Stop 5: Oklahoma City, OK

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The ride from Memphis to Oklahoma City was a tense one. Brian and I were extremely bored and kind of at each other whenever we’d try to converse so he spent much of the ride watching episodes of House (thanks Jess!) on my laptop when I was driving and when he was driving I started getting reacquainted with the book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the movie version’s coming out soon!!!). By the time we got to Oklahoma City we’d been in the car for almost 7 hours but we were slightly cheered up by the fact that, courtesy of my dad and his hotel points, we’d be staying in our first hotel of the trip…the Sheraton. After checking in and relaxing in the room for a bit, we decided to check out “Bricktown,” the new, up-and-coming restaurant area of Oklahoma City. The town was nice…quiet…laidback. We both liked the fact that many of the buildings (all of which were brick) had murals painted on them and we liked the pretty canal that ran through the town as well. The city itself seemed pretty void of people except for the canal tours which seemed to pass every 10 minutes and were always full with who I assumed to be tourists. For dinner we ate by the water at a New Orleans style restaurant. It was the first quality meal we’d had in a while. Don’t get me wrong, the other meals we’ve had have been delicious…terrible for us…but delicious, and I’ve enjoyed them, but having food that wasn’t fried or BBQ was a nice change! Anyway, after dinner we walked along the canal for a bit, admiring the nicest minor league baseball stadium in the country and a statue of Mickey Mantle before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night.

The next day I thought I’d let Brian sleep in for once while I went to get my blood work done. I found the Lab Corps pretty easily and was in and out of the place in 15 minutes. My only feeling of resentment comes from the fact that the girl had to poke my arm twice because she couldn’t “find the vein” the first time. That’s actually never happened to me before and nobody likes being stuck twice! After I got the doctor’s stuff out of the way it was still before 10 so I drove around some neighborhoods, saw the artist’s district, and made sure the breakfast place Brian and I wanted to eat at would still be open by the time Brian woke up.

Most of you will be surprised to know that Brian’s been doing really well when it comes to waking up at a decent hour. I normally wake him up by 9:30 so that we’re on the road by 10 or 11. Not too shabby! Anyway, that day we made it to The Classen Grill by 12. The place was full of locals, most of whom were eating lunch, but we had come specifically for the breakfast food and it did not disappoint! Brian got a dish called “Biscuit Debris” which was 3 large, buttermilk biscuits, split open and mounded with gravy chock-full of ham and sausage chunks, which was in turn smothered with melted cheddar cheese. As if that wasn’t enough, it was served with hash browns on the side! Until this point in our relationship I’d never seen Brian put his fork down before finishing everything on his plate, and usually the rest of whatever was on mine. The Biscuit Debris was a challenge. It was so delicious, heavy and the way it just stuck to your insides made Brian announce (with only about 8 bites to go) that he was putting his pride aside and wasn’t going to be able to finish it. I guess I made the mistake of being surprised and telling him that I’d never seen him NOT finish his plate because he took my remarks as a challenge and practically licked the plate clean just 5 minutes later!

My meal was called “Veggie Taquitas” which was much more figure friendly but much less exciting, as it was eggs, veggies, and cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla. Anyway, the meal was delicious and it kept us full ‘til dinner later that night.

Our next stop in Oklahoma City was to the site of the Oklahoma City Bombing. The memorial is located right in the center of town, where the office building had stood before it was bombed at 9:02 am on April 19, 1995, in what was at the time, the costliest act of terrorism on American soil. The memorial was beautifully done and extremely sad. Where the building had once stood is now a field of empty chairs to represent each person who died as a result of the bombing. 168 people lost their lives that day…19 of whom were children, and over 700 were injured. There are 19 small chairs to represent the children lost. Next to the field of chairs lies a granite reflecting pool. It occupies the space that was once 5th Avenue to now represent the moment of destruction: 9:02 am. Twin gates are located on either side of the reflecting pool: the East Gate represents 9:01 on April 19th…the innocence in the moment before the destruction occurred, while the West Gate represents 9:03…the horror in the first moment after the bombing. The memorial was also comprised of an old tree that had survived the bombing, an orchard of new trees dedicated to the rescuers, and a wall of tiles that had been decorated by children around the world and sent to the city of Oklahoma to help show support and give hope for the future. Finally, the outside gate to the memorial is covered in mementos left by friends and family of those who died. While the memorial was extremely beautiful, Brian and I left feeling very down. Things like that force you to accept the fact that you never know what’s going to happen in life.

After visiting the memorial we decided to walk around the Myriad Gardens (which were located right in the center of town) and then make our way to the mall to get Brian some nice clothes for the rest of the trip! Since Brian still had most of his gift cards from Christmas and his birthday leftover, our mall trip was extremely successful, and he’ll be looking rather handsome for the rest of the trip! ;-)

By the time we had finished at the mall, we decided to make use of the hotel fitness room to work off some off the calories we’ve been packing on. We have been getting kind of sick of Mr. McCarty continually threatening us about coming home chunky, and decided to work out a little bit. It was a good workout, and three days later, I’m still sore.

For dinner, Brian insisted we go to a steakhouse since we were in cattle country and I didn’t argue. Following the advice of our RoadFood book, we made our way to Cattlemen’s Steakhouse. The tables were thick wood, the back wall had a mural of cattle ranchers on it, and the restaurant was packed! The steaks were mouth-watering and we left extremely full and satisfied!

The next morning we checked out of our hotel extremely well rested and rejuvenated for the rest of our trip. We had both enjoyed the laidback atmosphere of Oklahoma City but it was time to move on and head to Lubbock, Texas to visit my cousin Katie. Those stories are soon to come!

XOXO Allison & Brian

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