[Drive Log] Oklahoma City - Day 1

October 20, 2012

Houston, TX - Oklahoma City, OK

Miles logged: 1036.9

Oklahoma City would be our first destination that is not east of Texas. This was somewhat of a "business" trip, since the main reason was for my wife's passport renewal. Nevertheless, we made it feel like a leisure trip, because we acted like tourists most of the time.

Our day started early. Got up around 2:00 AM and stopped by for gas at the nearest gas station. The drive officially started around 3 AM. 

Mandatory driver POV shot, showing start mileage.

 With 2 hours of sleep after a hectic Friday at work, energy drinks were my fuel. I was light-headed for the most part, and lights seemed like a blur, but I was well aware of the road.

Dallas in a blur as we drive through at dawn.

 After at least 4 hours of driving, we had to stop for breakfast, and some relaxation. We were in Lewsville, TX that time, and decided to check out Lewisville Lake. We waited for around 10 minutes before Copperas Branch Park opened. It would have been nice if there were no mosquitoes. I had to resort to running around and moving quickly to avoid the possible West Nile virus infected skeeters.

The view was rewarding. Awesome sunrise colors on the lake.

The sunlight was so good, I just couldn't resist taking some photos of the car.

Back on the road, the landscape looked different, with rolling hills and lakes. There were a couple areas where the highway cut through some tall hills.

We finally arrived in OKC, after 8 hours on the road. 

Oklahoma State Capitol

After Dianne's appointment we headed to OKC's downtown for lunch and some sight-seeing. 

They are currently rebuilding their downtown, and rehabilitating old industrial buildings and turning them into restaurants and bars. They aptly call it Bricktown, as most of the buildings are made out of bricks and some areas have cobble streets. 

Dianne seemed happy with the place.

Citizens of OKC are huge sports fans, and are very loyal to their major-league teams.

Bricktown, and OKC in general, felt like a very artsy city. Downtown was a mixture of architectural genres.

Local restaurants were high on our list, but we were hungry and Spaghetti Warehouse was the first restaurant we saw. 

So for dinner we made sure we went local. We ended up hitting this local pizza joint called The Wedge Pizzeria.

It is located in a quaint neighborhood in Bricktown. Their food was delicious. The locally brewed beer were equally good too.

Prosciutto Wrapped Pears

Truffle Shuffle pizza

We drove around the city after dinner and chanced upon the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I have read about it, but did not really have a plan on visiting. The place looked interesting from the car at street view and decided to check it out.

 Yup, I'm glad we did, because the memorial looked amazing. The memorial was put up to honor the people affected by the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995.

Chairs for each of the victims who didn't make it.

Visiting the memorial and learning about the events that scarred the city was probably the best way to end the day.