May 27, 2021 Day 40: Oklahoma City, OK -- Hot Springs, AK

We stopped by a country buffet in the middle of nowhere off the highway called Cox’s. They are a Navy family and pictures line the wall facing the bathrooms. The food is hot and good, but presentation is shabby. The owner of the restaurant was sitting with his two daughters who also worked there. He told us about how the town was underwater two years to the day. He himself was not in the Navy but his uncles, cousins, and father were. One of them died on the field when a bomb exploded. The ones who returned home were in WWII, Vietnam, Iran. He had been a volunteer firefighter for sixteen years and pointed to pictures of fires on the wall, which were from a controlled practice burn on a house and another wildfire. We asked about the missing person posters. He told us of a cousin who had gone missing and whose death could never be proved. Each time someone would testify, they would mysteriously die. Same thing happened with each time the investigations started up again.