Today was a bit of a relaxed schedule. While we got a chance to sleep in ( some more than others...having to speed eat breakfast!!!) we still had to be on the bus ready to go by 8.30am. Our first stop today was at the Oklahoma State Capitol building. Each state has a magnificent looking building ( usually with a grand dome) which houses the house of reps and Senate...this was definitely no exception. Oklahoma is very aware and proud of its Indian heritage and this was very apparent in the art work and monuments in and around the building. The Indian on the top of the dome, called the guardian, was 22 feet in height...huge. We also had a group photo on the steps from a rather dodgy photographer ( very very special). After this we were off to the cowboy museum (yeeha). This was pretty good with lots of pictures, paintings, statues and displays. They set up a whole street scape which was really effective. The highlight was the barbed wire collection....something very special in so many ways. Then as its all about the food we headed off to a pretty slick food court and delved into some salad and sushi. The food court is in a new skyscraper built by one of the big energy companies. Natural gas is a big thing in Oklahoma....lots and lots of money which is being poured into the city. The afternoon was free time so we grabbed a trolley tram and took a tour around Oklahoma city...which is basically one big business precinct. Then we ventured back to the hotel to do some washing and fine tune our skills in the art of packing and repacking. We had tea down at the canal with a very friendly and consciousness waiter named Travis. We tried some alligator which looked and tasted like KFC popcorn chicken ( a bit on the chewy side). Then we walked up to the Oklahoma bombing memorial...the field of empty chairs is absolutely magnificent at night with the chairs lighting up..it is a very haunting feeling at the memorial and you soon realize that this bombing had an enormous impact on both the city ( it is not an overly big city) and the country as a whole. The bombing was in 1995 but as you can see from the photos people are still placing items in the fence. Things are still pretty raw in relation to the bombing. The memorial is a very moving tribute to those who lost their lives as well as a statement that their resolve will not be diminished by acts of violence like this.