Team Breitmann World Tour: Oklahoma Outpost

Today will mark our second week in Oklahoma City and our stay at Tinker Air Force Base at the "Fam Camp". You can read about the campground here: Tinker FAM CAMP. This week we visited with more of Stacey's family and friends in between everyone in Team Breitmann catching colds. Ugh. We also managed to get a tour in of the Oklahoma History Center. The History Center provides a great experience that tells the history of Oklahoma and it's people. We learned that the word "Oklahoma" is derived from the Choctaw Indian words okla and humma, meaning "red people". We are planning to depart the hospitality of our Okie friends and on to the Great State of Texas tomorrow! First stop: Dallas!

At the Oklahoma History Center, Hailey poses with an Indian horse travois, which is a kind of drag sled that the Indians used to help them carry their belongings over land. We learned about the Indian Removal Act and the forced removal of Indian tribes and how they came to Oklahoma on the what was named the Trail of Tears. A dark stain upon our country's history.

At the Oklahoma History Center, Hailey poses with Gordon Cooper, a native of Oklahoma. He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma and was a pioneer astronaut in the NASA Mercury and Gemini space programs.

At the Oklahoma History Center, Hailey poses with Wiley Post and his aircraft the "Winnie Mae" a Lockheed Vega, which was the first fixed-wing aircraft to fly around the world in 1931. Mr. Post is modeling the world's first practical pressure suit.

Yes, yes it is!

Hailey and I take an imaginary drive down history lane!

We learned about the effects on Oklahoma during the 1930's known as the "Dirty Thirties" due to the ecological disaster brought about by over farming in the arid grasslands combined with a natural drought period. It caused massive dust storms called "dusters". This particular "tongue in cheek" news paper quote attempts to describe how awful one particular stormy day On April 14, 1935,was and became known as "Black Sunday", when twenty of the worst "Black Blizzards" occurred throughout the Dust Bowl, causing extensive damage and turning the day to night.

Hailey gets into the moment as she pretends to fend off the Imperial Japanese aerial attack of 7 Dec 1941. This particular display depicts the loss of the US Navy Battleship USS Oklahoma during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On that day, 429 crewmen were killed or missing. One of those killed was Father Aloysius Schmitt, the first American chaplain to die in WWII. Three Medals of Honor , three Navy & Marine Corps Medals and one Navy Cross were awarded to sailors of the USS Oklahoma.

We learned that the Sonic drive-in chain is a product of an individual entrepreneur named Troy Smith, who in 1953 owned a steak house and root beer stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma. He kept the stand running by serving made to order burgers and hot dogs at a walk-up window. The "Top Hat Drive In" as it was known, soon was making more money than the steak house....and the rest is history as the name soon became "Sonic".

A reminder of the times not so long ago and the era of "Jim Crow" laws that codified in law the segregation of white Americans from "colored" Americans. Thank God for the progress in America.