OKC > Nunu's and Pops 66 Soda Ranch

Imagine you're watching the beginning of a movie, not quite sure what to expect and something pops up on the screen that let's you know you're seeing the future. That's this. But imagine it's future me, which is really past me because I'm writing this blog after the fact, explaining the memory of an even further past event.

...and that reminds me of the time I was at a friend's opulent wedding. My first ever wedding in Australia. It was at a big church, with amazingly curated grounds. Honestly, I can't tell you more detail about her dress or the priest, who I think was wearing a dress too (you know, those Catholic pullover deals), but my memory might be entirely fabricated, because, though I did snap about 100 pictures, I didn't have a memory card in my camera and noticed about 10 seconds before the actual ceremony when I turned bright red and put my camera down. 

Then flash to present me. (Camera pun?) Or maybe it's past me. First thing this morning. See, this is why I don't write scripts. I blame that on the time I was accepted to UC Santa Barbara to study English, because the film department didn't want me and I took a tour and everything with a friend from high school, but decided I really didn't want to have HIM as the only person I knew in SB, because I didn't really like him that much anymore, and on the day we were supposed to pack the car to move to UCSB, I decided I wasn't going and finished my already in-progress English degree from Cal State Hayward, where I had no friends and was perfectly fine with that. 

Omg. I think listening to this Jenny Lawson book is making me write like this. But she's (self-admittedly) very mentally unwell. Maybe I should talk to someone about that. Like my therapist on Thursday. 

I haven't even had one drink, you guys. This is just me and I haven't even started telling you the story of my day. It's probably because the highlight was blueberry soda. (That's what they call a teaser).

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Chapter One: My First Day in Oklahoma City

Seriously, I'm in some kind of mood to write a chapter heading to the middle of a blog post.

Alright, here's the story of my day in bullet points, because I know you're just here for the pictures (which I will deliver, despite the other teaser about the memory cardless wedding).

• Woke up at 9am CT
• Realized I put out the "please deliver coffee and breakfast to me" sign too late for them to act on it.
• Ordered and received coffee and a gluten free dessert...I mean breakfast. A delicious blueberry scone.
• Worked from my hotel room until lunch.
• Ordered lunch from a salad place, picked up lunch, drove back to the hotel. Realized 80% of the way back that I was OUT of blood sugar and started sweating.
• Made it back to my room in a full sweat with shakes. I guess coffee and a scone aren't what this incredibly strong (read: weak) body needs in the morning.
• Ate an INCREDIBLY delicious salad as fast as possible, while taking breaks to lay on the ground near the A/C in the hopes to stop sweating.
• Worked for the afternoon from my hotel room. 
• Looked incredibly good on Zoom. I guess a blood sugar crash does wonders for my complexion.
• Dinner....

Here is where I will properly start the story.

In the afternoon, I realized I might need an actual meal for dinner. I did a search for "Best Restaurants in OKC" and close to the top of the list was Nunu's Mediterranean Café located in the Tropical Cafe Smoothie building. Whatever that means. I ordered dinner online for pick up and jumped in my car, listening to more hilarious details about how Jenny Lawson's health insurance doesn't cover anything she needs and is a general hinderance to people with depression and suicidal ideation. Really light stuff, ya know? 

Anyway, on the 17 minute drive to this restaurant it hit me just how sprawling Oklahoma City is. I made some notes for myself on my phone. The highlights were:

"I've never driven to a city before and not known if I'd made it."

"No wonder OKC Ranks Unhealthiest Out Of America's 100 Largest Cities there is no incentive to walk anywhere. It's a mile from one store to another. Nothing is close to anything."

My GPS gave me directions to the back of a square tan building in a huge and empty parking lot. I was like "this can't be it". There were no signs for Nunu's, but I did notice the drive-thru for the smoothie place, so I figured out that I was BEHIND the building. 

I went in to pick up my food, and here's where I will mention that every restaurant, store, hotel, etc that I've been in Oklahoma City has employees wearing masks. HURRAH! But 90% of the patrons do not. BOO! Still, I wear mine when around people and no one seems to notice. I mean, I'm the dykiest thing they've seen in Oklahoma, so it's my hair they stare at while opening the door for me or politely getting out of my way. 

Proof of hair, from an odd angle. Anyway....

I grabbed my food and plugged into the GPS (and please know that I mean Google Maps, and not an actual GPS) Pops 66 Soda Ranch, because if I'm going to work all day, then I'm at least going to see one tourist attraction at night. And that's when I put my bag of food on the floor of the passenger's side of the car and drove 30 minutes to buy a soda. 

On the way, I had this sad feeling wash over me that Oklahoma roads (highways) are really boring. I'd been looking at Google Maps before embarking on this adventure, thinking "well, it's only 3 hours to Kansas, I might as well check another state of the list." But at that moment, between the Tropical Smoothie Cafe building and the soda joint, I wasn't looking forward to long drives up and down Oklahoma. 

That changed when I arrived at Pops 66 and realized that I was on THE Route 66. Pretty cool! 

At Pops there is a 66-foot neon pop bottle structure! (To be honest, I forgot that it was neon. I showed up during the day and did not see or hear the splendor of neon). Inside the store / restaurant / soda fountain there were old time soda bottles of all flavors and colors adorning the glass shelves and walls. I picked a blueberry soda from Maine and went to eat dinner in my car. 

I want to complain about the plastic bag from the restaurant because it was tied with two knots, taped shut and then stapled shut but I Hulk Hogan'd my way into it and pulled out my Styrofoam containers of maybe the most delicious Lebanese/Mediterranean food I've ever had the pleasure of eating. I'd never had a cabbage wrap before and it made me do that thing you do when you're surprised while eating and you open your eyes as wide as possible without changing your expression and you move your head back a little and then make that Jack Nicholson downturned mouth of appreciation while sort of squinting your opened eyes. Is that just me?

The blueberry soda was yummy, but what sugary drink isn't?

After eating and maintaining an appropriate blood sugar level (or maybe a little on the high side), I went back into Pops with my fancy camera. You know the one I took all those Bison and Prairie Dog pictures with yesterday? Oh, I should mention, I turned off the beep, so shoppers wouldn't think I was a noob, like the Bison did.

I started snapping shots of the bottles on the walls, in the cases, on shelves. I took pictures of funny bottles and serious bottles and the soda fountain area and souvenirs. And that's when I noticed the little flashing note on the LCD screen that said something like, "Hey, did you remember to take the SD card out of your laptop after blogging last night?" 

...and that reminds me of the time I was at a friend's opulent wedding...when I snapped about 100 pictures and then realized that I didn't have a memory card in my camera. 

So, I mouthed a number of swear words behind my mask and started taking one-handed pictures on my iPhone while this expensive-ass camera dangled from my other hand. Noob.

Here are said pictures.

  

And some more pictures

And souvenirs, old candies and stuff

This is candy and NOT, definitely NOT fake cigarettes for kids

 Happy Little Tree Mints

I had a lovely time, though mad about the SD card, walking around and looking at all this old and useless junk which I totally bought some of. I checked out with the same girl who sold me the blueberry soda only minutes before. I asked her how many of the sodas she tired and she said, "Um. Maybe two. I don't really like soda." And that was the moment I realized I would drive to Kansas and love every minute of it. You can't get shit like this unless you travel the long, boring roads it takes to get to the PEOPLE. 

People are what make these trips worth anything at all. Just knowing that this girl (and I say girl, but she was probably 30...or 20...I mean, now that I'm old, I can't tell people's ages anymore)...where was I, oh right, this girl who doesn't really like soda, works at a famous soda shop on the Route 66 in Arcadia Oklahoma because she needed a job and one came up. Where else was she going to work? The Round Barn down the street?!

No, really. That's a thing. Two minutes down the road, The Arcadia Round Barn. But then that's it. I drove around the neighborhood a little and the prospects are limited.

And that concluded my very first full day in Oklahoma City. Charmed by the locals, delighted by the food and with a little more appreciation for the visually same-y highways that take people like me to people like you and everyone in between. 

#teampete

#infrastructure

p.s. maybe that Pete reference was a little too deep of a cut. He's the infrastructure guy now. Roads. Oh well, I'm tired.