Trapped

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Geo: 35.472, -97.5203

100 degrees (on the car)
259 miles
3 hours 50 minutes
10,000 bottles of soda pop
6th Marriott
5 sushi rolls
1 hour "Trapped"
7 Locks
2 enormous crosses

We all woke up late this morning at 8:45. That is late for hotels for us. Mostly because we like to boogie out early. We were tired, I guess. We stayed at the Courtyard downtown Amarillo. We had an enormous room that was really nice even though we got in late and didn't really enjoy it. We were slightly apprehensive of the parking in Amarillo but we didn't even know if it was safe or unsafe. Clearly, it was fine because no one broke into our car. I was just picturing vagrants breaking in and have a trunk show out of our wardrobe in the van. Really nothing of value. My underwear was still there.

We headed off to Oklahoma City (OKC). We saw a couple more roadside oddities again. Giant crosses. The one in Texas has a story to it. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1912
One recommendation by the Rushwins, we made our way to OKC to a lunch place called Pops. It is on old historic Route 66. It is a bit out of the way and we were beginning to wonder if it was worth the drive outside of downtown. Mind you, we had already gone to the wrong place, Soda Pops, an imposter and not to be mistaken for Pops. We took a chance and turned around and went another 34 minutes to the real place. Well worth it is our opinion. When you drive up Route 66 to Pops, it looks as though a space ship landed with a giant, and I mean giant, sculpture of a pop bottle with a straw. As you walk up to the restaurant/gas station/convenience store, you see thousands of pop bottles of every color and flavor you can imagine (and you can't imagine up some you will find in there). The bottles fill the ground to very high ceiling windows across the front and back of the building. Inside you will find thousands more bottles in refrigerators. We are not a pop drinking family but we all had a field day. Even Paul and Elizabeth who don't like fizzy drinks, got one. We sat in the diner and ordered delicious burgers. They even had a gluten free bun!!! I really wanted a burger. Then you go into the store part and choose your pop. They are organized by flavor or genre or color. From strawberry to lichee. From swamp to pimple to Bacon. From black to clear. It is so hard to choose. I love peach so I got peachee. Ben got Toxic Slime. Matthew got swamp juice. Elizabeth got the Japanese pop that you have to pop the marble into to drink it. Paul got strawberry rhubarb agave. They were all delicious. We got some souvineer bottles too. Everything was great including the food and the whole experience. So glad we took the chance. We've done that on a few occasions on our trips and they usually turn out well.

We are staying in the OKC Residence Inn Downtown Bricktown. It is a really cool area across from the baseball field on a river-walk that leads to a mall like area with restaurants and a movie theater. Couldn't have picked a better location in OKC. On the way, we decided to take the kids to an Escape room called Trapped OKC. It was the MOST fun!! We all had a blast. We are locked in a room and we have to solve clues to get keys and lock combos to find 4 tickets and unlock the door. YOu have one hour to complete the task. We were in the Oklahoma room. The room looks fairly simple until you start tearing it apart to find the things you need. You get 3 free clues then if you ask, you lose 5 minutes off your time. We all did great. We were so close to getting out. There was one key we couldn't find. If it was a snake, we would have all been bit. We had so much fun. It is a great team building activity. Paul wants to plan an office party at one of these places. (Kara, you can't go to one until we all go).

When we got back, we walked the river-walk and had dinner at a Sushi restaurant. I love sushi. (right Michelle?) Matthew doesn't care for it so we got him pizza at a restaurant downstairs. We ate outside. It was hot at first but as the sun went down and the breeze picked up, it was nice.

The kids had a chance to hit the outdoor pool for an hour or so before we turned in. There are some storms rolling in tonight. I see lightening but not sure what is going to happen. They have flood warning through Wednesday but we haven't seen any rain. We are off to Little Rock tomorrow. We may take our time leaving OKC because it's a nice little town.
We will see what tomorrow brings.

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Comments

[Kara]

I am totally down with doing the escape room in Royal Oak... you better hurry up and get back here so I don't go with out you! We miss you guys (even Paul!)