BRICKTOWN AND A CAPITOL VISIT

Warren Spahn

I spent the night at what appeared to be a rather new Comfort Inn on East Reno Avenue. The hotel was clean and the employee were friendly and professional and it served my purpose. The only thing that I didn't like about it was it was located in an industrial area right next to a large intermodal facility and a large Petro Truck Stop and you have the usual issues that come with those types of areas. I'll leave it at that.

The hotel was only about a mile from the the upscale Bricktown area. Bricktown is a very trendy area with a bunch of shops, cafes and restaurants that is centered around the Bricktown Ballpark, which is home to Oklahoma City's Baseball Team, and the Chesapeake Energy Arena that the city's main sports and entertainment venue and home of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder.

It was early in the morning when I left the Hotel and made the short trip down to Bricktown. Nothing was open but I did make a quick stop and walked around the baseball park. Oklahoma has a rich baseball history and that history is highlighted here at the Ballpark.

Johnny Bench

Around the ballpark are statues and busts of a number of Major League Greats who were born in the Sooner State.  There are statues of Three Oklahoma natives who are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A statue of the great pitcher Warren Spahn stands near the right field gate and if you walk up the street to the home plate entrance you will find statues of Hall of Fame Catcher Johnny Bench. Just a short distance away stands the statue of The Commerce Comet, Mickey Mantle.

There is also busts of a number of other Oklahoma Natives who played in the Major Leagues, including Bobby Murcer, Allie Reynolds, Pepper Martin, Carl Hubbell, Paul and Lloyd Waner and Joe Rogan.

After my quick stop at the Bricktown Ballpark, I made my way up Lincoln Avenue to the Oklahoma State Capitol. Arriving at the Capitol, it was surprisingly easy to find parking. During my visit the capitol building was undergoing a massive renovation and there were construction platforms around most of the building and all visitors had to pass through a temporary entrance on the west side of the building.

I had been here before back in 2006 but wanted to go through the building again as some of the art work and sculptures were covered as there were some work being done on the rotunda and the interior of the building. After passing through security, I made my way up the steps to the beautiful statue of "The Guardian." A 17-foot tall, 6,000 pound statue of The Guardian was placed atop the Capitol Dome in 2002. A smaller version of "The Guardian" stands at the top the stairs and is the first things that visitors seen when entering through the west entrance.

The Guardian

There are some wonderful murals around the interior of the dome depicting great moments in Oklahoma History, including a scene of the Oklahoma Land Rush. Just like the last time, many of the things that I wanted to see including the Governors Office, and the House and Senate Chamber were
not available because of the ongoing renovations.

After wrapping up my tour of the Capitol I decided to make my way on toward Tulsa which would be my home for the weekend as I was going to attend the NCAA Basketball Tournament at the BOK Center.

How ever shortly after leaving the Capitol I was involved in an accident which end up totaling my car. The rest of the Morning and most of the afternoon was spend getting my claim started with my insurance company and finding a rental car.

The accident happened about 10:30 a.m.  and thank to my insurance company, who arranged for towing and a rental I was able to leave Oklahoma City and Head toward Tulsa by about 3 p.m. I arrived at the Comfort Inn in Tulsa about 5:30 and was able have a nice supper and then spent the rest of the night reading through the information that my Insurance had sent me.

Needless to say it was not my best day, but thanks to my insurance company I was able to continue my journey.

CATCHING UP IN OKLAHOMA

So far 2019 has not gone like I had planned at all. From getting locked out of my blog for several months to wrecking my car in Oklahoma City, I have really had to take a step back an regroup.  But more about that later, but for now I want to catch up on my March Trip to Oklahama, both before and after the wreck.

Before arriving in Oklahoma City I made a stop in Fort Smith Arkansas to check out the Fort Smith National Historic Site. I had visited the Historical Site last March, at the tale end of my Texas Vacation but it was a cold rainy day and that visit was cut short.

I really wanted to tour the grounds of the Old Historic Site but once again is was drizzling rain. So I made a quick visit to the museum and old jail before visiting the old courtroom where Judge Isaac Parker once held court.

Leaving the Fort Smith National Historical Park, I traveled about a half mile to the Fort Smith National Cemetery which is where Judge Parker is buried. Judge Parker was known as the "Hanging Judge," in actuality of the 13,490 cases that he tried  he sentenced 160 people to hang and of those 160 only 79 of them were actually executed.  

Judge Parker was nominated to the the federal bench by President Ulysses Grant and was approved by the Senate in 1875 and served until his death on November 17, 1895. His funeral was and still is one of the largest funeral in Fort Smith History. 

After leaving Fort Smith, I crossed the Arkansas River and entered Oklahoma.  On the way to Oklahoma City I made my way to a couple of cemeteries that I wanted to visit. The first one was a small rural cemetery in the Community of Akin.  

The small community of Akin, Oklahoma was the home of the Floyd Family whose best known member was Charles Arthur Floyd who was better known as "Pretty Boy" Floyd. 

It's a little bit of a hike to the Akin Cemetery which is about 15 miles northeast of Sallisaw, Oklahoma.  It took me a few minutes to find the Floyd family plot which are located just about in the center of the Cemetery.

Pretty Boy Floyd was depression era outlaw who was identified as Public Enemy #1 following the death of John Dillinger.  He got the nickname "Pretty Boy" when a witness described him as "a pretty boy with apple cheeks."  The name Pretty Boy was a name he and his family hated, but it stuck with him for the rest of his life.  

After becoming public enemy #1, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover assigned his best agent, Melvin Purvis to track down Floyd.  On October 22, 1934, Purvis and his agents caught up with Floyd who fled into a corn field behind his hideout near East Liverpool, Ohio.  It was in this cornfield that Pretty Boy Floyd was shot and killed.  

His body was taken to a funeral home in East Liverpool where it was embalmed and put on public display before returned to Oklahoma where he was once again view by the public. His funeral in Sallisaw drew more than 20,000 people which remains as one of the largest funerals every held in the state of Oklahoma. 

Resting along side of Pretty Boy is his parents, Walter and Mamie and his younger brother E. W. Floyd, who ironically served at the sheriff of Sequoya County, Oklahoma from 1949 thru 1970. 

From Akin I made my way back through Sallisaw and traveled about 120 miles west to the New Hope Cemetery near the town of Meeker where I stopped to visit the grave of Baseball Hall of Famer, Carl Hubbell.

Carl Hubbell played his entire Major League Career with the New York Giants and was known as "The Meal Ticket," who had a career record of 253-154 and was a 9-time All Star and a two time National League MVP.  It was during the 1934 All-Star game he struck out five future Hall of Famers, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Fox, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession. After he retired he remained on the Giant Payroll for the rest of his life. 

Carl Hubbell died on November 21, 1988 from Injuries he received in a car crash in Mesa Arizona. 

It was getting on toward late afternoon when I left Meeker and mad my way to Oklahoma City.  I found that Oklahoma City Traffic wasn't too bad and decided to make one more cemetery stop before calling it a day.

Memorial Park Cemetery in Oklahoma City is a very large cemetery and the grave that I wanted to visit is easy to find and I have visited it before back in 2006. So I knew where I was going. 

I wanted to visit the grave of Wiley Post in order to get some Video for my YouTube Channel. Wiley's grave is located just down from the Large Bell Tower and very close to the large historical monument that stands in the middle of the road. 

It didn't take as long as I though to get the video I needed and I figured out that I was only a few steps from the grave of Bennie Owen who was the legendary Football, Baseball and Basketball Coach of the University of Oklahoma. It remains one of the very few people to coach three major sports at the same time for a Major University.  Owen Field at Memorial Stadium on the Campus of the University of Oklahoma is name in his honor. 

From Memorial Park Cemetery I made my way to my hotel.  The hotel that I had stayed before out near Tinker Air Force Base had changed franchises and was not longer a Choice Property and was not getting very good reviews at all. So I decided on another Choice Property that is located near Bricktown and I will visit in my next blog.

If you want to see the Video relating to this blog then checkout My YouTube Video 

A REAL ADVENTURE IN OKC

After being locked out of my blog for several months, It's time for me to try and catch up and what has been happening in 2019. So here is the first 2019 update.

After spending a week in January at Anna Maria Island on the Florida Gulf Coast I came back home an started  planning my annual March Adventure. For the past twenty years I have attended the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

I usually have the Opportunity to early buy my tickets before they go on sale to the general public. The early buy opportunity comes via E-Mail from the NCAA Ticket Provider, usually something like Ticketmaster.

Well, The email came in October 2018 when I was running around Arizona. The link is usually good for at least two days and the last years link came while I was in the Monument Valley/Four Corners area of Arizona.  This area is on the Navajo Nation and just finding usable cell service or Internet is a challenge.  I tried several times to order my tickets without success and on the third day I headed back to Flagstaff where I finally was able to get reliable Internet only to find that the link had expired and only public sale tickets were available.  After looking a a few of the opening round venues I found only nose bleed seat were available.

So for the fist time in 20 years it looked like I would not be attending the Tournament and began making plan for a March trip that would not include basketball. I explored several options but for one reason or the other, nothing panned out. So I began my March adventure with no real plan. I spent a few days at my moms home and decided to head west on Interstate 40, just taking it day by day.

Once I got to Nashville, I thought about heading south and making my way along the Gulf Coast but soon found that all of the Hotel were either booked or had sky high rates because of spring break. So I continued west on 40 and made my way toward Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Spending the night In Fort Smith I looked the NCAA Tournament Brackets and saw that one of the Venues that I hadn't considered was the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  So I looked at the BOK Ticket site and found that some pretty good seat in the lower rows of the upper deck were available. I then looked at Stubhub and found some good front row upper level tickets  were available, below face value.

After thinking about it I decided to make my way toward Oklahoma City wile continuing to watch several pretty good tickets on Stubhub.

The NCAA Games in Tulsa would be played on Friday and Sunday. So when I arrived in Oklahoma City I made the decision to purchase the Stubhub Tickets. I then made my hotel reservations for Thursday thru Sunday.

My plan was to tour around Oklahoma City for a couple of Days before heading toward Tulsa Thursday afternoon.  But as they say plans can change suddenly and mind did.  Thursday morning while driving though downtown Oklahoma City a guy ran a stop light and I T-Boned him. No one was hurt by my car was disable and had to be towed.

I can't say enough good things about Nationwide Insurance.  I called them from the scene and in no time they had a wrecker dispatched and an adjuster assigned.  Before my car was towed from the scene the adjuster had arranged for a rental car and for them to pick me up from the towing company.

The accident happened about 10 a.m. and by 1:30 p.m. I was at the rental agency picking up my rental. I had taken photos at the scene and texted them to the adjusted and before leaving the rental agency, she indicated to me that she thought my car would be totaled and she would be having it moved to a savage yard in the next day or two.

Anyway, I made it to Tulsa arriving early Thursday Evening and was able to Attend the Tournament.  My Nationwide adjuster handled everything with the other guys insurance and kept me posted every step of the way.

After spending Sunday Night in Tulsa, I returned to Oklahoma City and found that My car had already been towed to a salvage yard.  My adjuster had already made arrangements for me to retrieve my personal belonging from the car before continuing on my way.

The initial rental period established through Nationwide was for 7-days but they extended it to a total of 14-days. After retrieving my stuff from my car, I decided to head home and start making plans to get me a new car while I still had the use of a rental vehicle.

So I left Oklahoma City in the early afternoon and head back east on Interstate 40.  I arrived in Little Rock about 6 p.m. and opted to spend the night before continuing my journey home.  I got up a little earlier than normal and crossed the Mississippi River at Memphis about 10 a.m. Putting miles behind me I hit Nashville by early afternoon and managed to zip through downtown with no delays.

I hit Knoxville about 4:30 and made my way directly through downtown with only one slight slow down.  Two and a half hours later I crossed the Virginia-Tennessee Line on Interstate 81 at Bristol and decided to have supper at the Cracker Barrel in Abingdon before making the final push home.

I arrived home at 10 p.m. having traveled more than 750 miles in a single day. The next morning I got a call from the Nationwide Adjuster informing me that they had indeed totaled my car and would be issuing me a check for the difference. I was free to start shopping for a new car.

A few days later, my settlement check arrived and I was off to Duncan Honda to shop for a new car. There was little doubt that I would be buying from Duncan. They are easy to deal with and their service department does not try to up sale you additional service and I trust them On April 2, 2019,  I picked up my brand new 2019 Honda Accord.

Even though having an accident when you are traveling far from home is never a pleasant experience, I must say the way that my claim was handled by Nationwide certainly made the entire experience bearable.

Hopefully I don't have to go through this again as I continue my Retirement Adventures.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN - PART 2

I don't know what to say. I haven't posted anything here since February and I don't really know where to start, but Here goes.

Later last year (2018) I started having trouble logging into my Blog Account and was eventually unable to log in at all.  After Several weeks of trial and error and some outside help, I was finally able to log in and post WHERE HAVE I BEEN and thought I had everything straightened out. But a couple of days later, I was locked out again and have been locked out ever since. 

Over the past several months some friends who work with computers for a living have been trying to first of all figure out what happened, and how to fix it. Well it was a very long process but through the combined effort of four of my friend we found out that it appeared that my original account had been hacked and the hacker had changed the password preventing me from logging in.

 Long story short, after several more weeks they were able to recover the original account and start cleaning it.  Once that was complete the clean old account was made more secure. Don't ask me how or what they did because I really don't understand any of it but I do know that now I have three security codes to enter in order to get into my blog. Hopefully I am back safe and secure and will be able to update this blog with my future adventures.