Faced with a weekend that quickly needed to be filled with something, I decided that it wasn’t too early for a quick road trip. There was a cup of coffee, a scroll around google maps, and a bag to be packed.

Admittedly, when I walked out the door I was only 50% committed to my idea. But when I hit I-35, the truck turned itself north and I was off to explore Oklahoma.

I’ve never been to Oklahoma before. This trip afforded me the opportunity to check off another state. Now, I only have four left to go and I’ll have been to them all. This seemed like an Easy Peasy kinda day.

I drove out of the rain around Waco, and found the blue sky line about Denton. As I kept going north on I-35, the weather continued to improve. Upon arriving in Oklahoma City, it was T-Shirt weather once again. Joy of joys!

My primary stop in OKC was the Oklahoma National Memorial, otherwise known posthumously as the Murrah Federal Building.

The memorial was quite nice, and well worth the drive. There is an open air memorial occupying the building footprint and the accompany street that received the cratering charge from the explosion. There is a multi-story museum located in an adjacent building which was reportedly used as the incident command scene. The museum has a complete story of events and is fairly moving.

Rolling north out of OKC, next stop was Stillwater. Some years ago, I promised a friend of mine that if I ever made my was to Oklahoma, I was go to Eskimo Joe’s restaurant. So, I did!

Eskimo Joe’s sits on the edge of the Oklahoma State University campus and is an obvious community landmark. The wait was long, unless you sat at the bar, which I did. The burger and fries were quite tasty, and the gave me a soda to go. I give the place high marks. I also picked up a T-shirt from the monstrous gift shop.

Getting out of Joe’s after dinner time, I drove down the main drag till I found a motel and pulled in. The Days Inn in Stillwater is clean and reasonably priced. I was watching American Ninja Warrior as I typed this post.

Tomorrow, it’s a casual drive back south to Texas, and maybe a stop at the casino.

When an opportunity presents itself, get out there. Check those boxes!

The reflecting pool of the Oklahoma National Memorial.

The open air tribute to the people lost in the bombing.

Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater, OK!

Go find adventure!