Tulsa,Oklahoma and Topeka,Kansas

We love these towns!!!


From Oklahoma City we headed east to Tulsa (arrived May 7th) to what I thought was going to be the state capital (that's what happens when you write things all over your map book, you can't make out those neat little stars that they put on each capital city). Once I discovered my mistake, we decided that Tulsa wasn't a bad idea anyway because we could pass through on our way to Catoosa where I wanted to see The Big Blue Whale (didn't find it). Nonetheless, once we arrived in downtown Tulsa we found some amazing churches and buildings to photograph so we decided to spin a lap through town.



We eventually parked in front of a place called the Blue Dome Diner where we met some friendly folks named Jerome and Greg who were nice enough to tell us about a couple of music shows to check out and where the neat parts of town were. While walking around, Pierce heard the sound of batting practice in the distance, so we sniffed out where they were and we were soon upon a nice new minor league stadium (bloodhounds got nothing on rabid baseball fans). We made our way to the front gates and made inquires into where to buy tickets, unfortunately for us the game had been sold out for weeks, we weren't surprised when we found out it was the cross-town rivals, OSU(Oklahoma State University-The Cowboys) VS. OU (Oklahoma University-The Sooners). We continued our way around the stadium to check it all out and see where the best spot would be to see as much of the game from the outside as possible. After hanging out for about 4 or 5 innings someone inside was nice enough to hand us a couple of tickets that his friends didn't show up for. We walked to the front gate with huge smiles on our faces and songs in our hearts (my song was "Hello, It's Me"- Todd Rungren-PMK) and we were excited to join in on the frenzy of a middle America college game. The sea of maroon and orange made me wonder why in San Diego we don't commit ourselves to supporting our teams. Where are you Clippers? Rams? Gulls? ...welcome back Sockers (our only championship team). Why do I have to go to a Padres game and see more Chargers jerseys than Padres, or more LA, SF or Boston hats than SD? Enough of my ranting, I guess transplants are loyal to their origins, oh well.
(Rod Laver and the San Diego Friars tennis team-PMK)


We had a wonderful time at the game, cheering on any team that was up to bat and jeering anyone who made a silly mistake. After the game we funneled out with the crowd and headed off to a local club called Cain's to see The Paul Benjamin Band (Tulsa's own), they were incredible. The club has had everyone from the Misfits to Willie Nelson and was a wonderful spot to stop in and check out some great music.





May 8th took us northeast to Topeka, Kansas. The drive was gorgeous (as are all of our drives), field after field of horses, cattle, trees, crops, farm houses, etc. Along the way we had some how started talking about the TV show Little House on the Prairie and low and behold not too far down the road was the place where the Ingalls had lived while in Kansas and was the inspiration for Laura Ingalls' writings and for the set of the television show. We took our time making it into Topeka and finally rolled into the Topeka v. Board of Education National Historic Site just 2o minutes before they were closing. This turned out to be one of the best things that could ever happen to us. Pierce and I had separated at one point and when I found him he had befriended the National Park rangers Tavio and Randy, and by the time we left we had a place to stay for the night.


Tavio was nice enough to welcome us into his home where we were able to wash laundry, take a shower and hangout with some very nice and interesting people. That night happened to be the Classic Car show on the main drag in town so we spent a nice spring evening walking up and down the street looking at the beautiful and interesting cars/vans/trucks. Once back at the house we started a BBQ and before you knew it we were feasting on steak, grilled onions and bell peppers. You have no idea what a home cooked meal and a shower does for your soul until you don't have that anymore.
(Tavio has an amazing mustache...and with that, a friendship was born-PMK)





Thank you Tavio!!!