Fleeing the Hurricane: Arkansas to Santa Fe (9.26, 27.24)

We fled due west, on September 26 and 27, 2024, as Hurricane Helene crashed along behind us.  We listened to the news of the hurricane all day, as we drove along.  The hurricane made landfall along the west coast of Florida in the morning of September 26 as a Category Four hurricane.  It ground up the coast and across inland Georgia, passing through Atlanta and then doing great damage to Asheville, the night of September 26 and during the day on September 27.  It also flooded North Myrtle Beach.  Our flight out of Atlanta on September 26 did leave as scheduled, but we were very glad not to be in the Atlanta airport that night, wondering if we could get home!

Our "stop of the day" on September 26 was the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas.  I deplored Bill Clinton's morals, as president, but I liked his centrist policies and strong support of economic growth and welfare reform.  

The Clinton Library was a gorgeous building, and I spent a happy hour visiting all the displays on Clinton's presidency.

I especially enjoyed the timeline, documenting the crises and achievements of the Clinton years.

A highlight of the library was visiting the recreated Oval office, decorated in cheerful yellow.  I even got to sit behind the desk of the president.

I scrutinized the photo of the former presidents and first ladies who attended the opening of the Clinton Library.  So many of those distinguished people are now gone--the first President Bush and Barbara, the Carters.  I remembered my mother telling me about people she knew who had fought in World War I and even in the Civil War, and I realized my own memory of political events is starting to stretch a long way back, as well!

As we drove west into Oklahoma on September 27, and the trees shortened and turned into scrub and then sagebrush, I rethought my assumptions about where the "west" really is, besides in my identity of myself!  Wallace Stegner defined the West in terms of lack of water, which caused settlements and settlers to spread out and become more independent.  My family and I are certainly independent self-starters, and that is also the culture of Utah, with its many entrepreneurs.

Our "stop of the day" on September 27 was the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City.  It was the best cowboy museum I have visited, including the Western palaces of Cody, Wyoming, and Jackson Hole.

For many years, the whole state of Oklahoma was an Indian (Native American) reservation, and the museum's exhibits and museum store reflected that Indian influence.  

There was a great collection of Indian turquoise jewelry in the museum store, although the model in the display looked disconcertingly Anglo.

The docents and store clerks were dressed in their Western finest, to celebrate the opening of a display of cowboy art, attended by the artists and their families.

I watched the artists, in cowboy hats and levis, inspecting their fellow artists' hand-tooled saddles, selling for $40,000 apiece.

 

The women carried elaborate, beaded handbags.  Similar bags were on sale for several thousand dollars apiece.

Another display focused on "The Western Trail."  Several cattle trails led through Oklahoma, and the display featured saddles, spurs, and other artifacts from those days, as well as stories of the cowboys who used them.

Still another exhibit displayed art of modern Indian artists.  I am fascinated by how artists of different cultures express those cultures in modern ways.  One of my favorite displays at the Church Museum of Art in Salt Lake City is the annual display of works by artists from all over the world, expressing LDS themes and values from the perspectives of their homelands. 

The store clerks were especially welcoming, dressed in their Western gear.

As I left the museum, I resolved to accept its challenge, "Find Your West."