Bricktown Canals

Day 4: It rained during the night apparently? I was out cold and didn’t notice I was getting damp.  When we sleep in the car, we crack the windows a little to allow air flow in because there are two humans inside a small space and Chad steals my air at night! So a little of the rain made its way on to my sleeping bag. Thanks Costco for your parking lot! It was cozy.

All cleaned up at a local gas station, Chad and I wandered around Wichita. While Chad drives, I peek at the GPS and narrate what we are passing. It’s very helpful! There was a cool looking shopping center (old bricked building) that I was interested in walking around and told Chad, “We should go walk this little area, it looks cute.” To which Chad replied with a smirk on his face, evil grin, and eyebrows raised, “Walk it with your eyes!”.

It was a little chilly, and to prove his point, Chad rolled the windows completely down and continued to drive through the scenery as if it was a hot 90 degree day. “What lovely weather we are having. Do you still want to go for a walk outside?” As I am completely froze out, but not wanting to give in, I stubbornly joked back saying I did. Jokingly exasperated, the windows came up and we agreed to start heading out of town towards Oklahoma City.

With a nice 2.5 hour drive (give or take) until the next big city, I was able to set up the desk and pound away at the keys for a bit. Until, I really had to pee. It’s always in the most inconvenient time. Looking around, there was nothing but random shacks here and there, wide country fields intermixed with what looked like “out in the boondocks” homes/junk yards/littered yards/overgrown vegetation.

"Chad I need to pee!"

He never seems to agree with my bladder. With that Oh My God look on his face, he turned slowly towards me to say, “look around and let your body know it’s not an appropriate time!” Fast forward about 25 minutes (which felt like hours), vvvaallllaaa, we made it to the only gas station between Wichita and Oklahoma on the toll-free road. This is why tolls are a privilege. They get pee place opportunities.

MMMM, the smell of fresh Oklahoma….skunk. When we hit the Oklahoma boarder line, we immediately smelled skunk. Chad, witty little thing he is, foreshadowed that the skunk symbolized we may have some stinky adventures coming our way.

Bladders empty, we hit the toll free half of I35. Weaving between fields that had a hint of new green and rolled in hilly waves for miles, we saw our first long horn calves of the trip with itty bitty little horns.

We rolled into the outskirts of Oklahoma City and stopped at the visitor’s center. Now prepped with the knowledge of free parking and where to walk around downtown, we were able to snag a front row parking spot at Bass Pro Shop.

Katie finally gets to go on a backpacking walk! Because it’s nice outside, a balmy 70 degrees, we are wicked hot. Following a little water canal, that led us through a very scenic setting with brick buildings lining both sides of the water. Shops, cafes, restaurants, a movie theater, Sonic Headquarters, mini golf and canal boat rides are just some of the places that littered the walk.

Our mission was to find a coffee shop to make some adjustments to the blog and get the lay of the land. We hunted all throughout the Bricks and finally came across All About Cha. The “Coffee is cheaper than therapy” window cling said it all. Once inside, we realized it was a Korean tea and coffee house with options for all varieties of drinks. (if you wanted food, you could have yummy looking sushi rolls and breakfast dishes). SUPER awesome tea.

Stretching our legs, we walked up and down the business streets. Towering skyscrapers, shiny buildings, old brick and stone were our friends for a while. We then walked the Oklahoma National Memorial for the bombing that took place in 1995 and wandered the grounds.

The walking led to greenery and we found ourselves in a botanical garden. There were little flowers and color everywhere! Now we are hungry for some sustenance; the only food we have had today has been the left-over carrots from dinner and tea. Back in Bricktown over the canal, here was a taco place. Man, were the nachos and chimichanga good!

Apparently, it was the season opener for the Dodgers baseball team and massive floods of people were driving around the Bass Pro Parking lot like ants in a frenzy. The stadium happened to be only a few blocks away from us. There was no way we were going to be able to move the car out of the front row and into the back for camping now.

There were no spots available for hours! Which means no prepping for bed or sleeping… Our bedtime usually begins when the sun is going down and we are fast asleep around 8:30 p.m. to get up when the sun arrives. Not tonight.

To kill some time, we adventured through Bass Pro and chatted with the older gentleman running the entrance. He shared that the water canal was made because there was a lot of water runoff in the city and it would inevitably flow through Bricktown in a stinky mess.

So, they redesigned the entire space to look like a canal, added treatments to the water, and created a destination point with nature all around and shops. He laughed because tons of people think it’s the nicest little place, but, it’s where the stinky water runs out and they offer boat rides through it.

He also mentioned the reason why Oklahoma City is called the ‘Sooners’. It was during the Land Run of 1889 and there were settlers who snuck out at night, staked their land claim in piles of rocks. The next morning after the land run started, they went straight to file their land claim ahead of everyone else. Super illegal, but they did it anyway, and became known as Sooners. They went sooner rather than later! :)

Exhausted and way past our bedtime, we said ‘screw it’ and made camp in the front row of the Bass Pro Shop. This time, we hung a blanket across the passenger side of the car (the side that faces the road and walkways), stuffed a sleeping bag into the front windshield and piled a few things in the back window of the car. When viewed from the outside, you couldn't see in at all. Beautiful.

Once asleep, we were suddenly woken by fireworks exploding from the stadium. My heart was pounding as I bolted out of a deep sleep. They were pretty and I had a direct view in my reclined position. It was the comfiest fireworks show I had ever been to!

Now, floods of people started to come back to their cars. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP sounded the car alarm in front of us. Chad, dead asleep, darted straight up for our keys thinking it was our car. A loud group of people walked up the alarming car and finally shut the noise off. UGH. Chad is ill tempered. lol.

In a small voice, "um, Chad? I have to pee?"

Again, with that Oh My God look on his face, he turned slowly towards me to say, “You have to pee? Now? How? Where? Oh my gosh! I have to drive somewhere?! NOOOO!” :/

We moved the car to a nice little nature space in the center of the Bass Pro Shop and reset camp. I was able to enjoy nature first hand hiding in the bushes. All set for sleep now! Hotter than sin, we went to bed sweating. Better luck next time!