Our starting point was Bentonville and our destination Oklahoma City.  Why Bentonville? So we could visit the wonderful Crystal Bridges Art Museum. It houses a remarkable collection of American art amassed by Walmart founder Sam Walton and provided completely free to the public. It is a strikingly beautiful modern museum in a wonderful natural setting. First a shoutout for accessibility. There were wide doors and large elevators plus many wheelchairs for loan just sitting out by the entrance for the taking. Check out John in the main elevator! No doubt sized for the movement of large-scale art, but still.

But … and there’s always a big but … while their web site claims (in a whole page devoted to accessibility): “All interior spaces … are fully wheelchair accessible and ADA compliant”, it wasn’t so.  Two of the three main restroom signs lacked the wheelchair logo indicating ADA compliance, and when I asked about it, the guard said he believed it was because the entry through two doors did not have fully compliant clearance. Fortunately it was minor and the bathrooms themselves were fully accessible.

One other item, a large piece of art was installed on a landing between two floors, not visible from above or below.  I can see why the spot was ideal but even the guard agreed it was kinda dumb; again fortunately it was no big miss for John, just an op-art thing with strings stretched across the space.

As I mentioned, the site and building complex were beautiful.  Read more about it at http://crystalbridges.org/architecture/

I won’t go into an exhaustive list of all the many artists and works we enjoyed, but here is a handful of offbeat items that made us smile.

 James Henry Beard, “It is very Queer, Isn’t it?” 

(that’s a copy of Darwin in his hand)

 Jim Dine, “Walking to Boras”

One of the artists favorite subjects, Pinocchio (on the left).

 Benjamin Kopman, “Portrait – Bear”

 William Holbrook Beard, “School Rules”

It was then off to Oklahoma City!  First stop, the National Memorial and Museum to honor those lost in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. It was a beautiful quiet space, a reflecting pool, with an abstract chair sculpture on the adjacent lawn, one for each victim.

Then a swing by the State Capitol. The full sized oil rig  is directly across from the front of the capitol. It is no mere display; the capitol building complex is on top of an active oil field and that is supposedly an active rig (though it looked awfully clean).

You may remember this capitol as the one that had a Ten Commandments statue that had to be removed unless they allowed all religions equal access.  As a Satanic cult seemed ready to install a statue of the devil-goat Baphomet, the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared all religions displays unconstitutional. Whew!

Our overnight was at the Best Western Saddleback Inn and Conference Center.  I’ve complained about what seemed to be a Best Western corporate decision to put only a few handicapped spots in the front of the building, but it’s a different story in a facility where the rooms all face outward. There was dedicated handicapped parking outside each accessible room! We have not seem this since the Red Roof Inn in Kalamazoo (part 8).

Combine that with a nicely appointed roomy room, finally a bathroom with real counter space, a roll-in shower, and I think we have a new winner for best bathroom.