Shopping at Tulsa Hills, City Diner, India Palace

Tuesday, October 27, Garlic Rose and the Driving Range

While in Columbus, OH, recently we visited Franklin Park Conservatory, Chihuly Reimagined exhibit of Dale Chihuly's blown glass. It blew us away!

At 7:00 a.m. I was busy typing away at our new entertainment center desk since we have a jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table. I checked out my new Facebook page; yes, my niece Megan has dragged me into the 21st century. While I was on-line Bob finished the puzzle so we could tear it up and have breakfast. The sun breaks through for a few minutes but goes away again. It is chilly, with a north wind and a low of 49 degrees this morning. After breakfast I stretch and get on-line again.

After over a year and a half of debate I have made the plunge and decided to blog our current travels (beginning Oct. 25th.) No one particular reason got me to move past whatever has been blocking me. The decision to continue chronicling our travels has been nagging at me. Recently I started going back to try to catch up on 2007, our Wyoming travels, where I left off in constructing my new Good Sam website. Reading through these old journal pages as I transcribed them made me really want to keep up my journal. So now I am re-committed. I will simultaneously catch up from May 2007, moving old pages I created on Earthlink to my new Good Sam site. You will be able to see them as I create them. But I will record each new day's journal here on Blogspot so I don't continue to fall further behind. The goal is to move everything off of Earthlink, which has run out of space, and get all of my content onto the Good Sam site. Wish me luck! In the meantime if I haven't lost my faithful readers they can find me here on Blogspot until further notice.

Around 1:00 I take a break and we head to lunch at Garlic Rose on Riverside. My Wichita friend, Marty, checked out their Sunday brunch array with me last fall but we ended up at Pepper's with the guys. Today we discover they have great food in a classy atmosphere but they are a bit pricey.

I have the Crab Cake Salad, two yummy crab cakes with a tomato cream shrimp sauce on field greens. bob has the Shrimp Ravioli special with very briny olives and artichoke hearts-good buy dainty. We decide $35.00 for lunch is too much. Our waiter says they just remodeled and opened The Green Onion at 51st Street & Yale.

We stopped in downtown Jenks to finish browsing the antique mall. I found a wrought iron bicycle for $3.00. Bob found a book and I also bought a gift for someone. On the way home we stop at the driving range at Page Belcher Golf Course as the sun finally came out around 3:00. For $7.00 we got a big bucket of balls in the club house (the dispensing machine out by the driving range is broken.) I hit okay for me. Back home I took a walk and stretched to ward off a kink in my neck that has been bothering me since we left Springfield last week. We read the paper and settle in for Tuesday night TV-one of our favorite nights; NCIS and NCIS LA and The Good Wife. It's 6:26 p.m. and 62 degrees. The high was 68 degrees and the humidity is 43%.

Monday, October 26, Jigsaw Puzzle and India Palace Revisited

Warm with a low of 51. We didn't leave the heater on in the living room overnight. Had my java and worked on Good Sam website journal pages. Did a half month worth of picture uploads but it was semi-slow going. Enjoyed oatmeal for breakfast as Bob turned up his nose. Must have the blue cheese dressing at the diner yesterday that got my digestive system in an uproar last night. Dairy products do not agree with me.

I stretched and did my weights. The wind was cold from the north out out there so I skipped my walk. Then I got on-line and found steadyfast.com for RV stabilizers. We're trying to stop our shaking. We start one of the 1000-piece puzzles we got at the antique mall. Then we took showers and headed to India Palace around 1:00 for lunch. I got to try the hot chai tea this time-very tasty. They had many of the same items on the buffet. But I enjoyed the black lentils that weren't there last time. This time I tried the plum sauce and a basil-type salsa that was bright green. Both were excellent.

We got a paper at Union and went home to work the puzzle. It's 3:58 p.m. and 59 degrees with 39% humidity.

Sunday, October 25, Shopping at Tulsa Hills & City Diner

I was up at 7:00 a.m. on this warm, cloudy Sunday morning. The low was only 56 degrees. I decided to tackle the Titanic (our nickname for our new Titanium RV) move check list. After our first five or six moves in our new rig it is time to rearrange the order and add additional check list items. We have a light breakfast around 9:30 and I get cleaned up to head to Tulsa Hills shopping center at Hwy 75 and 71st Street. Bob is doing chores, emptying holding tanks, and other 'blue job' as we call them in the RV world.

I'm off on my first solo trip in our new truck. It's hard to believe that we bought it in May 2009 and I haven't driven it myself yet except to back it up in the RV parks. Our summer was spent together, just me and hubby Bob so I had no where to go off to by myself. This new truck, 2007 Chevy Silverado, that we call 'Big Bertha the Titanium Drive' is much easier to see out of than our old one with the camper shell on back. The wheelbase is about four inches longer due to the crew cab vs. our old extended cab but I couldn't tell any difference driving or parking it.

My first stop was Ross Dress for Less. I found short brown boots for a bargain price, wash clothes that match ours in the bathroom and a new dishtowel. I'm trying to upgrade now that we have a new rig. I also found a nice light grey tailored blouse. Next I cruise Bed, Bath & Beyond (I thought they filed for bankruptcy? Maybe that was Linens 'n Things) And finally I check out Target Superstore, stopping in the lobby for a Pumpkin Spice Latte-Wow, that's two days in a row!) I found a blank journal to keep my notes in prior to posting on-line. I came in to scope out the coffee pots. Found an under-the-counter space-saver on sale for $20 but it is too large to fit in the depth of our cabinets. Bummer. Darth Vader (my Starbucks coffee pot that my friend Liz gave me before we went on the road six years ago is giving out so I'm looking for a new one.)

I got a paper at Union on the way home. Got home at 1:50, surprising Bob by arriving ahead of my 2:30 estimate. We go to lunch at 71st & Lewis, City Diner. It was a so-so diner. I had Four-way Spaghetti with mushy pasta and way too much blue cheese dressing on my small pile of lettuce. Bob had catfish, okra, carrots and a tasty potato soup. Our not very young waitress said she is pregnant with twin boys and due in March. She has almost 14-year old twin girls at home and the whole thing is a shock.

We head home to read the Sunday paper and watch football on our new Hi-def flat screen TV. Still can't get used to how big this screen is in our RV living room space. Feels like the cinema!. I went for a walk at 6:15. Called my friend Liz in Austin and we had a nice chat. My friend Ronda got married to a guy from Horseshoe Bay and Liz misses her as a manager. Liz says her son Connor is in 5th grade. That can't be possible! The high today was 63 degrees and the humidity is 74%. Tulsa is much cooler than usual this time of year.