As we retired last night I reminded Alex that we’d likely be awake by 4 a.m. and like clockwork we both sat up simultaneously at 3.59.
Both starving so a quick shower and down for “breakfast”. Now hotel breakfasts over here are notorious for their…um…lack of quality. Well this morning’s breakfast took things to a new level consisting of a “topped bagel”, essentially a round piece of bread with something unidentifiable welded to the top, some processed “meat” similarly of unknown origin and some fried potatoes. The fourth item of this four item breakfast was missing in action. Bring back the Wyndham Gardens, all is forgiven…needs must and the calories were forced down. Seriously, it doesn’t need to be this bad, though Alex loved it...
Today is a day of rest, so we’ve been sorting stuff out, doing this blog and will be heading into Bricktown for lunch. The rainy start today has given over to sunshine, we’ll have a wander about then head off to the aforementioned Wyndham later this afternoon, meet up with the rest of the crew and go out for dinner.
We wandered into Bricktown, took a few snaps and settled down for lunch at the Bourbon St. Cafe. Bricktown was very quiet compared to our last visit in 2022, no major softball competition like back then. I had the southern fried chicken with spinach, Alex the catfish with asparagus, both were delicious. So back to the hotel for the luggage, my suitcase now on its last legs and picked up an Uber back to tonight’s hotel. The Uber driver was from Moore, Ok and told us a fascinating yet terrifying story of his daughter’s school, Briarwood Elementary being destroyed by an EF5 tornado in 2013; his daughter survived and was dug out of the rubble unharmed. It’s easy to forget the impact tornadoes have on people’s lives, there’s a real example right there.
We check in to the Wyndham Gardens, politely decline the room with the single double bed…and after wandering aimlessly around the sprawling hotel find a room with the requisite twins. A quick look at the updated Storm Prediction Centre forecast for tomorrow and…wow! Saturday has been upgraded to a moderate risk (4th of 5 levels) over central northern Oklahoma and central southern Kansas with a 15% hatched risk for strong to violent tornadoes, a 45% (!) hatched risk for wind and a 30% hatched risk for hail up to 4” for the afternoon and into the night. To quote from the SPC “…a rare combination of instability and sheer…with potential for particulalry strong tornadoes, wind and extreme hail” and discusses the potential for an upgrade to a high risk tomorrow, as bad as it gets. Reed Timmer posted on X a screen shot from the High Resolution Rapid Refresh model showing a supercell tomorrow right over Oklahoma City. That, and the conversation with the Uber driver filled me with some apprehension, be careful what you wish for.
We’re meeting up with the rest of the crew at 18:00 for dinner, I know what the topic of conversation will be…
Dinner was across the road at Charleston’s, salads being the order of the day, stocking up on some green stuff while we can washed down with a couple of porters for me and a not inexpensive couple of IPAs for Alex…the hazy variety, an abomination in the face of God…we then retired to the hotel bar for a bottle of lager from America’s oldest brewery, Yuengling and Son. Was Ok.
At my suggestion the younger half at the crew went to Cowboys next door to the hotel for a couple of hours. It was Friday night so why not? I’d not been since 2016 but from the boys’ reports it sounds unchanged. Lots of line dancing then the lights go on to reveal an actual rodeo with real (enormous) bulls and cowboys who pay a $50 entrance fee to compete for a pot of money. Alex tried a bit of line dancing but not the latter, describing the experience as “off it” and couldn’t get his head round a vodka and lemonade coming in at $2.
No comments:
Post a Comment