Oklahoma City

I needed to be in Oklahoma City by early evening so we we were in no rush to leave Arkansas. We slept in and then headed to Atalanta Lake. No that’s not a typo, that’s what its called. The lake is a man made reservoir created in the 1930s. It has been upgraded with a really nice walking path. Even though it was a scorcher today, the morning temps were low 80s and had there was a great breeze.

We did the round the lake walk clocking in at 2 miles.  After cleaning up and getting some food, we were off to OKC.  It was a quick one hour flight.  I fired up and requested my clearance.  I was caught off guard as my clearance was the Highfill Eight departure then as filed.  

This is not a busy place and when I pulled up the procedure, it was simply turn to 180 and climb to 5000.  I already had been cleared to 5000 and told to expect 8000 within 10 minutes.  After fully briefing the departure and completing the pre departure checks, I called for take off.

Tower cleared to take off with a clearance to turn on course, no departure procedure.  This seems to be a theme in most places with piston aircraft, give out a procedure and then don’t use it.  I can’t complain too much, we were cleared right up to 8000 and enjoyed 10-12 knots on the tail.

OKC is a pretty big airport and there are two choices for parking on opposite side of the airport. It's only big because of the FAA and the military.   Approach was on top of things, checking in we asked where I wanted to park and the told me to expect 35 Left.  It all worked well except that there was a string of traffic for 35 Right.  This created a slight detour but we soon were pulling up to the FBO.

They had our car ready and we dropped our stuff off on the way to check out Route 66.  Oklahoma is not a new state for us but we have never stayed overnight.  We drove out of town to the iconic route.  We stopped by the Arcadia Barn, a Route 66 landmark.  It is a restored 1898 barn, they built them round thinking it would keep it safe from twisters.  Unlikely but then again it’s still standing.

After the Barn we headed downtown to see the Bricktown.  This is the entertainment district.  Basically they dug a 16 foot deep trench and then a four foot deep canal.  This winds past the local minor league stadium and is surrounded by bars and restaurants. They also run boat tours down the canal.  We took the walk but skipped the boat tour.  After our walk we drove to a cool monument that was further down the ditch. It was sort of odd to see a canal in the middle of the city but if you squint really hard, maybe it makes sense.

I had an 8PM meeting to start my class so we headed back to grab some food.  We had notice that OKC was heavy on Mexican food.  Reading the reviews we saw some good choices around us and after some serious study we chose Taqueria Sanchez.  

It was a nearby food truck with a high rating and 917 reviews.  We ordered tacos, a burrito plate and a side of avocado.  The food smelled great and tasted better.  It came with a side of spicy pickled veggies a bonus. I had to be out of the hotel at 7:15 the next morning so we called it a day rather than going out clubbing.