Shades of 1934 - Kansas and Oklahoma

We who experienced Central Texas's horrendous drought in 2011 are all too familiar with dry river beds and brown dusty pastures.  Not that 2012 has been all that much better for the area; there's still a long way to go before Lake Travis is back to its normal levels, and water resources continue to be prime concern.  The drought that the Midwestern states are going through this year, however, is creating a scenario that is eerily bringing to mind the Dust Bowl years of the 30's.  And we've been right in the middle of the incessant wind and blowing dust as we traveled through Kansas and Oklahoma the last couple of weeks.  The blowing dust didn't begin there.  Our first exposure to it was in Joliet, Illinois and continued through Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota.  We are oh-so-tired of it.  HeM fights a losing battle to keep the RV and the Saturn clean, and a fine powdery dust settles on the interior surfaces daily.  I-35 just south of the Kansas/Oklahoma border was closed one day last week when a dust storm caused multiple-car accidents.  Luckily that wasn't a travel day for us, but 2 days later we took that very route.  Let's hope there's some relief soon.

We stopped in Wichita, Kansas mainly because it was a convenient waylay point.  The RV park we chose is brand new.  It opened in July, and is not much more than an enhanced parking lot at this point, but it's paved and satellite reception is easy.

Sidenote:  It was in this RV park that we sat and watched the dust storm mentioned above as it developed--the skies getting grayer and grayer, then browner and browner.

We didn't really expect a lot from our visit in Wichita, and Wichita didn't exactly prove us wrong.  It prides itself as the Air Capital of the World.

We've visited aviation museums in other cities, and don't really need to visit any more--unless they have something we haven't seen yet.  We visited the Kansas Aviation Museum mainly because it has a B52 on display, and we had not seen a B52.

The museum does have a number of interesting items on display, including a number of pilot training simulators that have been used over the years.  There is one that dates back to World War II.  SheM's dad was a pilot in WWII, and we will be asking him if he did any training in one like this.

As do many of the Midwest states, Kansas has a tribute to the Plains Indians, this one in its Museums on the River District.

We visited the Wichita Art Museum.  It certainly doesn't compare to Chicago's art collection, but it did have an interesting exhibit that they titled "Pairings".   They juxtaposed pieces of art together that have some form of similarity, crossing artistic style and medium.  Here are a couple of examples, the first comparing paintings and the second comparing a painting with a sculpture.

HeM snapped this picture in the museum.  Was he pairing SheM with the sculpture? HeM says no!

Wichita has an area of town called Old Town.  It sounded like there may be something there to visit, so we tried.  However, the only thing we could find that was open was the Coleman Museum and Outlet Store.

After Wichita, the next convenient stopping point was Oklahoma City.  Again, fairly low expectations that were not disproved.  The RV park is nice enough--mostly paved roads and paved pads.  It's close to I-44, but the wind has been blowing so much, the noise is not an issue.

Oklahoma City is the capital of Oklahoma and we tried to visit the capitol building.  We arrived there at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon; they close at 4:00 on Sundays.  We did get some outside pictures.  Notice that the capitol does not seem to be very welcoming, quite a contrast to all the other capitols we've visited.

Of course, it's possible that the city is still operating in a security-minded manner due to previous events in its history.  We visited the Oklahoma National Memorial.  It is a sobering site.

We always like to check out the art museums in any city we visit.  The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is on par with the Wichita Art Museum.  The most outstanding exhibit they had was "Luminaries"--a lot of interestingly blown glass.

Oklahoma City has a mile-long canal downtown.  It's reminiscent of the San Antonio Riverwalk, on a much smaller scale.

Oklahoma City is the home of the National Cowboy Museum.  We didn't know really what to expect, but figured "what the heck".  It has a few permanent sculptures, a lot of present-day art that is for sale to the public, Native American crafts from the past 100 years, tributes to Hollywood cowboys as well as real cowboys, and a recreated old west town.  Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

Interestingly enough, they also had an exhibit of photographs from the 1930's Dust Bowl years.  Hmmm.

Next stop is Texas.