7 Apr 2023 - Bricktown Water Taxi & Visit from Andrea Jones

 

This morning we drove downtown to the Bricktown area to catch a tour on the Bricktown Water Taxi.  In 1999 Oklahoma City resurrected a century-old downtown canal system in an attempt to bring a "spark" to the Bricktown area.  This canal system and the buildings surrounding it resemble the riverwalk area of San Antonio TX.   There are shops and restaurants that line the canal and water taxi boats that leisurely cruise the canal.

Our tickets were for 1100 hrs so we parked in the parking lot for Toby Keith's restaurant and walked a short distance to the canal.  There is a walking path on both sides and crossovers periodically.

We ascended to the overpass and walked up one block to the water taxi entrance. Right across the street was the beautiful Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, home of the Oklahoma City Dodgers, AAA-affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Unfortunately they are not in town while we are here, but we saw them play last year when we were here.  

 We continued on down Mickey Mantle Drive to the water taxi where we boarded the boat.  Here are some pictures from our 40-minute cruise.. 

Relatively new boats - very well maintained

The canal is lined with bars, shops and restaurants

There were about a dozen on our boat

Corporate Headquarters for Sonic Drive-in

At the mid-point of the boat tour we arrived at the Centennial Land Run Monument which commemorates the opening of the Unassigned Land in Oklahoma Territory with the Land Run of 1889. The frenzied energy and emotion from one instant during the run is captured in bronze by artist Paul Moore. It is one of the world’s largest bronze sculptures featuring 45 heroic figures of land run participants, frozen in motion as they race to claim new homesteads.

The flowers are in spring bloom along the canal.

About 40 minutes later we arrived back at our starting point and then headed back towards where we had parked.  

Along the way we stopped at Dave's Hot Chicken for lunch.  Doreen ordered the milder chicken but I ordered second from the most spicy, and it was very hot!

Doreen washed hers down with a margarita and I has a whiskey lemonade which was really good! 

Back at the campground we did some chores around the camper and then while Doreen walked Liberty I took the truck a few blocks south and washed off all the dust that had accumulated during the windy weather at Wichita.  It was there that I discovered our first casualty of the trip - a missing left rear hub cap. The same thing happened two years ago while we were headed for Baltimore MD.  Our infrastructure is in tough shape in this country,  and eventually a bad bump along the road will cause a hub cap to dislodge.  

The left rear with the hub cap missing, and the right rear as it should be!  Ugh!

Later in the afternoon at the campground a great friend and military comrade, Andrea (Conroy) Jones and her son Wyatt stopped by the campground to see us.  

Andrea served in the Iowa Air National Guard with our daughter Jennifer and me for many years until  her husband's employment cause them to move to the Oklahoma City area.  We talked a lot about her family and what she had been up to since they moved from Grinnell Iowa  in 2013.  We are so glad she drove over from the east side of OKC to see us!

Tomorrow's plan is yet to be determined but we will likely figure out something to see, and then head back to the campground so we can stream some of our grandson Daniel's baseball games.  This will be his first tournament of the year!