Our Trip Out West

From Saturday, September 10, 2011 until Thursday, September 22nd we are driving from Norfolk to OKC and back. We are making stops in Louisville, St. Louis, Tulsa, and Enid along the way.

Day 1: We left Norfolk around 9:45am and arrived in Louisville, KY around 10:45pm. We stopped at Sticks for lunch in Charlottesville and Tamarack for dnner in West Virginia. Total distance driven on this day: 630 miles

Day 2: We hung out at my parents. We "slept in" with out little early bird a(Emily) waking us up at 7am. My mom made pancakes and we enjoyed the beautiful weather. Around 2pm, we drove to Huber Farms in Indiana. Emily enjoyed feeding Mooey, the cow and some sheep. We had a family style dinner with fried biscuits and apple butter. Emiy and I tried out the mai tai wrap on a walk with Leo and my parents. Total distance driven on this day: 40 miles

Day 3: We left my parents as early as possible to avoid the AM traffic because the I-64 bridge was closed. We got on the road around 7am and arrived in St. Louis around 11am. Since it is Central time, we gained an hour on the way. We explored the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Emily loved the Children's area and feeding the koi fish in the Japanese Garden. It was a beautiful day. We checked into the Crowne Plaza Hotel around 3pm. Emily had to be convinced to take a nap because she was so tired but then she slept almost 3 hours before Dinner at Bamboo Garden. It was pretty good and right next to the hotel on the same side of the street.

Day 4: Emily woke up at 5:30am, so we started to get ready early. We walked to Rooster on 11th and Locust (about .5 mile away). Then we walked over to the CityGarden on 9th. We were just walking through the big cement area next to a fountain when at exactly 8am the water came on all around us! Emily was frightened and didn't want to get wet but Fred and I thought it was funny. Next we walked to the Arch and took the smallest elevator to the top. It had room for 5 people but only 4 comfortably.

At 11am we checked out of the hotel and drove to Tulsa. We stopped for dinner at John and Kara's. We drove down Route 66 and then 412 to get to Enid. We stayed the night at the Cherokee AF Inn on Vance AFB.

Day 5: We started out the day by going to the only breakfast spot on base: the Bowling Alley. Then Fred went to get his haircut while Em and I went to the Family Readiness Center. Then we went to the park while Fred went to check out his new squadron. We joined up to go by the housing office but they had no empty houses to show us. We let Emily sleep until check out time at 12:15. We drove off-base to eat at a pub called Callahans but it was for 21 and up only. We ended up eating lunch at Pane.vino. We drove around town a bit and found a couple houses for sale on Indian Road and Southgate. One was a nice neighborhood next to the YMCA and library and the other was 4 miles down a bumby road, past the landfill and animal control hospital. LOL Of course the latter was nicer and bigger but location location location.

Fred went back to the squadron again to meet up with his contact, then we drove to OKC. We arrived in time for dinner at the Pavelion. It was only semi-horrible country fried steak.

Day 6: Emily had a hard night, so she slept in until 7am. We ate a semi-horrible breakfast of some sort of Spanish inspired breakfast casserole. Emily and I took a long nap at 9am until noon. It is a rainy, cold day. Tonight is the Yee Haw at the Cowboy Museum in downtown OKC.

Day 7: Rehearsal Dinner

Day 8: Wedding

Day 9: OKC to St. Louis

Day 10: St. Louis

Day 11: St. Louis to Louisville

Day 12: Louisville

Day 13: Louisville to Norfolk