Not until I saw a freeway exit for 'One of the Largest Stockyards in the US!" did I decide to check out Stockyard City, in Oklahoma City.
Everything was open and I was able to wander. It smelled horrible and there were flies everywhere.
I guess they were done with cattle for the day, there were none in the pens, only a few hogs.
In another area, hogs that had been sold were being loaded onto a double decker trailer. The poor things were crammed in so tightly, they could barely move.
They were screaming and squealing, jumping and pounding on everything. It was very hot.
Some seemed desperate to breathe and stuck their noses throught the small holes in the side of the truck trailer.
On the other side of town, I drove to where the Murrah Federal Building once stood. The full block Memorial is beautiful and sad.
I wondered about the adjacent 'Museum' - a tribute capitalizing on death? I paid my $5 and because it wasn't crowded, I was ushered into a dark room by myself. The doors closed and I listened to the only taped recording that exists (a water rights hearing from a bldg across the street) of the explosion.
I spent the next 90 min or so, slowing moving from room to room - all senses on overload as dozens of TV's were loud with history and larger than life photos were displayed along with items, history, investigations, explanations, questions and conclusions.
No one eventually walked out of there without an ache in their heart and heavy damp eyes.
Photos weren't allowed in the Memorial Museum.
These 168 empty cement and bronze chairs on the lawn, are named for each person who died - the rows corresponding to the floor they were on.
The Cyclone fence around much of the Federal Bldg block has messages and items from people all over the world.
