A day in Oklahoma - Blogabond

I started today with a visit to the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, OK. Of course the museum is full of Will Rogers memorabilia, paintings of Will, Newspaper clippings of his syndicated column, and reports of his death in Alaska. They also had three small theaters set up, one showing a 30 minute film telling the Story of his life. Another theater was showing the movies that he appeared in. The third one showed footage of Will's roping tricks. I knew he was known for his roping abilities and had seen some clips of him standing on a horse spinning a rope while he was making humerus commentary on the events of the day. But the film that they played showed some tricks that were absolutely amazing. He could throw a Lasso at a passing horse and rider catch the horses head twist the rope 180 degrees an then catch the riders head so the rope ended up in a figure 8.
Of course one of the strangest displays was the contents of his pockets when his plane crashed in Alaska.

Sonic Center of the Universe - Tulsa, OK

Next I stopped in Tulsa, OK to see the "Sonic Center of the Universe" which for the most part was a disappointment. The spot is a small park/ sitting area located on an old bridge in the downtown Tulsa. It was designed in such a way that if you stand in the center you can hear an echo of your voice. But it looks like there hasn't been any maintenance in years, there is a lot of visible weather and human damage. Also it was difficult to hear if the echo thing really works because there were construction noises all around. They were fixing up areas on both sides of the bridge, but no sign of work being done to this little spot.

Giant Oil Man - Tulsa, OK

After that I stopped for a photo op with a giant Oil man ( I seem to be getting closer to Texas, things are getting bigger).

USS Batfish - Muskogee, OK

Then a visit to the USS Batfish, I knew this site was going to be closed and was just hoping to get a good shot of this 1,525 ton ship sitting on the ground or at least mostly above ground. From what I have read this ship was to large to float up the Arkansas river which is only a few hundred yards away. So they ended up putting the ship on some barges to bring the ship to this location. Unfortunately this made the ship to tall to float under most of the bridges, so the army corps of engineers had to lower the level of the river so it would fit. All in all it was quite an engineering feat to get this ship where it is.

Cattlemans Cafe - Oklahoma City, OK

My last stop for the day was my first Triple D stop (Diners, Drive-Inns and Dives). The Cattlemans Cafe is the oldest operating restaurant in Oklahoma City. If you saw this episode on the food network, you'll know that Cattlemans doesn't just specialize in steaks. They also serve brains and eggs (yup, a double scramble) and lamb fries. They say if you don't know what lamb fries are, don't ask, just eat em' and enjoy. So for dinner I had a strip steak with a baked potato a salad and a side of lamb fries. Of course the steak was perfect and the lamb fries .... well they kinda tasted like frog legs. I don't think I will go back in the morning for the scrambled eggs...

I was planning to head to Amarillo TX tomorrow, but I think I'm going to bypass Amarillo and head to Dallas tomorrow.

Kugs

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Kugs on the road on April 5, 2010 from Oklahoma City, United States

from the travel blog: Texas 2K10

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