Hoofin' it in Tulsa and Kansas

I'm a few days behind here, so I better catch up! After the lush drive through Bubba's home state, we entered Oklahoma. While the roads in Arkansas were smooth and a funny mud color, the Oklahoma roads were pretty bumpy with potholes. At one stretch before reaching Tulsa, I ended up driving through dense fog and rain. I was convinced we were going to get caught up in a tornado and torn to shreds, but luckily we made it into town safely. One of my wonderful friends Vinny lives in Tulsa currently. He was raised in the Keys, so you can imagine that's a shift. He showed us around town, and we were able to see the University of Tulsa campus which was lovely to look at and had many attractive, newly constructed buildings. We ate at Brook which was a cool bar/restaurant on the main going out strip. 

The highlight of Tulsa, beside hanging out with Vinny, (insightful and an amazing host - girls, his pic's down there. It's small because I look goofy), was going to Catoosa where we saw this whale. The Catoosa whale is on a strip of Historic Route 66 and was built in the early 70s around this former watering hole. As you can see, there are diving areas and two slides down either side. It is truly one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my LIFE. I am also a fan of the whale having New England blood in my veins. As we were gawking at this beast, the son of the man who built the whale sauntered over and chatted with us. He's an old guy now who told us that he winters in Texas and how the pecan trees are the last to leaf. It was a treat. 

After that, I threw a temper tantrum because I was exhausted and couldn't find an open coffee shop. We eventually ate and I slept through the rest of Oklahoma and most of Kansas. Though there was little in Kansas, there was something beautiful and soft about the moving grass on the plains. I can imagine it might be pleasant living out there, though very lonely and scary at night. 

If that picture down there opens up big, the one with the shed, you can see some Kansas prairie dogs.