Saturday July 30, 2016 Home Again

We got up around 7:00 am this morning. I checked out the breakfast offerings at the Home2 hotel and decided the Cracker Barrel across the highway was the right decision. We enjoyed our stay at the Hotel2 suites. It was far and away superior to either of the Choice Hotels we tried, and interesting enough, less expensive! It was not elegant, but it was comfortable and well equipped. It will be one of our "go to" hotels as long as they continue with this level of performance.

After breakfast, and before leaving Tulsa, we wanted to once again visit the Rose Garden. This was one of the main reasons for our visit and it has turned into a weed garden. We wanted to capture the tail in photos. Once we got there, we noticed a sign that we did not see previously.

We will need to explore this a bit to determine how long ago this disease was encountered and if they are actually doing something to correct the situation. It was encouraging that perhaps the garden has not been abandoned for lack of interest. We did get some photos of the weeds.

We left town about 9:30 am and arrived home about 3:00 pm. The bird and the fish are all alive. The temperature in the sunroom was 95F and the ventilation fan was running. The fish seem to have eaten most of the the food wafers we put out for them but they were very interested when T threw them some food. The garden looks OK except it appears the squirrels found a way to get into the tomato plant enclosure.

Friday July 29, 2016 Fort Smith/Gilcrease

We stayed at the Quality Inn in Fort Smith, AR last night. It was a undistinguished hotel. We were on the second floor but they had no elevator. The only ice machine was on the first floor. The AC in the room ran continuously but never could reach it's set point. We slept fairly well however. We took breakfast at a Denny's and headed over to the Fort Smith National Historical Site. I got to use my senior park pass for the first time. Yeah! There is not much left of the fort (only the commissary and jail/courthouse buildings) but they have done well in portraying how it looked during its 80+ year history.

Jail/Courthouse and Parade Ground

Commissary

Jail in Basement of Courthouse

Judge Issac Parker's Courtroom

Convergence of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers

Landing at the site of the First Fort Smith

Paddy Wagon

We drove back to Tulsa and went directly to the Gilcrease Museum. It has been many years since we have been to the museum. We got there about 1:45 pm and first had lunch at their restaurant. We spent the next two hours going through less than one-half of the museum. We wanted to walk the garden, but were too tired. There were not photos allowed inside the museum.

We decided it was time to go to our next hotel. The Home2 Suites by Hilton is on the west side of the Arkansas River. While we regularly stay at Hilton hotels, this is a relatively new brand for Hilton and we have never tried them before. Upon check-in, we were most pleasantly surprised. We took their basic studio as opposed to the suite they offer. They both have kitchenettes with full sized refrigerator/freezers, dishwasher, microwave, sink, flatware, pots/pans, soap, paper towels, etc. Everything you would expect. The cost was much less than the Comfort Inn which only went through the motions of having a kitchenette. We are sold on Home2 Suites.

Tomorrow we head home.

Thursday July 28, 2016

We left the Comfort Inn and departed Tulsa, heading for Spiro Mounds. On the way, we stopped by Fort Gibson. T has visited this site numerous times during her reenactments with the 10th Kansas Infantry. It has been several years since her last visit. It was a HOT day and no one else was on the site except for the caretaker. He was very pleasant and seemed glad to see us.

Magazine

Bakery

Mess

Stockade

Then we went on to the Spiro Mound. This an Oklahoma Archaeological Historical Site. The civilization that live here dated from 850AD to 1250AD and was the most significant civilization in the western hemisphere during its time. It's influence reached from Virginia to California and from the Great Lakes to Florida. We were surprised to learn of its far-reaching influence in comparison to the Cahokia civilization near St. Louis. The "mounds" were not nearly as impressive as those at Cahokia.

We drove on to Fort Smith and checked into our Quality Inn (another Choice Hotel). They sent us to a room that had not been serviced since the last guest. Then they told us to come back to the lobby for reassignment. I told them they could carry our bags since there was no elevator in the hotel. Obligingly, they brought us a key to another room and we settled in for the night. The AC did not seem up to the task however.

Tomorrow we head back to Tulsa. We plan to stop at the Muskogee Five Civilized Tribes Museum on the way. We will stay at a Home2 Suite (part of the Hilton chain) before heading home on Saturday.

Wednesday Tulsa July 27, 2016

On our to-do list this visit is to take in the Woodward Park Rose Garden. When we lived in Tulsa 1998-2000, we loved to visit the Rose Garden. It was beautiful and glorious. We thought we would relive that experience along with revisiting the Philbrook museum and other places we enjoyed.

We got up Wednesday morning and scrambled some eggs and added some link sausage I absconded from the breakfast buffet. Not having any soap or cleaning equipment, we left the skillet in the sink, knowing the staff would put it in the dishwasher, add the soap and start the washer.

Arriving at the Rose Garden, we were SHOCKED to find, not the beautiful garden of our memory, but an unkempt, weed infested mess. It was very very sad. We did visit the  conservatory, the Arboretum and the Tulsa Historical Society.

From there, it was on to Philbrook which never fails to impress.

Tonight, we had a frozen pizza that T figured out how to bake using a combination of the microwave and the stove top. We arrived back at the hotel to find the staff had not left any soap, had not started the dishwasher and had just put the soiled skillet on the counter top. T was so enraged that she went down to the desk and complained. The Manager told her that no one has ever complained in her ten years of being manager. However, she did not know if the cleaning staff was supposed to start the dishwasher or not. She also confirmed that she knew the flatware was missing but went ahead and rented the room out anyway. She did seem a little surprised that there were no cleaning supplies. Very sad, but we learned what we needed to know about the Comfort Inn.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

We drove from St. Louis to Tulsa today. Other than the occasional rain deluge, it was uneventful. We stopped by Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q in Cuba, MO and picked up three pounds of BBQ meats (pork, beef, chicken), coleslaw and German potato salad. They also threw in a pint of BBQ sauce and a loaf of bread. This should see us through several meals.

Upon our arrival in Tulsa, we checked into our hotel. We (I) wanted to try some alternatives hotels this trip. We (I) decided to try the Choice Hotel line. This line includes Comfort, Quality, Sleep Inn, Econolodge, Clarion. The reason is that if we travel a lot, this line appears to have good coverage across the country. We (I) chose a Comfort Inn and booked their "Executive" suite with a kitchenette. Things looked good upon arrival. T was impressed with the size of the jetted bath tub.

Then we found the kitchenette had no flatware. T went down to the desk and they said "OH, the flatware was stolen by a previous guest, but we were welcome to pick up some plastic from the lobby buffet". Oh well, we were tired and ate some of the BBQ and went to bed. Before going to bed, we loaded the dishwasher and discovered there was no dishwasher soap and no cleaning supplies at all.

Monday, July 25 2017

We have been home from our trip to Orlando for about a month now. Tomorrow we depart for a short journey to Tulsa, Oklahoma and Fort Smith, Arkansas. We will be visiting the area in which we used to live, Woodward Park, Philbrook, etc. We loved our short stay in Tulsa between July 1998 and December 2000. This is where we were introduced to a backyard koi pond.

Since we arrived home, we have cleaned up the garden, invested the pond with ten goldfish (nine have survived). Our landscaper (John) has apparently deserted us and we are  making arrangements to have the remaining work done by other means. It has been very hot this July.

We brought the chess pieces up from the basement, but due to the heat, we have not yet played a game.

The tomato plants are doing well except for the squirrel attacks.

We have now "fenced" in the plants using nylon webbing. So far, so good.
The goldfish seem to be happy. They are about 5" long (not counting the fins).