Well, we’ve finally left Wichita and we’ve travelled south with the new 5’er (5th wheeler) to Oklahoma City (OKC). Again we thank Gary & Sharyl for their hospitality even if they couldn’t organise warm weather for us. We left the oven thermometer out on the van table one night and at 9am the next day it was showing 0° C. The only one that enjoyed the cold was Abbie who revelled in rolling in the white stuff whenever she could. To add to our cold misery Shane was sorting out gear in the new van and came a cropper splitting her head open. No stitches needed just some glue and a bit of loving.
Before leaving Wichita we had an overdue oil change done at a RAM dealer. As a part of the service they checked everything, fixed a few recalls and updated the onboard computer. While they were doing this I had them check the electrics because the rear right brake, blinker and reversing lights had ceased working. It turns out that when the people we bought the 5th wheel off fitted the tow hitch in the bed of the ute they accidentally drilled into the wiring harness for those lights. The replacement of the wiring harness was going to be a major issue both in cost and labour. Luckily with a bit of Aussie ingenuity I managed to get the harness free enough for the mechanic to rejoin the cut wires and in an hour they had the car ready for us. After a quick call to the van dealers they had no hesitation in paying for the repairs that their careless drilling caused and we were away.
Towing this 5’er certainly is a different feeling to towing a caravan. The RAM has handled it admirably returning almost 12mpg with the cruise control set at 65mph for most of the way to Oklahoma City (OKC). In a second scare in two days we arrived in OKC and we thought we’d seized up the gearbox. No matter what Shane or I did the RAM would not stay in any gear other than Park. We had just disconnected the 5’er and I wanted to move the car forward a yard so I jumped in the car and casually put my right foot on the brake to engage the gear while my left foot hung out the door. The car wasn’t going to move! After a multitude of efforts by us both we decided to leave it overnight to cool down in case that was the problem. Next morning still no joy so we called AAMCO (a transmission specialist) who had no answers but told us to have it towed to them and they’d look at it and run some tests for free. When the Towie arrived he jumped in the car (exactly as we had – 1 foot in, 1 foot out) and also couldn’t start it. However when he tried again he shut the car door and the gears were miraculously fixed.
While it was in gear and we were feeling like gooses for getting the towie out in this below freezing temperature we headed for the transmission guys. After a discussion they too had trouble getting it in gear until I suggested he too should close the driver’s door. It seems that when we’d had the oil change at the RAM dealer they had installed several ‘onboard computer updates’. One of these changed the behaviour of the car to make it safer by not allowing it to engage gears unless all the doors are closed. OMG! Why didn’t they tell us this? All’s good now, phew.
So with the transmission problem solved Shane and I headed off to visit “The National Memorial Museum” which commemorates the Oklahoma Bombing. Before I show those pics I will carry on with our look around after we had lunch and after the OKC museum. Out of sequence I know but it saves a gallery post.
We had lunch in an old area known as Bricktown. This neighbourhood of several bocks is now an entertainment and eating area which includes the Bricktown Ball Park on Mickey Mantle Drive. Named after Oklahoma’s most famous son there is a wealth of baseball related paraphernalia like statues of other famous baseballers. There are places to see and eat at. There’s a canal system with water taxis, mini-golf, Bunji, fun parlors, breweries, bars and wineries. There’s even a Coyote Ugly bar there. For our Granddaughter, Joy, we took a pick of Cinderella’s coach.
In 2005 we visited the World Trade Centre site in New York. It was just a hole in the ground then but the entire neighbourhood there had a dense atmosphere of reverence and sadness that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. “The National Memorial Museum” in OKC has a similar though not quite as strong an atmosphere. There is a ‘reflection pool’, a ‘survivor tree’ which made it through the bombing unscathed and 168 chairs (1 for each of the murdered innocents) installed on the actual bomb site. The museum has many genuine artefacts from the bombing by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols at 0902 on 19 May 1995. What this museum and the memorial does is to change a story we saw on TV into a reality. There are no replica items on display it is all genuine and it is powerful. I have moved the most important photos to the last 3. The destroyed building, the innocent victims and the killer. We must always fight against terrorism. It cannot and will not break our resolve.
That’s it for this post. My apologies if it is too long or too ‘dark’ for you but from here we are heading to Chikasaw Indian country for a few days before we move on to Dallas, Texas. I promise my next post will be more fun.
Cheers for now
Garry & Shane.