Amici's and Laundry

Wednesday, November 18, I woke up to sunshine at 8:00. The low was 40 and the high gets to 64. It was a much nicer day than yesterday and of course the sun always makes it seem much better.

I skipped my walk, did a quick stretch after breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen and sorted four loads of laundry. When I checked the laundry room someone had both dryers going and a load waiting to dry. So we decided to go to lunch first and try the laundry later. I work on journal pages while Bob takes a shower. I'm trying to take advantage of Tulsa's high-speed Internet while we're here in civilization. I've gotten a lot caught up on my backlog of journal pages while we've been here.

Our neighbors across the road from British Columbia left sometime this morning. I never saw them leave. And Don across the road has a red Jeep instead of his green pickup. Later I saw him with a gal as a passenger. I guess he's not single and facing his chemo treatments alone after all.

Instead of dropping our Goodwill bags off in Jenks, we said the heck with it and went to Sand Springs one more time to enjoy Amici's. We got our corner table and our favorite waitress. She put the coffee on when she saw me walk in. We both got lasagna and ate way too much of their homemade bread. Our waitress gave us more bread to take home with our leftover entrees.

We got diesel and a paper at QT across the street. Then I said lets hop in Homeland across the highway. I ran out of soy milk this morning. So $56.00 later we were back in the car. The nice checkout lady asked if I had a Homeland discount card (it's one of the only ones I don't have--my whole wallet is weighed down with the.) When I said no, we're just here for a short while she said "I'll give you the Oklahoman discount--how nice, that saved us $4.05.

Home to stow groceries and try the laundry room which is empty this time. I stay with the clothes and Bob goes and does his pre-move routine. While he's packing up he meets the guy in the big Cameo 5th wheel across the road. He's putting his short kayaks on top of his truck. Just got kayak and rack and are heading to Baja California to use them. Wish we had met them sooner. But they have kids and grandkids here. They have been RVing for six years; sold their Tulsa home after three years and their kids still aren't very happy with them.

We wrap up the laundry in a few hours and go home to stow it. Daylight is running out so we bring the bikes in and I pack up all of my inside stuff. We have leftover Thai and read the paper.

Patti sends me a link to an RVer's on-line journal. They met a couple from Ontario who have a Titanium! Oddly enough they are camped in LA near where Bob and I have been considering spending some time in the winter. Looks like a gorgeous spot on Lake Pontchartrain.

It's 6:32 p.m. and 53 degrees with 40% humidity.

Cycle 20 Miles on Midland Valley Trail and Re-visit Amici's

View of Tulsa Skyline from Centennial Park on Midland Valley Trail
Friday, November 13, it wasn't until the end of the day that Bob shouted out "Hey, is this Friday the 13th?" Good thing we didn't know or we would never have cycled today. Turns out maybe we shouldn't have. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I got up at 8:00 to wispy clouds but the sun breaks through after a low of 54. I work on journal pages for an hour and a half. I went for a walk but Sandy and Brandy were not out. I'll catch her later. On my last lap around the campground I stop at the office and pick up our big packet of mail. I think it was the second week of August the last time I ordered our mail. I'll have to do better than that. I still have a few late birthday cards though so that's fun. Home to stretch.

We have a big breakfast in anticipation of cycling. I called Dean's RV Store and Nick says our thermostat came in yesterday. They are open until 1:00 tomorrow so we'll go by and pick it up in the morning. No time to browse the mail now. I walk up to find Sandy. She is inside brushing Brandy and invites me in for a tour of their deluxe Newmar motorcoach. It is one of the most open motorhome floorplans I've ever seen. Their kitchen table is built into a credenza that they have their computer on so all they have to do is turn sideways and it's a desk! Her convection oven has a rectangular rack that sits on hooks on the side walls of the oven. Mine is a three-legged round rack that rotates. She says hers works well and she didn't really adjust any of her recipes. Love their like colors and oak cabinets. We settle on 1:00 tomorrow for shopping. I'm so excited that we worked out a day to get together.

Taking a break at the fountains along the Arkansas River in Tulsa, OK

Home to pack my panniers, put on my bike shorts and help Bob load the bikes. We head to Turkey Mountain and zoom down the hill at 12:30. It was smooth sailing as we went north but the wind out of the south is lurking to kill us on the way back. As we take the pedestrian bridge across the Arkansas River we get blasted with a side wind and I really had to hold on tight to my handlebars to keep control of my bike.

We take the ramp over Riverside Drive and head north on the Midland Valley Trail. We only rode this once when we took our 50-miles round trip to Skiatook, OK. Today we plan to just go to where the trail ends and joins the streets downtown. It is kind of hilly on this part and we make it out just over 7.5 miles before we turn around. We stop at Centennial Park where we saw a wedding party last year and detour around the trail that runs through the park. I hop off for a photo op. What a pretty little park with a great view of the Tulsa skyline.

As we head south the wind is a killer. Some young boy comes out of the shadows under an overpass wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans and riding a black bike. I never saw him and almost mowed him over as I made a left out of the park back on to the Midland Valley Trail. Whew, that was close.

We take a break at the fountain along the Arkansas River. I take some pictures of the sculpture and the Pedestrian Bridge. Little did I know how hard the rest of our journey would be. We turn into the strong south wind and I can barely peddle. It is about 1:30 and I thought we'd get back to the truck around 2:45 based on prior rides. But we can barely keep a pace up that will keep Bob's odometer working (the wheels need to spin around 6 mph for it to work.) Good thing it's on his bike because I fall way behind. I start to feel like I did on the second day of our 3-day trip in Minnesota. So I decide I might be getting dehydrated in spite of already drinking three bottles of water. So we break open the Gatorade and that really helps.

We still takes twice as many breaks on the way back. We stopped by a fence and the wind was blowing so hard you can see in my photo the big brown leaves were plastered up against it. Finally we get to the cliff along the RR tracks by the River and the huge wall of the cliff shelters a little bit from the wind.

School's out so cyclers are starting to fly past us coming down Turkey Mountain about 30 mph. They keep saying "What's the matter? Can't take the hill?" We just keep our heads down and keep pedaling. Those poor suckers will find out on the way back just what the problem is. We finally arrive at the truck at 3:3) after decompensating going up the 11% grades to the top. Three hours to ride 20.4 miles. Boy, I sure feel like I had quite a workout.

We load the bikes and head straight home. Sandy and Brandy walk by as we are chaining the bikes up so Bob gets to meet Sandy. Of course he and Brandy bond immediately. We haul all of our gear inside. Bob showers while I take a walk and stretch. Then I get cleaned up and we head to Amici's for dinner. That place is dangerous when you're as hungry as I am.

I had Chicken Puttenesca (grilled chicken, portobella mushrooms, black olives, capers in a wine sauce.) It was heaven. Bob had Pork Medallion Special of the day but it turned out to be completely different than the pork medallions he ordered off the menu last time and liked so much. But no matter..he said these were even better if that was possible. It seems to be pork stuffed with pepperoni and some kind of white cheese with a marinara sauce. We ate two loaves of bread I think and then just had to try the Italian Creme Cake. Very rich. We rolled out with 'go' boxes.

Bob checks his tires as I snap a picture of all the huge leaves blown smack up against the fence by the strong winds.

Got a paper at the busy QT across the street and drove home in fading daylight. I went through the mail to see if anything needed attention but it all looks pretty mundane. I spend an hour updating my journal and we plan to watch Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It's 7:14 p.m. and 66 degrees. The high was 71 with 59% humidity.

Golf Olde Page and Amici's

Gertrude says Happy Thanksgiving aboard The Titanic!
Monday, November 2, our curbside neighbors left at 5:55 a.m. and woke me up. What an ungodly hour to tow an RV down the road. I guess you miss the city traffic on your way out of Tulsa. I was up so I worked on journal pages. First I was in a stupor and poured the water for my coffee down the side of the reservoir and all over the counter. Then I remembered the kitchen towel hook fell off last night; the adhesive gave out. So I had to hunt up a towel in the dark. Oh well.

The sun is out and it is 58 degrees by 10:30. We have Crispy Thingies for breakfast and I stretch and make PB&J's for later on the golf course. And I washed out our bike pants in case we decide to ride tomorrow. They need time to dry.

Around 10:45 we head to Page Belcher golf course. The parking lot is full so we go inside. He says we can get on in 15 or 20 minutes. So we putt for a bit and then tee off behind the guys with the 11:13 tee time. They are slow, or else the guys in front of them are, for seven holes but all of a sudden they disappear. Today we play the Olde Page course (back nine too.) But we run out of steam after 13 holes and call it a day as we near the parking lot. Cycling did us in I guess. Shame to waste such a gorgeous day. High 83 but it felt like 70 with only 36% humidity.

We get a paper on the way home. I put the awning out and go outside to read on the patio. We have been meaning to put that awning out and dry it out after all of the rain in Columbus and Edwardsville. But every time we thought of it the day was too windy. We do have a few spots of mildew near the top that we'll have to clean off. When we drive in this afternoon we notice an older Titanium three sites down on our curbside.

We get cleaned up and around 3:45 we head to Amici's. We wanted to try their dinner menu. We're the first ones there but an older couple in a Prius comes in after us. We get our same table and our same waitress. She is embarrassed to tell us she has to leave early again! I ask her how her granddaughter's Halloween event was and she said it was good but the balloon favors caused an issue. She blew up her granddaughter's balloon and it popped and she was not happy that her balloon was gone and it didn't seem to calm her down to say they had more balloons at home. So they left early.

I had to try the Eggplant Parmesan and was not disappointed. Baked, tender eggplant stuffed with Italian sausage and mozzarella with a hearty red sauce. It was great. My salad had a tasty strawberry vinaigrette. Bob had the pork medallions. The guy in the paper who did the review said they were more like hubcaps and he was right. They were smothered in a tasty Dijon mustard Marsala sauce. We'll be back; lunch or dinner, it's all great.

Home to work puzzles and relax. If the Phillies don't win tonight The Yankees will be the World Series Champs. It's 5:54 p.m. and 71 degrees. I'm sad by how dark it is and it's not even 6 o'clock yet.

Laundry and Amici's Italian Eatery, Prattville, OK

Friday, October 30, At 7:30 a.m. it is a chilly 49 degrees in the living room without the heater on. I enjoy hot hazelnut coffee (now that Darth Vader and I are friends again-I figured out the lid problem, it was sticking and causing my coffee pot to overflow every time I used it) as I work on the laptop. I was on a roll with my journal construction until I maxed out 150 images in 30 days on my new Good Sam site (the free version.) Just when I get committed to catching up I'm stopped by limits not of my own making. Well, I guess it is of my own making since I don't want to pay for the premium upgrade. Normally I would not upload that many pictures to my journal in a month. But it didn't take long to max out as I try to catch up a year and a half. Oh well, I used the time this morning to upload Roswell, NM, art museum pictures to Facebook instead. There's always something to suck up all of your free time.

We have a light breakfast on this glorious sunny morning. I sort four loads of clothes and stick my head in the laundry room here at the RV Park. No one is in there and they have four washers. They took out the two huge commercial dryers since last year and replace theym with two residential gas dryers. We forge ahead and put four loads in the washing machines. Bob goes home to take a shower and I remain with the laundry and read my Henry Ford.

Bob joins me soon and we fold them all by 1:00 (only 2 hours, not bad.) We stow them which is a much easier job in our new RV with our huge closet in the bedroom slide-out and big drawers under the bed. We leave for lunch at old Lee's Diner in Prattville, OK at 41st and 113th. It has undergone an extreme makeover earlier this year. Chef Sean Donohue, executive chef for 20 years mostly with Sheraton Hotel chain, reopened it as Amici's Italain Eatery. We saw a write-up in tulsa World so we checked it out on-line and decided to try it.

We took Union north to 41st, west to 113th. Lee's old sign is still out front. They have been open for four months and have nicely remodeled in a Tuscan decor. We arrive at 1:50 (lunch in until 2:00) and are given lunch menus that have no soups listed. On the web site reviewers rave about Ministrone Soup. I ask our waitress, who asked us if we'd ever been in before, about the soup and we got a 'cup' of Minestrone (more like a bowl.) I had Lasagna and Bob tried the Chicken Sinatra (sauteed chicken breast, mushrooms, onions, garlic and shallots with angel hair pasta in a ciliantro sauce.

They serve big slabs of crusty Italian load bread with parsley garlic butter. Everything was topped with big shavings of parmesan. We'll be back. My lasagna was enough to feed three people and it was served with a side of fetuccini alfredo! Our waitress left early after serving our lunches to go to her granddaughter's Halloween Party. We got a paper at QT on Union on the way home. Bob and I were discussing earlier this week how this is our fourth year to spend part of the fall in Tulsa, and our third time here at Tulsa Warrior Campground-the first year we were at Mingo RV Park east of here. It's nice to come back to places where you know hot to get around, especially if they have all the things we love to do like Tulsa does. It always surprised people when we say Tulsa is one of our favortie places we've visited. The fall weather is great, they have miles and miles of bike trails, very inexpensive golf courses, it is large enough to have cultural events, and the food is fantastic.

We read the paper while the sunshine warmed the RV. The high was only 61 degrees with 30% humidity. It's 4:50 p.m. No World Series tonight; they travel to Philly for game three tied at one a piece.

Amici's Italian Restaurant