Our Whirlwind Weekend in Oklahoma

As of Wednesday morning last week we were driving to Oklahoma.  Plane tickets were atrocious!  We were going to take two days to get there, two days to return, and we would be bringing Anderson.  But, we kept searching the internet and finding different options and finally by Wednesday afternoon we had found a more reasonable set of plane tickets.  We would fly out of Dayton to Tulsa and we would need to leave Anderson at home for the weekend with my parents.  The plan was in motion.

Dave Runs a 5K
We arrived into Tulsa late Friday, checked into our hotel, and immediately fell into deep sleep.  Our alarms were set early, though, as Dave also wanted to do a race in Oklahoma and found a small 5K at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.  It wasn't a very big race, and not particularly fast, but Dave did walk away with first in his age group.

Oral Roberts' campus 

 

We're Going to Jail
After Dave's race we drove to Oklahoma City for my race.  Our trip involved a toll road.  Dave had done his research prior to the drive and we had enough cash for the trip.  Or so we thought.  Most of the toll stations were not manned and required exact change.  Luckily there were change machines so we got lots of quarters for our $5 bill.  We thought we would only have to pay $4 for the whole trip.  We were wrong.  At one point we didn't have enough money and had to write a check.  Yep a check.  For $1.15.  Then, after lunch, after we had made change for more money, we made it to another toll stop where the fee was $1.15.  For some reason, Dave had to make change again.  Except this time, the change machine didn't work.  And we only had a quarter.  So we put the quarter in the machine and drove away.  We are fugitives from the law.  Oklahoma wants us for our 90 cents.

PS - We paid that 90 cents when we came back on the toll road on Sunday.

Thin Walls
El Reno was the location of my race.  Although a suburb of Oklahoma City, it seemed like the middle of nowhere.  There were a few establishments and very few hotels.  We stayed at the Best Western which should have been renamed the Worst Western.  It was awful.  We were right off the freeway which was loud.  Then there were the thin walls.  I could hear every time someone went to the bathroom, flushed the toilet, had anything to say, and oh yeah, the neighbors having sex.  MULTIPLE TIMES!  I was starting to wonder if there was a prostitute in the room next to us.  There were truckers who would park at the end of the motel and I was wondering if they were keeping company in the room next to us.  After the second sexual encounter I thought if I heard it one more time I was calling the cops or the front desk, at least.

Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial
On our way back to Tulsa after my race we detoured to downtown Oklahoma City to see the bombing memorial.  I had seen it before, I think, more than 10 years ago.  Dave had never seen it.  It's so very neat: poignant, artistic, somber, beautiful.

I Heart Tulsa
Our last night in Oklahoma was spent in downtown Tulsa.  We were able to walk to many activities and really took advantage of the local scene.  We started with a trip to Valkyrie which is a bar like you might see on Esquire's "Best Bars in America."  There is no menu at this bar.  There are seasonal drinks written on a chalkboard or if you don't like any of those, you tell the bartender what you like and he'll mix you up something special.  My first drink was some concoction that had a whole bunch of unknown alcohols to me.  The only thing I could name was strawberry syrup.  It was fruity and spicy and awesome.  Dave had a mule with carrot juice, cinnamon, and ginger.  It had a little kick but was really good. 

We walked to Guthrie Green where we took in some live music.  Then we walked to "The Center of the Universe" where science met art and we made cool echos.  Dave and I got engaged under a whisper arch so this was super cool to us.  Dinner was at Mi Mexicali where we had some tasty food and margaritas.  Then it was back to Valkyrie where we enjoyed a second round of drinks.  Mine was called "The Bees Knees" and was a gin martini with honey and lemon.  Dave had "The Schute of All Evil" which had beet juice in it.  To me it tasted like eating the earth.  I'll stick to my fruity drinks.  Our flight was stupid early the next day, so we called it a night.