Colorful buffalo down in Bricktown

Happy Veterans Day to my fellow veterans!

I spent this special day with one of my former nursing classmates, she had been in Air Force, while I was Navy.  What a special day to get together and catch up on our lives.  For the majority of the years our friendship has spanned, we connected at Christmas, only occasionally managed to connect in person. Today was one of them.

We started the day with a great conversation over a cup of tea. Before we knew it the morning was gone. So hightailed out and Sarah introduced me to Oklahoma City. But first, we were starving and she took me to a good mexican restaurant down in Bricktown.

Sarah

Bricktown, was a former industrial area, that has been renovated under a M.A.P.S. project.  They even added a canal that almost reminded me of Venice, except the building were all new.  We walked, admired, chatted, studied architecture, walked a bit more, then she said – let’s ride the boats.

Businesses bought bricks for sidewalk

Canal from the bridge

The un-gondolas

Man trying to move ball up ramp

Pretty petunia

Chickasaw Baseball Stadium

Man moving ball up ramp

This sculpture is so realistic. Amazing metal work!

Neck wrinkles, fingernails, power

The boat ride took us past all kinds of businesses, landscaping (they are getting ready for Christmas too), but I fell in love with the art work. 

Beautiful mosaic of Oklahoma theme

Here’s another view…

Native women, lizards, waterfalls

Just lovely mosaics. 

View heading down the canal

Along canal, a mural of 3 eras of Oklahoma City

A teacher and 5 students did this mural in 3 days. Apparently they used a video to show it on the face of this wall, then drew the outline. Then as if painting by numbers – did this mural.  I will post more pictures tomorrow on this wonderful day.

This is one of my immediate neighbors. This guy was frazzled the most about the cold. so I took a picture of the before. The water pump shaft is well insulated by the military base and the cord leading from it is plugged in to keep it heated in winter.  That is how all the pumps are in this park.

Before

The “before” picture is minus his water hose he had hooked up to city water.

After

This picture shows his creative means of not freezing for two nights.  Under the bucket is a heat lamp, fiberglass insulation batt.  His heat lamp is plugged in where the base heater for the water was. Yes, he unplugged the heat source for the water.  And… as you can see, he wrapped his water hose in duct tape and what he said is cotton batting.  Sewer hose – no change, still exposed.  His wife asked me today about their water tank, as she did not realize that was an option. He piped in that the pump was broken and they couldn’t use their own water tank.  Found out who he was getting all his brilliant ideas for his Class C and it was from one of the Class A folks – who has done none of these preparations for the “horrible” cold coming in.  So who is going to win between those two?