With Kansas in the rearview mirror and excitement about seeing our friends, we found ourselves on a highway where Route 66 was basically paved over as part of the Oklahoma highway system.  Oklahoma…hmm, everything I know about Oklahoma comes from the musical.  So this will be educational.  I really never thought much about Oklahoma and certainly never felt a need to visit.  But I imagine it must meet the Zappa rule:

“You can’t have a real country unless you have beer and an airline – It helps if you have some type of football or nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need beer”  Frank Zappa

The rule has to apply to states too, don’t you think so? Which means,  I’m in!

We have several Route 66 guides that we’ve been using along the way that help us not miss anything.  So at this point we’re on a nice smooth Super Highway, we’re making time towards seeing our friends, we’re not getting our teeth knocked out with the Route 66 road surfaces and quite honestly, we’re ready for a break.  We took some time with our guide books and by the looks of it, there’s nothing really until we get into Oklahoma City.  Along the way we pulled into a roadside restaurant with a large parking lot to have some dinner and ask permission to spend the night in their parking lot.

We found the manager very nice and accommodating regarding the overnight and although they didn’t have beer or wine, the food was outstanding.  Real home cooking.  We had an awesome dinner and a quiet night with crickets chirping and windows open to recirculate that motorhome with nice fresh country air.

In the morning we had breakfast at our new favorite Oklahoma restaurant and hit the road.  We found a nice RV Park near the Air Force Base in Oklahoma City and got things set up for about a week of down time.  This would let us catch up on some work and catch up with our friends and have a break from the road.

Our friends arrived at the same park and were able to get a site right next to us.  They have show dogs and are in town for a big Dog Show downtown OKC at the Cox Convention Center.  We’ve never been to a Dog Show, so this might be fun.  Our friends have Mini Bull Terrier’s and their entry in OKC is a sweetheart dog named Mira.  More on this later.

So that evening we headed into town to discuss our week and what we all wanted to do and see.  Oklahoma City has a very cool area downtown called Bricktown, with a brewery, ballpark, and a lot of great restaurants.  We found a great restaurant/bar in Bricktown called TapWerks Ale House which boasts 212 beers on tap and another 100 bottle beers.  Even more impressive is the fact that TapWerks made the list of the top 100 Beer Bars for 2015.  Yeah, I guess we just have a knack for picking them, lol.

As I reviewed the menu, I saw this:

I’m thinking these Oklahoman’s are serious about their burgers.

Big on our plans list for OKC was celebrating our Anniversary!  We went to the world famous “Cattleman’s Steakhouse” and had an absolutely amazing dinner.  I’m embarrassed to admit that I ordered their 22 ounce “bone in” ribeye steak.  I knew I couldn’t eat it all, but figured I’d take the rest home for lunch the next day.  My bride of 43 years, remember that’s what we’re celebrating, also had some filet mignon to take home.  It was a great meal and a great plan on the leftovers until I tripped going into the motorhome and our leftovers went all over the ground, grrrrrr.  Our Yellow Lab, Coby,  had a great lunch the next day!

Happy Anniversary !

On Tuesday we headed out to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.  This place was deceivingly large.  It just seemed to open up into more and more rooms and then at the back there was a re-creation of an old western town which they named “Prosperity”.  The first thing you see when you enter the museum is their Cowboy & Western Heritage “Fine Art” Museum.   It was impressive!

On Thursday we attended the Oklahoma City Summer Classic Dog Show.  As we arrived, I saw the parking lot for the exhibitors / competitors.  The first rig in line was a Prevost.  WOW!  These folks are serious about these dog shows.  We went in to find a series of arenas for different types and breeds of dogs.  Turns out, our friends are rockstars and brought home the hardware with their Mini Bull Terrier named Mira.  Remember that name, Mira just may be a future candidate for President.

We had a great time in Oklahoma City.  We were able to get caught up on our work and have a blast with our friends.  Now we need to think about hitting the road again.  “Go West Young Man”, as the saying goes.  I think I just might see Texas ahead.