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Oatmeal Weather

As is the tradition, after the second weekend of the Tulsa State fair the weather has predictably cooled.  As a result this weekend I broke out a long sleeved Henley and a Hoodie.  Since my wife had Thursday and Friday off for Fall Break, I decided to ask off for Friday so we could spent some time together.  Luckily I have a truly amazing boss and was completely fine with me taking off with no real prior notice.  Of course I made sure I had no appointments and since half of the office was already off for fall break it was not a huge deal.

Bowling Trophy

On Friday we roamed around town a bit, trying to enjoy the fact that most of the world was working.  On Admiral here in Tulsa there is this insanely huge flea market.  We used to go there regularly in college but these days the place has developed a mind of its own.  As a result it is nigh impossible to get place to park, so we have avoided it like the plague for the last few years.  Once upon a time there was a factory closeout and shipping casualty store called Cheapo Depot that was interesting to shop at.  Recently a new one opened up in the same location called Oops, and my wife had been wanting to go.  Taking advantage of the empty parking lot we went by there. 

The store itself was not that interesting, part dented can grocery store with a handful of factory overrun items.  Basically nothing contained within is something that folks actually wanted out in the world.  They had cases and cases of Tostitos Raspberry Salsa… and I could not even begin to fathom what that must taste like.  Absolute none of the ideas I came up with… managed to sound good at all.  When we were exiting the parking lot I spied the above prize.  Since no one was around we had no clue what it was… but basically it was a D4 made of bowling balls.  One of them had fallen off and was to the side… but at this point I really want to know the story behind it.

Route of Boredom

For some time I have had a fascination with Route 66, I guess it is a side effect of growing up in Tulsa and seeing absolutely everything under the sun branded with that moniker.  We have attempted to travel the route once in the past, but got bored around Bristow.  Yesterday I decided we should try and go the entire route from Tulsa to Oklahoma City… or at the very least Edmond.  Ultimately we were looking for interesting things to take photos of… but after a bit we just started looking for anything interesting at all.  The above shot came from a little thrift store near  entrance to highway 66 on the outskirts of Tulsa.  I have no clue what prompted someone to buy a republican and democrat  mug for every year…. or even more so what lead them to end up in a thrift store as a complete set.

The rest of the route was a string of small towns with small speed limits that caused what is normally an hour and a half trip to Tulsa take roughly three hours.  There really was not much in the way of attractions any longer, other than the normal tourist fare.  I expected to see some sort of a remnant of the grand tradition.  The oddest thing is in many places the original route 66 is sitting there, moldering beside the current road.  They have removed the bridges in most cases but there are just vast tracts of crumbling asphalt that are no longer connected to anything at all.  You would think they would have employed them as side roads, because asphalt in any state is pretty much better than a dirt road.

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While wandering around yesterday we released we were within 30 minutes of Guthrie Oklahoma.  Since we were forced to take Oklahoma History our freshman year in High School, I have always wondered around Guthrie the original state capital.  Turns out the story is a bit more interesting than I could have imagined.  I didn’t remember it being covered in class, but apparently the changing of the state capital was not a mutual affair.  Apparently in the dark of night the state seal was stolen from the legislative house in Guthrie and carried to what would be the new capital of Oklahoma City.

Wandering around Guthrie, you see an almost abbreviated greatness.  Once upon a time before statehood the town was in fact grand, and since that grandeur is marketable they have made a point of keeping up appearances.  The buildings were really the draw for me.  I love seeing the remnants of a bygone era.  The current town of Guthrie is a very small thing, with not much more than a Wal-Mart.  However being on the outskirts of the OKC metro, they live in a constant state of tourist destination.  It was probably the most interesting stop of the weekend.  While the adventure was not as grand as we would have liked, we did all that we really expected to do.  Get out of the house and spend some time together unplugged.