Wednesday has been a long day and there’s still six hours to go and four of them involve driving from Oklahoma City to Amarillo, Texas. The morning began with an hour-and-a-half tour of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, conveniently next to the Little Rock, Arkansas hotel that I booked. In fact, our Comfort Inn was so close that it was renovated and renamed the “Comfort Inn & Suits Downtown at the Clinton Library” for the library’s 2004 dedication. It’s also the only non-business-related hotel that I’ve stayed in that had an HDTV in the room.

The first room of the Clinton Library had the White House cabinet table and chairs and, to my surprise, I was allowed to sit in the President’s chair. Little Known Fact: It’s actually two-inches taller than all of the other chairs in the cabinet room. Upon prying myself out of the seat of power, I followed the subsequent timeline exhibit where I came across a photo of President Clinton signing NAFTA, something Hillary Clinton campaigned against in 2008. Oops.

Clinton memorabilia highlights included two old Macs from the late 90s dotcom era, the President’s saxophone collection, his sax-wielding Muppet and a yellow shirt, helmet and bike from Lance Armstrong. Toward the end of the tour, there was a room dedicated to all of the space exploration that went on during his two terms and a replica of the Oval Office, which was roped off. I got in on a high-five picture of James Carville and Paul Begala and pulled out my iPhone to compare it to the old 90s clunkers used by a bearded Begala and others (both pictures below).

Finally, we took pictures in front of the Presidential Limousine and then hoped in my just-as-fancy 1997 Toyota Corolla.

Five hours after leaving the Clinton Library, we arrived in Oklahoma City and made our way to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Now the largest memorial of its kind in the United States, it was where Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building stood until Timothy McVeigh, with the aid of Terry Nichols, destroyed it on April 19, 1995. I remember having just turned 11 six days before this occurred and watching the news coverage with shock and bewilderment.

Now 25 years old, I made sure that I took out a half hour to check out the memorial. Walking through the entrance, the first thing I noticed was the enormous eastern gate with 9:01 engraved at the top of the frame. This represents the last moments of peace, as the bombing occurred at 9:02 AM. Across the reflecting pool is the western gate with 9:03 at the top. That time represents the first moments of recovery. Continuing with the symbolism, a thin-and-clean-looking reflecting pool (unlike the one in D.C.) between the two gates is supposed to show a face changed by domestic terrorism, while the 168 empty chairs in the adjacent field symbolize those who lost their lives in the attack.

From downtown Oklahoma, we headed to The Wedge Pizzeria. While I was making the itinerary, I tried to vary up the restaurants and noticed we didn’t have one pizza place on the schedule. Lots of steak, sandwich and ribs restaurants. So, I used Yelp! to search for a quality pizza parlor in Oklahoma City and found The Wedge at 4709 N Western Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73118.

Pizzas at The Wedge aren’t your ordinary Domino’s or Pizza Hut pies. They’re large slices with sizeable, whole ingredients like an authentic Italian pie. It’s a switch from the delivery and homemade pizza that I’m used to and took care of my hunger from the long drive. More than anything, I’m glad that we fit a pizzeria into this trip and a got a chance to stop in Oklahoma City, the geographical halfway point on our 14-day journey.