Tulsa

Our luck with good weather snapped the minute - and I mean the minute - we got into our rental car. The heavens opened up and stayed open for six hours, heavy wind-driven nasty rain.  We had all the directions we needed to get from OKC to Tulsa but we were thwarted by lack of signage and horrible visibility. The highway entrance had NO signs due to construction so we missed it; recovered pretty well on an alternate route that led to a toll road. Now here is a fun fact:  Some Oklahoma Turnpikes only take COINS - no bills, no credit cards, exact change only. I had not a single coin and Cindy had 30¢ not 70¢ as required, so we called the 800 number listed on the coin basket and got instructions for calling and paying later.  Who carries coins and why didn’t the rental car place tell us since they knew we were going to Tulsa and there is only one way to to get there?  Cindy, bless her heart, spent far too long on the phone dealing with this 70-cent issue after we got to Tulsa. It must have cost them ten dollars to charge our credit card for 70 cents!

But I digress. We continued to drive in a major rainstorm and all the while the radio was blasting flood warnings and tornado alerts. At one point we saw that funny color of green right next to a black cloud that had lightning zapping out of it. Goodness, it was a fright for sure. Once in Tulsa our GPS took us to a side entrance of the hotel so I sprinted to it only to find out that it was locked so I had to run around the building in the rain to figure out where to park. There was no self parking, only valet, and given the storm I did not argue since I was soaking wet and not wanting to get any wetter. We moved the car, ran into the lobby, gave the valet the keys and registered. We were quite hungry and my white knuckles needed something to relax them. The kitchen in the restaurant closed at 2:00 and it was 1:55 so Cindy dashed over to try and order some food. The wait person looked at us and looked at the clock and said, “if it’s two o’clock the kitchen is closed but it looks like you have 2 minutes.”  And they’re not even German!  So we quickly scanned the menu and ordered and then ran up to the room to leave our suitcases.  We had a very nice lunch and in the end they were very accommodating and pleasant.  All during lunch it rained buckets and we were so glad to be inside - for the rest of the day/ night.  The dinner menu looked quite inviting and even if the weather had been better we would have elected to stay in.

After a well-deserved nap, we took advantage of a lull in the rain to walk for an hour to get the lay of the land. We had thought we were going to be able to visit a few museums but it was not to be, much to my great sadness!!  We went back to the hotel and changed for dinner and went to the top of the hotel for cocktails. For fifteen shining minutes the sun came out and we were able to see most of Tulsa from the rooftop terrace. The river was swollen and running fast and all of the low lying areas of the city had been blocked off to traffic with much of it evacuated. Dinner was a strange affair:  The menu looked fantastic but the reality was somewhat less than appealing, or for that matter edible.  We actually met the chef who seemed very proud of his work but apparently he was reaching beyond his ability - e.g., duck confit is meant to be a leg conserved in its own fat.  He got those elements right, but he had over-brined it and it was so salty as to be inedible. 

The next morning was bright and sunny and Cindy went to the hotel’s torture chamber to work out while I walked the city. Our hotel, The Mayo, was quite similar to the one in OKC, the oldest in Tulsa and restored to incorporate some modern amenities while keeping the old charm. There were cool little rooms on the Mezzanine: a writing room, a card room. a sewing room and a few little corners with views. The surrounding area was again void of stores, pharmacies, bodegas and even tourist shops. We decided to skip another museum since it didn’t open until 11 am and we had a four+plus hour drive ahead of us. 

I suppose since they don’t get a lot of tourists in Tulsa, they don’t want them to leave because once again it took us forever to get out of town. The valet told us how to get to the highway we wanted but the entrance was blocked due to high water. The same for the alternative route. Finally Cindy found a “longcut” (too late for a shortcut!) which was really the only way out, and we settled in for the ride. Well, we settled in for about four minutes before we heard this ding-ding-ding indicating a low tire pressure and a warning to fill immediately.  We pulled off at the first gas station and found the tire pump. Since the message did not say which tire, I had to check them all, and sure enough one was at twenty pounds of pressure.  I filled it up and we were once again on the road to Kansas.  Kansas was Cindy’s 49th state and now she only has Alabama left.  

Best to all, Cindy and Wm