Road Trip to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

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Saturday a week ago,son and I loaded up the car and headed down the highway to Oklahoma City.

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We pulled off the turnpike at Wellston and drove down Route 66 to Pops near Arcadia to get us a soft drink. Pops has almost every kind of soft drink known to man. We bought two each. Usually we only get one but it was hot that day. We drank one and put the other in a cooler we brought along just for that purpose. So we could drink something cold on our way back.

Pop's for the ride home.

Don’t ask my why I always get some sort of Black Cherry soda at Pops. I’m a Diet Doctor Pepper guy usually. Diet Creme Cherry flavored if I can get it. Don’t judge me. I always like diet Orange Crush.

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Next stop was the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. We love this place, just love it. It will always be the Cowboy Hall of Fame to me though. I’ve been going here ever since I moved to Oklahoma twenty six years ago. It has really changed over the years.

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One of my favorite places is their big banquet hall. They have five massive triptych paintings by Wilson Hurley. Together they are called Windows on the West. They are huge and spectacular. My employer has a Wilson Hurley painting in the lobby. I saw him there some years ago up on a step ladder touching up the painting.

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(The Leader’s Downfall by William R. Leigh)

The museum is cram full of Western Art of all types.

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They also have lots of other exhibits about life in the west for cowboys, soldiers, and regular families.

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Ronald Reagan belongs in the Museum. I’m assuming that George W. will be there one day. His dad, George H. won’t nothing wrong with him, he is just not western. Barack Obama won’t be there either. I mean you either have it or you don’t. I grew up in small towns of the west with cowboys, I had many western friends, some of my family are western. I don’t have a western bone in my body. I don’t have anything against it, its just now me. But I still like this Museum.

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They have a great rodeo exhibit. They explain all the events and have a mock up of a rodeo arena, great fun.

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They have a great section on the west in movies and television. That is Kirk Douglas above.

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SuperPizzaBoy’s favorite is Prosperity Junction a western Town. He really liked the pulpit in the church.

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A mock up of an early day classroom. I hate to admit it but this is how my class rooms in Price, Utah looked like when I was a kid. Inkwells in the desk and all. At least we didn’t use the inkwells.

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Early day bank.

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I caught him bellying up to the bar. Kids!

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I love this hat exhibit. Tell you what though, when I first saw it it reminded my of a tank full of jellyfish. Is there such a thing as Cowboy Hat Jellyfish?

With son at #pops on #route66

With that, we loaded up, grabbed our second sodas from Pops and headed back home.

I just love road trips, have you been on one lately? Tell us about it.

OurWorld Tuesday

20 thoughts on “Road Trip to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

  1. Lois

    What a great place! My grandfather and his brother were Florida cattle ranchers and referred to themselves as cattlemen. They always wore cowboy hats and I loved to try them on when I was a kid.

  2. Daryl Edelstein

    what a fun time .. I love Diet Dr Pepper but I would have chosen a black cherry too .. variety is a good thing .. occasionally… I bet Kirk Douglas is the only Jewish cowboy in the museum .. and when I was kid we had some construction in our grade school so we moved our class up to the never used 5th floor .. and in those desks there were inkwells!

  3. Sylvia K

    What fun day for both of you!! Yep, I’m a Dr. Pepper fan, too, all my life!! But I also love the Black Cherry! I really love your captures of the museum, would really enjoy visiting there! Hope your week is off to a good start! Enjoy!

  4. EG CameraGirl

    Ummm, I also hate to admit I remember desks like that. We didn’t use the ink wells either. :))

    Love all those hats! And the cherry drink sounds mighty good.

  5. Barb

    SPB might be a banker someday – or a minister or bartender…he looks right at home as any of them. I love road trips, too – but, no Cherry soda for me!

  6. DrillerAA09

    Like you, it will always be the Cowboy Hall of Fame to me. However, I have never had the pleasure of visiting. I need to put it on my to-do list.

  7. Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti

    That black cherry soda pop sounds so good!

    What an interesting museum to visit! I’ve lived east my entire life but grew up watching Dale Evans and Roy Rogers, and so on, so the West has always been alluring to me. Now both my kids live in Colorado!

    One of the best Western Art collections I’ve seen is in the Leanin’ Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden in Boulder CO. http://www.leanintreemuseum.com/

  8. Gaelyn

    This is an Awesome looking place. I like the cowboy history, art and the entrance bottle. I used to be a rootbeer gal, but always liked Orange too. Rarely drink any kind of soda now.

  9. Sallie (FullTime-Life)

    That museum is an absolutely great place for a dad/son roadtrip, couldn’t be better! (But this great-grandma would like it too). For a minute I thought you said about the pop place that you bought two OF each ;>….wondered where you found space for the two of you. Then I re-read the sentence. (Did I mention I’m a great-grandmother — getting old etc….)

  10. AVCr8teur

    How neat! I remember classrooms looking like that too with the inkwells and a slot for your pencil. Did you keep the Route 66 soda bottle as a souvenir?

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