USA Trip - Part 2 - Tulsa Oklahoma

We travelled painlessly once again and landed in Tulsa slightly ahead of time, all that we needed to do was to reclaim our baggage and collect our car. As it had been an internal flight there was no involvement with immigration or customs so we made our way to baggage reclaim by following signs. We were both quiet and then quietly relieved to find that the airport had been altered over the years since we had been there. Our previous two arrivals in Tulsa were differently poignant, our first visit was to visit Andy during his first year at Oklahoma Wesleyan University on the occasion of Julia’s birthday and he met us in the foyer of the airport having already grabbed our bags ready for us, the second was when we returned to Oklahoma to collect his personal effects two days after his funeral, then we were greeted by Kathy Ensor who looked after us throughout that visit. It was a relief that nothing seemed exactly as we remembered it.
In due course we found the Car Rental area. Car hire nearly defeated us; the system struggled to cope with us not having a zip code and an American phone number. At last we were adequately identified and were ready to have a car allocated to us, DialAFlight had made all the arrangements perfectly but I wonder how two independent travelers would have coped with middle-America’s unawareness of the United Kingdom. We were asked if we would like to upgrade to a bigger car from the compact that we had specified, we declined and heard the clerk pass on the instruction to give us the smallest available vehicle. We made our way to the ground level to claim our transport, a smiling Dollar representative ushered us to a 4x4 which must have been two levels above compact. Julia enjoyed the driving experience and after one missed turn close to the airport which took us into a poor area next to the railway we found our way to our hosts, the Ehlers. Ken and Margaret Ehlers are the adoptive parents of Sarah, Andy’s girlfriend who was killed with him in the accident returning from their home in Lake Jackson Texas where they had spent his first and last Christmas away from home. They have had links with Oklahoma which probably had something to do with Sarah going to college there and they have retired to Tulsa rather than stay in Texas. After much deliberation they have settled in Jenks, a district of Tulsa, quite close to Sarah and Andy’s fatal accident. They made us most welcome and we very much admired their new home which they had been able to supervise from the ground up. Space is plentiful in the Midwest and their house is large with all the living areas downstairs and the upstairs devoted to Ken’s model railway. Roughly two thirds of the space is the layout which he is in the construction stage and the other third is his workshop where he produces his models. It was interesting to see the various stages in the layout’s development as different parts had progressed further than others. Ken is one of the premier railway modelers of the USA.
The following day was Friday and we went for a walk round the estate which has lakes as a feature. We then were driven by Margaret into Tulsa where we spent some time in the Boston Avenue church, a most impressive building. Incidentally it was refreshing for Julia and I to find it open to casual visitors and very welcoming. While we were there a member of the church community put on the lights in the main area that we could better appreciate the overall effect. Ken and Margaret have not yet found a church which totally fits them so they spend considerable time checking out possibilities, this church certainly impressed!
We then went on to Philbrook house which is an art gallery and an impressive house and gardens in its own right. Julia and Margaret have similar backgrounds and experiences so they get on very well together and the time passed quickly. We returned to the house and Ken drove us to Bartlesville to see Oklahoma Wesleyan University again and to meet up with some friends of Andy and Sarah. We were shown round the campus with its recent improvements by Jamie and Sam Peterson, Jamie played soccer with Andy and Sam was Sarah’s roommate. It was good to catch up with them again, they married shortly after graduating and Jamie told me that they had never planned to settle at OKWU but they were still there and he had just been appointed to coach the men’s soccer programme.
After seeing them, we four went to Casey and Kendra Culver’s apartment where Kendra cooked a Turkish themed meal for us all – they are hoping to return to Turkey in the future.
Saturday was busy. We met up with the Ensors, Jon Savannah, his wife, Brent and Kathy at a Rib Crib quite close to the Oral Roberts campus. Jon Ensor was Andy’s roommate in his second year and his family has been immensely supportive to us. When we came over after Andy’s funeral it was the Ensors that we stayed with, during that time there were many difficult tasks which were made easier by their help and support. It seemed that they had been thinking ahead for us and had made contact with the various agencies and people involved. It was upsetting to learn that Kathy had suffered some health problems and Brent had lost his job recently but they remain very positive people with a deep faith. It was our first meeting with Savannah and she was also delightful.
We were ambushed by the menu, Julia and I ordered first then both Ensor couples split a meal each. We then found ourselves totally unable to finish the entire side of beef and full sized ostrich which it appeared that we had on our plates. Ken later suggested that, as a rule of thumb, any meal costing over $10 could be split between two.
We had no sooner arrived back at the Ehlers than we got a call from Mikey Manghum suggesting that we could meet up at Oral Roberts. We returned to much the same area and met him outside the Maybee Centre. He showed us round the university with particular reference to the sporting facilities. Although he is a “walk-on” player this year it is clear that they are expecting him to be an asset to their programme – he has his own area in the locker room with a flat screen tv/dvd player. Having seen all the improvements to the OWU sports centre we were not fully ready for the division one level of facilities. That afternoon the ladies team was playing an extended scrimmage against another college so we sat in and watched. There are three links to English basketball on the ladies squad, Georgia Jones daughter of Jeff Jones an ex-derby coach, Dominique Allen daughter of Clive Allen a legend in Birminghamn basketball and Cristal Turner from Solent. The intensity was suffering by the time we were watching as they had already been going for two hours and they just kept re-playing the second period. The coaching staff, assistants, graduate players etc were spread over the floor making sure that the girls knew exactly what they should be doing in each situation.
Oral Roberts has a strict regime which was illustrated by the fact that Julia was not allowed into Mikey’s dorm at all and I was required to show photo identification if I was to go in with him. He told us that the university had only just relaxed the dress code for lectures from long trousers, shirt and tie by removing the requirement for a tie.
When it came round to 5.30 Mikey was required for the pre-game meeting even though the plan is for him to “Redshirt” this season, making him a squad member who trains but doesn’t play in the matches.
In some ways our trip to the local diner brought home the community involvement in college sport to us like little else. The waiters were all wearing an Oral Roberts game day t-shirt and the place was packed with people clearly going to the game which was only a pre-season friendly.
On our return to the stadium we went to the “Will Call” window and sure enough Mikey had left us tickets. We found our seats but the arena was far from full so we were able to move forward. Mikey couldn’t sit with us as he was expected to sit on the bench but in the second half Georgia Jones came over to sit with us and was great company. The match was a blow-out which ORU won easily.
After the game we met up with Mikey before returning to the Ehlers.
The following day was Sunday and we were due to fly on to Dallas. After breakfast and a walk on the estate we had a photo call with the Ehlers before driving back to the airport. We checked the car in and again the airline was happy to let us have our extra bag free of charge on the basis of it being part of the original flight plan. The flight was full again but left on time and we were heading on to Texas.