Day 8 – the happy part – Thoughts from the back

Currently back in Texas, sitting in the Flying Saucer at The Lake having (at least) one beer. But in the travelogblog we are in Oklahoma.

We drove into Tulsa and I was falsely optimistic that we might get in for a relaxing evening at the hotel. But, no. We checked into the hotel in a timely manner, but we were too late for the Prairie Ales brewery tasting room so the husband insisted we hit up a couple of local liquor stores so we could take some Oklahoma brews across the Red River with us. At least we didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to make it to the 2:00 pm baseball game on Day 8.

We did roll out bed early enough to have lunch at McNelly’s, Tulsa’s premier beer bar, and stroll over to the Center of The Universe. It’s fun to say that you visited the Center of The Universe, even if it really wasn’t worth the visit. (There is a clapping circle at Purdue that has better unusual accoustic properties, for example. And I can never resist trying out a whisper dish whenever I happen to see one.)

Then it was over to OneOK stadium to watch the Tulsa Drillers play. The stadium is sized for AA, but it had a “big league” feel to it. And, finally, it was a great day to watch a baseball game. Sunny and warm, we still wore blue jeans, but our arms got sunburned in true farmer’s tan style. There was also finally a decent crowd at the game. The dad of the 10 yr old boy sitting next to us shamed his son into giving my young-at-heart husband the ball that a player threw to him. The reverse of what you usually see at a game, but the 10 yr old was a regular and had (literally according to dad) hundreds of balls at home. And otherwise, the husband would’ve gone home empty-handed. He didn’t even manage to get a picture with the mascot, Hornsby the bull.

So far, the Omaha Stormchasers have had the best chant; they yell “stir up the storm” while waving hats, towels, whatever over their heads. The Tulsa Drillers have the best team logo:

Maybe you have to be an oil-industry nerd to really appreciate the drop of oil.