Huddled Together for Warmth in Oklahoma City

Well, we’re in Oklahoma City and…so far….so good.

The trip from Midway on Southwest was uneventful, although we were among the last to get on the plane, so we did not get to sit together. I sat next to a very courtly gentleman in a nice suit jacket, with white hair, who let me sit next to the window, while he took the middle (poor him). He was very nice and read his USA Today, while I was reading my Chicago Tribune, although I had planned to sleep.) He had been out east attending a friend’s funeral. Things went well until politics came up as a topic and he turned out to be from Stillwater (returning home) and a big Palin supporter. (Yikes).

We stopped (briefly) in Kansas City. We left after 20 minutes in KC and landed here a little while ago (it is quarter of 6 p.m. CDT). We didn’t have to leave for the airport in Chicago until 12:15, as our flight was at 1:40 p.m.

The rental car is a Cadillac…a red one. Pretty sweet…and pretty expensive. However, gas here is only $1.79 a gallon! If it gets down to $1.51 that will match the nationwide average of what gas cost when Bush took office 8 years ago.

Airline tickets cost us $456 (for both) and flying home (LA) they will be $349. Car rental: $904 (we drive from now on; $196 in taxes, alone!) McDonald’s food at the airport today: $10. Tipping the airport guy(s) $15, total. Snacks at the 7-Eleven (pop, beer, etc.).  $25.  Cab to Midway: $35.

Room here: $65 a night, and we said we’d be here 2 nights. Ghost walking tour (tomorrow night) $6 apiece, or $12.  Dinner tonight: $50.

One memento from Shorty Small’s: a tee-shirt that says, “My BBQ can cure hangovers and baldness, but, if you’ve been hit by the ugly stick, ain’t nothin’ gonna’ help ya.'”($15) (It is necessary for me to add, “Yee haw!”?)  The little girl who showed us to a booth said, “Y’all.” Then, she pointed out the location of the Milk Bottle Building, a small wedge-shaped building on Classen Avenue that has an over-sized replica of a milk bottle on the roof, a remnant of the Mother Road.

So, now you know the cost(s) associated with this trip, so far. ($1,871).

When we returned from dinner, we had a $5 bet regarding whether we would have any heat in our motel room. I said no. Craig said yes. I am $5 richer.

There was still no heat, and, furthermore, there was both a fire truck and an ambulance outside our motel on Meridian Ave. I saw a man in a white bathrobe strolling on the balcony above and asked him if he knew what had happened. He speculated that there had been a fight in the attached bar/lounge. (Wrong, as it turned out.) His friend, strolling with him, suggested that we turn on the overhead heater light in the bathroom and open the door to attempt to warm up the cold room. (We are trying this right now, to no avail.)

As we approached the LaQuinta on Meridian Avenue, there was a fire truck AND an ambulance out front. My husband went to the office to find out what had happened.

The man working on the boiler fell through the roof and broke his ankle. (I should have bet him $10!)

It’s 37 in parts of Oklahoma right now with temperatures about 7 to 10 degrees below normal. Low temperatures tonight will drop into the twenties. Stillwater will be 32 and it will be 33 in Oklahoma City. It was in the 70s yesterday. It is supposed to be even colder tomorrow with a wind chill of 36. Highs in the 50s from now on. Fortunately for me, I wore my heavy winter coat. Craig, as usual, is clad in the lightest of all possible jackets and predicting warm weather, eternal optimist that he is.

Onward to El Reno and the Fort Ghost Tour tomorrow.