Monday, 6 June 2022

Day -1 Deep breath…and relax…Part 2

After a pointless search for a cab number Alex remembers he has the Uber app and five minutes later we’re off for the 15 minute ride with an entertaining Nigerian driver to Bricktown. It’s a former disused commercial area in Oklahoma City that has been converted into a leisure area with bars and restaurants and the roads have been transformed into canals with boat trips for tourists.

We have a wander before hunger gets the better of us and we settle down for some food – burger for Alex and a chicken club sandwich for me at the Bourbon Street Cafe there’s also a pint of Shiner Bock to wash it down. Oklahoma City is hosting this year’s women’s World Series Softball and Bricktown is rammed with school girls screaming and carry on with their parents seemingly oblivious to their offspring’s overly boisterous behaviour. It seemed inevitable that one or more would end up in the canal, sadly this did not happen, we also realised at this point we lacked any kind of psychic ability…

The food was good, and well and truly stuffed we paid $13 each for the boat ride down the canal I last did in the 2010 trip. A couple of beers in Tipsy Tiki (requiring both Alex and ME to show proof of age!) and it was time to get an Uber back to the hotel. The plan was to have a short nap at 6pm then go for a couple of beers in the hotel bar. That nap lasted 12 hours…

The storms that had been to our north west last night and potentially ready to form into a derecho (a severe wind storm) missed Oklahoma City hence why we slept so soundly. Peter on the other hand was chasing it and didn’t get back here until 01:30. He needs his rest day so our bonus day has understandably been scrubbed.

The chase week looks decent with the SPC forecasting severe weather for at least the next four days. Tomorrow we’ll be heading north west for a slight risk, perhaps eastern Colorado/western Kansas. Wednesday is currently marginal again on the High Plains, with the SPC more bullish for severe weather Thursday centred over Kansas then Arkansas/Mississippi Friday.

As I write this up at 07:00 Monday morning we’ll be off over the road for a breakfast Subway, a walk over the Oklahoma River for a Whataburger lunch, sort out some laundry and then Alex is going on the gym. We’re meeting up with rest of the gang at 19:00 in the bar then off somewhere local for dinner.













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