got her from the grand canyon store. The boys both said we should get her something else...I said probably something else would be more like a souvenir...but I told them then...she will love this billy goat. And he was there as her new best friend, and took care of her on the first day of her UV treatments. I think mom liked her stuff too, it is already on display. And that is it, a perfect trip with my two boys. It could not have been any better. It has been a wild summer with these boys, and I am so thankful that Magan has allowed us to have this trip right after the honduras trip. What is in my mind for next? Yellowstone in '25...We'll see.
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