June, 2017- Day 5- Oklahoma and Texas, Day 5

Isn’t it the funniest when you wake up to the blinky light on the hotel phone and get a voice recording telling you that there has been an “incident” with your car overnight? I just love that!  Allegedly, the valet backed into a concrete pillar whilst parking our car. Do we have a back-up camera? Yes. Does it beep loudly when you are about to back into something? Yes. Should the Tulsa Marriott hire Helen Keller to park cars for them? NO! They were very apologetic and are going to cover the cost of repairs, but in the mean time, we get to see the nation by graduation in our beat-up jalopy!

 

Mile 976- Center of the Universe- There is this circle of bricks you can stand on in Tulsa and this weird acoustic phenomenon occurs where your voice echoes, but no one around you can hear the echo.  It’s true. But, I don’t know why.

Mile 1043- I tricked Mr. Bullington into a detour. See here friends, I wield much power as the Bullington family navigator- elect. If Mr. Bullington was more tolerant of my mad driving skillz, maybe the tables would turn, but he is who he is. And, as it stands, he will just continue to blindly follow my directions and turn when I say turn. Now, I know our road trip looks all spontaneous, but Mr. Bullington isn’t a huge fan of surprises. He’ll gladly go see the world’s largest goat bladder, but he just needs a little head’s up. We were 20 minutes deep into a stretch of Route 66 before he realized we could’ve been taking the expressway! Bwuah-haha! I’m tricky, and I’m just his type!

1063- Round Barn! We’ve never seen a round barn! And, since It was raining no one was clamoring to exit the comfort of the car. I snapped a picture. It was Round! You’d never see a round barn on the expressway!

 

1065- Arcadia, Oklahoma- Pops Soda Ranch- There is a gas station along Route 66 that has over 700 types of bottled soda AND there is a big soda bottle out front (it is 66 feet tall! Get it?). You would never find it if you were on the four-lane. But, Mr. Bullington took this opportunity to tease me about the round barn. “Look at this plate, it’s ROUND.” “And look, my hamburger is on a Round bun, do you want to take a picture?” Mr. Bullington can be quite the wiseacre.  Luckily, for Mr. Bullington, my daddy raised me to have some very thick skin, so his teasing just rolled right off!

 

Mile 1079 - National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum- This destination was a suggestion by Mr. Bullington. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that It was Bank of America Day so BOA card holders got in free! Thanks, BOA! I’ll admit. Day 5 of road fatigue set in hard with me this morning and I was a big ol’ tired grump. It was still a very cool place to stop and Mr. Bullington loved it! I zombied through the exhibits trailing sweet T. But, there was a really cool sculpture of Lincoln! My fav! 
This was also the location where we will be able to pinpoint the beginning of Thomas' film making career. Move over, Spike Lee! One of the exhibits featured some old silent western movies. After one look at the gift shop, T immediately began to concoct a plan to obtain a souvenir cap gun. He got real excited and told us all about the western he was going to make. It will be filmed at two locations, Kennesaw Mountain and Pop's farm in Ellijay. Pop will play the Sheriff, and dad, you can be the bank robber. I just need this perfect souvenir cap gun to make my first film authentic.....We caved. Maybe he should play the bank robber....

Look who we found in the cowboy jail. 

Mile 1088- Oklahoma City Memorial- This memorial sits on the location of the Oklahoma City bombing. It was gripping to see the 168 empty chairs, some of which held stuffed bears to represent the children who perished. There was a big time lump in my throat as I walked through with my healthy children.

Mile 1092- Oklahoma State Capitol Building- It was closed for remodeling, but beautiful from the parking lot!

Mile 1105 – Largest collection of Skeletons IN THE WORLD! As I type this, I am sensing that this trip has taken a turn toward the Macabre. Haunted Hotels, Bombings, Bones….I need to find a skittle factory, stat! But, the bone museum was INCREDIBLE! Thorough, organized, and very interesting.

Elephant skull

Skunk Skeleton hip-hop pose. I never want to the the floating head on the receiving end of a break-dancing skunk. 

Come on now, we couldn't have been nicer to rabbit?

Nightmares.

Mile 1145- Mama checks out and takes a nap en route to Dallas. Awakes like a new mama! We can resume our regularly scheduled program.

Mile 1245- What's up May-retta, Oklahoma!

Mile- 1369 Big D, Little a, double l. a. s! It was a soupy day in Dallas when we arrived, but a beautiful rainbow appeared over the skyline and I know we are in for a treat tomorrow!

Mile 1373- We found an funky little restaurant called El Bolero. They had Margaritas and they shared them with me for a nominal fee. All is well on the western front.