Before leaving the OKC area we went west to Express Clydesdale’s in Yukon, OK. We got to see 5 of these beautiful, massive horses! They were all black and white which is a rare color as most of the ones you see are brown. Jeff had scheduled this tour ahead of time. We arrived and we were the only ones for our timeslot. As we were leaving there was a group of Veteran’s arriving. She told us that for years they have horses in the Rose Parade. They have had a team to pull a carriage for Prince William and Kate.

We also got to meet Leon the Dalmatian who had been in Rose Parades with the horses. She said that he like to greet guests. He rub all over our legs and just wanted to be petted. We left with white fur on our pants. There was also a golden retriever but he didn’t want to greet. He stayed in the room she put them in as she was getting Tigger out of his stall.

They currently have 5 Clydesdale’s on the ranch. I remembered 4 of their names and have not been able to figure out the one I’m missing. There was Tigger, Topper, Daryl, Dennis and then the 5th one. We got to meet Tigger. They are measured in hands and he is 18 hands and 2 which is equal to 6 feet and 2 inches from the top of his back to the bottom of his feet. (1 hand = 4 inches) He weighs about 2,000 pounds and is 13 years old. He is considered middle age as se said that they live an average of 20-25 years.

She told us that some people do ride Clydesdale’s but they don’t normally ride them at their ranch. They did have someone to ride one for the owners birthday during covid when they did a birthday parade for him. She said that it is a bit of a rough ride since they are so wide and heavy you feel every movement. She told us that when they are using them to pull a wagon the largest ones are at the wheel or front of the wagon for their strength and then they get a little smaller towards the front with the smallest ones at the very front as they will only have about 10% of the weight. She said that they are trained to pull wagons. After that then they can be trained for a saddle and bit to be ridden.

Our next stop was Lake Hefner to see the lighthouse. On our research we found that they have an lighthouse on a lake. You can’t go inside. It was very windy there on the water. We grabbed lunch at Mama Rojo before headed out on Route 66 to Tulsa.

After lunch we drove Route 66 to Tulsa. There were a few landmarks along the way. The first one we saw was the large coca-cola bottle at Pops 66. They had any flavor soft drink you could imagine. We saw regular flavors and then we saw some like mustard, spaghetti, bubble gum and others. Then the Round Barn at Arcadia. The rest we just took pictures as we drove by. There was only one place where get got off the route and I realized it after just a couple of blocks and turned around. It’s not always clearly marked but we did it!

We made it to our hotel in Tulsa. We stayed at the Ambassador Hotel. Tulsa is not a walkable city. We had to drive every that we went. We felt that the 2 nights that we stayed in Tulsa was plenty. We saw almost everything that we wanted to. The only 2 things we didn’t get to do was the singing bridge and the center of the universe. The center of the universe was closed for remodeling. We didn’t know until we got there. They had all of the entrances boarded up. We did see a couple of ladies there and they climbed the knee wall and went to the center. We wished we would have, but we are rule obeyers. LOL!! We looked for the bridge on our way out of town and did not find it.

We arrived and got checked into our room. We went to dinner at Prossimo which was an Italian restaurant. We picked it because they had the cheese wheel. Where at the tableside they heat up the cheese and toss the pasta in it. This was a white tablecloth restaurant. They brought us a couple different breads and spreads. We got an appetizer of polenta and meatballs. They they brought a cup of sorbets and said it was a palate cleanser. I had the papparadelle bolognese and Jeff did the cheese wheel pasta. Mine was good, but hid didn’t have a lot of cheese flavor. After dinner we just went back to the room.

Wednesday morning we started with a stop at the University of Tulsa. We wanted to visit the bookstore. We couldn’t find public parking so I dropped Jeff off and I drove around the campus until he was ready. Then we went to Route 66 to visit the 5 statues of Rosie the Riveter, Buck Atom, Stella Atom, Cowboy Bob and Lumberjack Mack. We went in a couple of the stores in this area.

Next stop was the Mother Road Market area. There are different shops and restaurants and several pop-up shops. We grabbed lunch here at Howdy Burger Co and ice cream at Big Dipper. One of my flavors was soft so she put it on the bottom. It ended up being the best of the two.

After lunch we wanted to visited a few more landmarks, we started with a visit to Oral Roberts University to see the praying hands. Then we found the Golden Driller and then we visited the Gathering Place park on the Arkansas River. We ended our touristy day with a visit to the center of the universe which was closed for renovations and then we found the blue dome building before heading back to the hotel to rest before dinner.

For dinner we went back to the same area as the night before. We went to Andolini’s Pizza. All of the workers were really nice. They all checked on us and made sure that we had what we need. We started with risotto balls. Our server said that no one ever gets them and they are her favorite on the menu. They were delicious. We had the SPQR pizza, it has ricotta, minced garlic, Italian sausage, prosciutto and extra virgin olive oil.

The Ambassador Hotel in Tulsa, OK.

We visited one more city. Stay tuned.