Tulsa, Oklahoma (Nov 25-27)

Sal and I found ourselves with a excess of PTO, but not a ton of money at the end of this year. Our house is still chaos. We can only relax by leaving. So we engineered a "cheap" vacation. 

We had so much fun driving from Seattle to Portland last year that we planned a casual road trip. One where we don't have to actually be anywhere at a certain time so that if we wanted to pull off the road to see the worlds largest ball of yarn, we could. 

We left Friday morning after Thanksgiving, getting on the road somewhere around 8-8:30 AM. Sometimes I forget not every highway is like 70/170/270. 44 outside of St. Louis is an easy ride. Rarely was I finding both lanes plugged up with slow moving trucks. I didn't see any cops. It was a nice ride in the sunshine, listening to podcasts. 

We stopped in Springfield Missouri for lunch. It was the first audible. "Hey Sal, find us a place to get lunch." 

We landed on Springfield Brewing Company. I hadn't been to downtown Springfield in almost a decade. Sal and I made the trip to see Rosie's final art show and meet her family in 2014. 

I was surprised to see this vibrant downtown at the time. All my other times in Springfield were to see concerts. In and out quickly. Seemed like there was one road in and one road out with those metal roofed strip malls everywhere. 

But no, there's this adorable little downtown area and Springfield Brewing Company had a prime spot. Here's what I can say about Springfield brewing, the spot is cool, very Schlafly like. The beers are fine. I've made better in my backyard. The food was decent. Overall, I would not go out of my way to go there again but wouldn't say no if someone was set on it. 

We continued on the road to Tulsa. One mile before you hit Oklahoma, you're warned that there are tolls. It's $5 to drive from Missouri to Tulsa. And they don't have a website to pay your toll. They don't have credit card machines at the tollbooth. You have to pay cash. 

We didn't have the cash, so instead we got an envelope with what we owed on it and were told to hand that to the clerk on the way out to pay our toll. Literally got an IOU for a toll. 

I don't know what I expected of Oklahoma. I guess I always picture it as the dustbowl with ranchers working their land and protecting against bandits. Eastern Oklahoma just looks like Missouri. 

Sal and I stayed in "The Mayo." A gorgeous hotel from 1925. It's been recently renovated and returned closer to what it looked like when it first opened. Huge open lobby, big chandeliers, and carpet that looked haunted. 

We started the night walking down 5th street until we found an open door, which happened to be Eerie Abbey Ales, a small brewery specializing in Belgian beers. The brewery almost seemed unfinished. Lot's of open space where tables could be. It had several TVs, all turned to college football games. 

The beers were good. I don't know that I would tell people to go here unless they are into that style, but it nailed the taste. 

As is tradition on our travels, we interacted with the other person at the bar. Rather, the other person interacted with us. She was watching the Arkansas / Mizzou football game and at one point screamed something like, "Screw Missouri, who even likes that team. It's a stupid place. Sorry if there's any Mizzou fans."

She looked down the bar at us, expecting us to go, "Hell no, Arkansas all the way." Unfortunately, I was decked out in gold and black flannel and she found out she was currently outnumbered at the bar. 

We wanted to walk down Main Street because it was decorated for Christmas, so we just headed that way until we found another spot to sit down for a drink or two. We found Welltown Brewing. 

Welltown was a very rustic, small brewery with the exposed brick walls and a fried chicken place in the back corner, but the vibe was weird. It was Friday night and Sal and I were at the bar alone. We had a weird and quirky bartender who we soon found out from, that the brewery had a bunch of igloos on the roof that you could rent with your friends and stay warm. So apparently there were a ton of people on the roof. We didn't get the memo. 

We then got this amazing dinner at a place called Juniper. It's one of those farm to table steakhouses. I just kept eating until I couldn't fit anything else in me. We then went back to the hotel, hung out on the roof for a little bit, and then went to bed early. 

Tulsa is known for it's Art Deco influence. We love that stuff. Sort of comic bookey turn of the century. There was an advertised Art Deco museum, so we had planned our Saturday around going there. 

We started at Jane's Delicatessen for brunch. Everyone there was so incredibly nice. As soon as they found out we were out of towners, every 3 minutes someone would come by and give us a tip on things to do and places to eat. The food was fantastic. If you ever find yourself in Tulsa, definitely stop by Janes. 

When we mentioned we were going to the Art Deco museum, we got a little bit of a weird look. You mean DECOPOLIS? 

Yeah, that's it.

Well make sure you have other plans. 

What DECOPOLIS actually is, is a kind of cool gift shop. We were super disappointed in that. After we blasted through there, we went to a gift shop I actually wanted to go to, Buck Atom's Cosmic Curios. I wanted to buy everything. It was all inspired by 1950s retrofuturism. I wanted ray guns and bobble heads, but alas, I held back. 

We decided since the thing we thought would take a couple hours took 15 minutes, we needed to stop somewhere and figure out a game plan. 

The rest of the day it rained non-stop. So it turned into bar hopping slowly from place to place until we made it to Black Wall Street and the Bob Dylan museum, which was the only other plans we had. 

• Nothing Left Brewing: Loved this place. It was super collaborative and you could tell. Whether you were talking to the bartender or the brewer, everyone was bought in. They had great gear which we later found out was all designed by employees. We ended up stuck here for roughly 2 hours. There weren't many ride shares and it was pouring. So we buckled up and watched World Cup
• Dead Armadillo Craft Brewing: The vibe was a bit off here. Really dark. Not as much activity. Everyone was sort of drinking quietly. But I loved the design of their gear and the beers were good. 

The rain slowed down a bit, so we made our way to Black Wall Street. 

For those of you that don't know, Black Wall Street was the most prosperous black community in the country. And thanks to the Tulsa Tribune fanny the flames, it was also home to the largest race war in our history. 35 city blocks burned, 300 people died, 800 were injured, and 9,000 were left homeless. This is one of the few times where bombs were dropped on American soil when white farmers took to their crop dusters and started dropping explosives. 

The Greenwood district today houses the minor league baseball team in Tulsa, but is still a largely black community with black owned shops. There's a reverence there. We saw tour groups walking around in the rain. 

It felt a lot like when we were in Berlin going to museums that had been bombed to the ground only a century before. It was hard to believe the chaos and violence that had happened on these quiet streets in the middle of Tulsa. 

We then moved onto the Bob Dylan Museum. We're not the biggest Bob Dylan fans, but we have a lot of friends that are huge fans. We thought maybe we could find some great Christmas gift ideas. 

This museum ended up being a really cool concept. You were handed an iPod with a specialized case on it. And as you walked to each exibit you could scan the iPod and hear a song or interview related to what you were looking at. 

I did find a weird connection to Bob Dylan, hearing his music right next the history. You could sense that this guy that millions of people adore, has just been trying to find himself his entire life. Never really sure about who he was, but continually exploring. 

We finished the night at a Hawaiian cocktail bar that was full of the freaks and geeks we feel most comfortable around. There were only a few of us, but for the hour we ate, we were family. 

We left Tulsa the next morning to Hot Springs Arkansas. And yes, we paid our IOU on the way out.