Which is good because I gotta tell you, and with apologies to the 650,000 people that call this place home, the city itself was kind of a downer. The primary industries there are based on agriculture and energy (oil and natural gas) so the city has a very industrial/agricultural "feel" to it. Nearby Tinker Air Force Base, which employs 6,000 military and civilian personnel, adds elements of high security and miles upon miles of barbed wire fencing. The two main traffic corridors through the city -- Interstate 35 and Interstate 40 -- are a nightmare to navigate, with frontage roads that often require one to exit past a desired destination, turn around, and exit from the other side of the Interstate.
My motel, a Day's Inn facing Interstate 35, was adequate, but I have never in my life seen an Interstate exit so totally bereft of any restaurants within walking distance. There is almost always at least one or more of the "usual suspects" at any Interstate exit located within a major metropolitan district ... a Denny's, Waffle House, an IHOP ... that will do in a pinch if you simply need to put something in your stomach. But the closest eateries of any kind required hopping on the Interstate, and doing a crazy loop-de-loop to get back. The good news is that the place was only $45/night, proving once again the old adage that you get what you pay for. And for what I required of a motel while there -- basically a place to flop -- it was fine.
Add to that 90 degree (or better) heat each day I was there, with a near constant 20 mph wind
blowing out of the south. So it was like walking around in a convection oven,
not that I was out in it much. And it didn't help that my arrival coincided with the
one-year anniversary of the tornado that wiped out Moore, Okla., just down the
road from me, which was plastered all over the local news. And of course the coup de grace: Reminders of the 1995 Federal Building bombing are everywhere, including a national memorial and museum. Now there's a real upbeat attraction for you.
Fortunately, I hit a few good restaurants for dinners while I was there -- an authentic '50s cowboy café in the old stockyard district, a good rib
joint, and an Italian place that served a fair facsimile of NY-style
pizza. But a few good restaurants alone would not provide an incentive for me to hop in the old Prius and return to this city stuck smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley.
You wouldn't think this a likely location for a watch dealer/collector looking to sell out, but here he was, born and raised here, with parents born, raised, and buried here. A genuine Okie. And since he didn't want to mail the stuff, or travel to see me, I had to come to him. I was rewarded with a nice cache of perhaps 200 or so
watches, plus about the same number of movements, and various parts, watch
bands, etc. All the stuff that I like ... affordable, middle of the road type
stuff. Some will be on my website soon, a lot will end up on eBay, and I'll be
taking a big box of the stuff to the National for my mart table. The seller
seems to be having a little case of seller's remorse, so I am still trying to
smooth things over. It's just going to take a little patience. The guy is
definitely a few bricks shy of a full load, but I've known him for years and he
just takes a little extra massaging. Not that I swindled the guy by any means,
in fact quite the opposite. I was quite generous with him because I know he is
in financial straits.
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