Driving Across the United States Oklahoma City to Memphis: Day Four

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Oklahoma City was a new place for us, so we wanted to take some time to explore.  Day 4 of our drive across the United States was only 7 hours to Memphis so we were not in a rush.

Oklahoma gets a bad rap, but we found Oklahoma City to be surprisingly hip.  We wanted a big breakfast, so we picked Waffle Champion.  This was a trendy place along the lines of something you would find in California.

The Flaming Lips are one of our favorite bands.  We flew to Tennessee over New Year’s to see them perform in a cave to welcome in 2019.  They are from Oklahoma City and two days before they had released their new album King’s Mouth.

Founding member Wayne Coyne still lives in Oklahoma City and has an art gallery in the center of town.  This gallery featured prominently in King’s Mouth.  However, the morning we were there the gallery was closed.

Wayne Coyne’s house is also right in the center of Oklahoma City so we drove by.  It is actually a compound of several houses with artwork in the front yard.  Many articles on Oklahoma City mention the house.  It is at 1715 NW 13th St.

Our next stop was more somber.  Several blocks down is the site of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.  This is where domestic terrorists bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995.  168 people, including 19 children, were killed.

The Memorial is quite impressive.  There is a reflecting pool and a field of empty chairs where the building once stood.  There is one chair for each person that died in the bombing.

The Memorial is very moving in its own right.  The Museum is in a large building next door.  Admission is $15.  We decided not to go in because by this time it was getting pretty late in the morning.

We shot across the rest of Oklahoma, into Arkansas.  If we had more time, we would have stopped at some of the sites that memorialize the Cherokee Trail of Tears.  A few months before I had been in Georgia at the start of the Trail of Tears where the Cherokee were forcibly removed to Oklahoma.

Memphis is on the eastern side of the Mississippi river.  As you cross over the river you will see the large pyramid.  This building is now home to a Bass Pro Shop.

We were staying with a friend, so we did not need a hotel tonight.  Of course, for dinner we wanted to try BBQ.  We picked the classic Memphis chain Corky’s BBQ because my friend knew the owner. (Also it was a Monday and the classic Charlie Vergos Rendezvous was closed).

Memphis is noted for their dry-rubbed ribs so that is what I got.  I also got a side of delta tamales.  This is a specialty of the region and they are very different from what you find out west.

For an overview of this trip and other cross-country road trips we have taken be sure and see our guide.

Guide to Driving Across the United States

Fun Diego Family has been on multiple road trips across the United States. This is a wonderful way to see the country. We thought we would share several different routes from trips driving across the United States. Overview Of course, living in San Diego we generally start in the West and head East. Usually we […]

For our day three trip from New Mexico to Oklahoma go here.

Driving Across the United States New Mexico to Oklahoma: Day Three

On day three of our trip we made up much of the time we lost in our Grand Canyon detour.  We shot all the way across New Mexico, Texas and into the middle of Oklahoma.  This is 11 hours of driving, but we still made time to see plenty of cool sites. We got an […]

For tomorrow’s adventure in Memphis go here.

Driving Across the United States Memphis to Nashville: Day Five

Day five of our drive across the United States was our shortest drive.  We toured Memphis most of the day before driving the short 3-hour trip to Nashville. Memphis has a great deal of sites to see, especially if you are into music.  Driving across the Mississippi on the I-40 we were intrigued by the […]

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