Oklahoma Visit: Part 3 of 3

Tuesday, June 18th
Jeremy had already left for work. Robin would soon be going to work dropping Autumn and Isaiah off to their day programs.  While they were getting ready I took the time to peruse Autumn's art work. When Robin had given Autumn a choice as to what extracurricular activity she wanted, she had chosen art. It is a 90 minute lesson, a 30 minute trip to the other side of town once a week. The trek is tough for Robin but Autumn absolutely loves it. I slept in Autumn's room with her during my visit and got to enjoy her creations hung on the wall. I decided to capture some of them of my favorites in photos before I left this visit.

Her Christmas themed ones were of a Nutcracker and an enthusiastically decorated sentiment of JOY.

Notice how one of the present is trimmed to fit the red Christmas ball.

I thought her Easter themed picture had the rich but muted tones of the spring season yet seemed to represent the story of Good Friday as well.

Who does not want a sundae when the weather warms up? This ice cream has so many sprinkles they overflowed. I was also impressed with Autumn's expression of a goblet of glass.

This artwork was in the living room. She caught the feeling of the woods in winter with a fox and falling snow.

However, the painting pair I liked best was the diptych Autumn did with her mom. Robin did the left half and Autumn did the right half.

Robin's features may be a bit finer, but the details in Autumn's birch trees and flowers and her baby bear are comparable in execution level. And their sun-halves match! A bonus of this Oklahoma visit was the perk of staying within the walls of an art museum!

I did not measure the size of these paintings but, for a sense of scale, my best guess is that the Ice Cream Sundae, the He Is Risen, the Fox, and each half of the Bear and Birch diptych were 16" x 20" canvases. The Joy was most likely 30" x 16" and the Nutcracker perhaps 12" x 36".

Frank and I set off for our day of mini-adventures. First on our list was the Merci Train located in Norman, Oklahoma – coincidentally not far from where Jeremy works at The University of Oklahoma.  It was a 45 minute ride south of their home and where Robin works. We passed right by the Max Westheimer Airport, part of OU operations and under the safety purview of Jeremy's job.

Per Wikipedia

The Merci Train, also known as the French Gratitude Train or the Forty and Eight, was the 1949 Europe-US response to the Friendship Train.

We initially became acquainted with the Merci Train when we had toured the North Carolina Museum of Transportation in April during a visit  for my sister Maxine's 80th birthday celebration (post dated 5/10/19).  Since then I have further learned it was the Friendship Train of the United States that prompted the response from France of the Merci Train. Per Wikipedia

The 1947 U.S.-to-Europe or American Friendship Train collected foodstuffs from American donors for transport to the people of France and Italy. ... Originally hoped to collect 80 train car loads of food, the train ultimately collected over 700 cars ($40 million value) of food, clothing, and fuel, paid in part by monetary donations.

The Merci Train for Oklahoma is housed outdoors on the grounds of the J.D. McCarty Center for children with developmental disabilities.

This boxcar, like the one in North Carolina bears twenty provincial shields representing the historic regions of France.

Unlike the Merci train for North Carolina, which is housed indoors, cordoned off in a museum, the Merci Train for Oklahoma is more accessible. We were able to get closer and look at the details. The  shields are ornate. Here is a closeup of some of them.

The boxcar also bears a placard citing its capacity and hence its alternative name Forty and Eight. It housed 40 men standing up (with no facilities) or eight horses for transport during World War II.

I compared it with the North Carolina boxcar. Both have twenty shields, the HOMMES 40/ CHEVAUX 8 placard, two other emblems, and the diagonal red/white/blue stripe.

The two boxcars differed in which twenty shields they portrayed. I must admit my ignorance in that I recognized only a fraction of the names. Lorraine reminds me of Quiche Lorraine, which indeed is named for the region of France. Champagne is the source of the sparkling wine, champagne, that originated in grapes from this region. Bourgogne makes me think of Beef Bourguignon, although Wikipedia states that the name comes from the burgundy wine used in its preparation and not the region. Lyonnais romantically  reminds me of the home land of Lady Guinevere from Camelot fame.

As to similarities between the boxcars, Frank noticed the hefty leaf springs and the long, stout levers of the hand brakes.

Although we were so close to the OU campus, we did not stop by and bug Jeremy for lunch. Tempting as it was, we resisted since we had not planned ahead. We backtracked and headed up north about 30 minutes to near Robin's work at the Will Rogers Airport and continued another 45 minutes north to the Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport. A ground marker there had aroused Frank's curiosity. Norman to the south and Guthrie to the north are about 60 miles apart but we were up for the excursion.

Once we were inside we walked into the main office building to ask about the location of a giant yellow concrete arrow in the ground, historically used in one of 34 Contract Air Mail (C.A.M.) routes that pilots flew the airmail over. Per Arrows Across America these giant arrows were called Beacon Stations and helped guide the pilots of early airmail flights across the nation.

California has 9 arrows and 12 beacons and Oklahoma has 4 arrows, 3 beacons, and 1 landing field. This is a drone view of the one at the Guthrie-Edmond Municipal Airport courtesy of Arrows Across America link for this Oklahoma airport.

Jason, one of the airport workers looked on at the background information Frank was showing him on his cell phone and offered to take us out to the base of the beacon in a golf cart.

I rode in the rear facing seat at the back and watched as the office building faded in the distance. I concentrated on the yellow line in the the road and hung on since there were no seat belts and the acceleration of the cart could have easily dumped my butt in the middle of a runway somewhere.

I did hazard a quick peek toward the front to snap a photo of where we were headed.

And once around the curve, after letting go of the hand rails I'd been clinging to,  I caught a ground level glimpse of our goal in the distance.

Once there, Frank walked directly toward it and got to stand right on that yellow concrete arrow.

I took a last ground level view looking up.

Frank took a few photos of his own, looking skyward.

As we stood there, a plane casually taxied right near to us on the very airstrip where our cart had been before pulling off and onto the grass.

We thanked Jason of Crabtree Aircraft for his generous expenditure of time and knowledge giving us the opportunity to relive a bit of history.

For more background information on these beacons check out this December 2013 Sometimes-Interesting website post:
https://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/12/04/concrete-arrows-and-the-u-s-airmail-beacon-system/

The Post Office even issued 5 cent air mail stamp in 1928 of a beacon in the Rocky Mountains. For more about beacons in the back country check out the July 2017 Gentle Art of Wandering website post:
https://www.gentleartofwandering.com/looking-for-airway-beacons-and-arrows-in-the-backcountry/



For more photo and information about the beacon in Guthrie, OK and for some awesome drone photos check out: http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/States/ok/03_21_D_KC_Guthrie.html

This next photo is an aerial view of the airport and the red circle indicates the location of the beacon we had just visited. Look closely and you can see the yellow from the arrow. It is pointing to the upper right. The concrete is repainted every one or two years.

While waiting in the office lounge area for Jason to take us on our golf cart ride, we browsed the literature racks and picked up this complimentary 2019 travel guide to Oklahoma. It is extensive and detailed in addressing things to do, events, and items of interest in Oklahoma. Arranged by regions and seasons it is well organized and well-worth getting a copy if you plan to be in Oklahoma. A full color glossy hardcopy is also free online just for the asking (even no-cost mailing) and a pdf can also be downloaded from https://www.travelok.com/brochures.

From the Guthrie-Edmond Municipal Airport (KGOK) we drove about two miles, 5 minutes, further north to the downtown historic area of Guthrie.

Our first visit to Guthrie was in December 2010 and when we'd met Jeremy's parents there for the first time. Sorry there is no blog post to cite. This get-together predates my blogging days, which began in 2013.

We'd gone to a A Territorial Christmas Carol play at the Pollard theatre.

This visit we planned to eat at a local famous cafe know as Stacy's Place. Built in 1891 this elegant building that houses the restaurant was originally home to the Tontz Hirschi Hardware Store.

The decor inside was stunning and welcoming from the warm brick walls, to the intricate tin ceilings, to the metal embossed wooden floors.

The food was great, too and, just as advertised, the desserts were fabulous. On the way to the restrooms was a portrait depicting the historic buildings of Guthrie peeking out among a field of clouds.

After that late lunch we headed back to spend our last evening in Oklahoma at Robin and Jeremy's home. We returned soon enough that I could accompany Robin to the daycare pickup and see the kids' new location now that Autumn has started kindergarten.

Tuesday nights Robin and Jeremy host their church's Bible Study at their house. They served a "gourmet" but effective menu of chili dogs – boiled hot dogs bathed in canned chili. There was a choice of chili, beanless or meatless. I guess I will continue to learn something new every day – I though beans and meat were necessary ingredients to chili. There was a rousing discussion about faith relating to literal versus symbolic interpretation of the bible. It was fun to meet their church friends.

After everyone left, Jeremy's mom Anna stayed behind and we played a game of Mysterium per Autumn's request. She loves that game. Her uncle Dan does not and strongly refers to it as "that damn ghost game". We had fun and as a team we beat the ghost. My post for 6/4/18, our previous OKC visit, describes the game better. Jeremy played the role of ghost and invisible photographer.

Wednesday, June 19th

We had a mid-afternoon flight and so were not rushed to get off to the OKC airport. When Jeremy left for work I got up bleary-eyed to say good bye to him. Before Robin left for work I took a last day mother/daughter selfie. 

I had the kids sit one last time with Grandma before they were off to their day programs.

Our flights home were on time and uneventful. We flew through Phoenix and had a comfortable layover when we could get a bite to eat, arriving home to Oakland at 7:00 PM. I emptied suitcases and started a load of laundry. Whoops! Frank had slept in Isaiah's room in his bed but the room was not off-limits for Isaiah's playing. Apparently Isaiah had pretend skate boarding up and down the mounds of dirty clothes in Frank's mesh laundry bag. These two ~3" long skateboards had hitchhiked home with us in Frank's suitcase. It had been a good visit with a nice bonus of having a surprise memento come home with us. Smiling and musing, I mailed the red and blue "Flashes" back the next day.