Bricktown, home of Sonic Burger...

Day 10 - 6th June

A nice leisurely breakfast and at 12:00 we order a cab to take us into town. We're picked up (let's call the driver "Jose"), and following advice from the receptionist get dropped of at Walmart which is next to Pensquare Mall. We do a bit of shopping and call Jose who comes to pick us up and takes us to Bricktown. Jose is clearly running some sort of a scam as he gave us his mobile to call rather than dispatch and sheepishly asks us to be quiet while he is berated over the radio for not picking some poor women up from the hospital.

Bricktown is an old commercial area that has been renovated to provide shopping, eating and drinking and the roads have been replaced by canals. It's been well done and I would highly recommend it to recuperating storm chasers.

We find a nice bar and have a couple of pints of micro brewed ale (I have pale ale, Ratty some Belgium ale and Liam some Stella - Newcastle Brown is also on offer - Dawn isn't a beer drinker) and get some decent food for once at Jambo'z (?). I have a chicken salad and think I have burger withdrawal syndrome.

There are boats that do tours of the canal for $8 so we hop on and are treated to Dick van Dyke (the "driver") taking the mickey out of our English accents. We then pass the HQ of Sonic Burger. The driver asks where we think Sonic Burger is made; Ratty replies "hell". Dick van Dyke passes on his regards to the Queen Mother, and Ratty promises to dig her up...

We then hear the sound of live music and head to its source which is a bar called the Biting Sow. One of the guys playing looks like he is off duty fro ZZ Top.

While we are supping our drinks (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at 5.6% ABV which was quite nice) a guy leaps up and asks "is there is a doctor in the bar?". A women has collapsed and nobody else seems interested. The band even take this opportunity to plead for tips...No doctor appears and Ratty jumps into the fray as the "next best thing" and elevates the womans legs on a stool. Another woman leaps up, and as she has a heart condition is carrying a blood pressure monitor. The woman has low blood pressure and eventually someone calls for an ambulance. Instead four firemen turn up and she appears to perk up...Paramedics finally turn up and after a while she walks out under her own steam.

The guy that asked for a doctor and the woman that had the blood pressure monitor are a couple (hey Scott and Tiffany if you're reading!) and sit with us and we're all pretty annoyed that nobody (including the band who actually restarted playing before the paramedics were finished, and the bar manager who said "if her time has come...") was interested in the fate of the ill woman.

We have a few more drinks and a good laugh with Scott and Tiffany who are impressed by our storm chasing antics. We have huge cahunas apparently...Scott is in the roofing business and has moved to Oklahoma from Michigan after finding out what damage can be done by giant hail. Tiffany is about to have an operation to cure her heart condition 13 years after being diagnosed - Scott has some choice words about the US medical provision.

We finish our drinks and head back to the Wingate. I'm not hungry but Ratty, Liam and Dawn head off for a...Sonic Burger. Perfectly reasonable says Ratty who is clearly not "thinking straight". Read between the lines on that one!

Tomorrow we have a bus booked for 10:30 to take us to the airport. I'm ready to come home but not relishing the long journey.