Day 167: Construction Central

Location: Fayetteville, AR

We got up at 11:30 a.m. feeling rested, which was particularly important for Julia, considering she has been sick. She feels much better today, but still isn’t completely back to normal.

After checking out, our first stop was the Sheridan Road Veterinary Clinic, where Data was boarded for the last few days. He was extremely excited to see us and loved playing with the new toy my mom bought him for Christmas. Data was in dire need of another type of present – food. I called a few pet food stores before striking gold with Southern Agriculture. They had his food in bags of all sizes in stock, an extremely rare find! We then set out to put another present to use – a $50 Cracker Barrel gift card from my mom.

Julia was scheduled to have an interview for another internship at 2 p.m. We arrived at the restaurant at 1:30 p.m., plenty of time to eat before her interview … or so we thought. Our food took an unusually long time to arrive, requiring Julia to leave for her interview just moments before our meal even arrived. Her interview went well and our food was pretty good (although not as good as Cracker Barrel normally tends to be, which was strange).

After breakfast, we went into downtown Tulsa to try to get a feel for the city. Unfortunately, we spent about an hour driving around downtown, most of which involved fighting our way through roadblocks and construction zones. The entire downtown area, it seems, is under construction. Frustrated and uninspired, we migrated to the suburbs and saw the 5 p.m. showing of Charlie Wilson’s War. The movie was better than I had expected, though not great. There were allusions to current affairs (bad), but no direct references to them (good). The movie wasn’t preachy and Julia Roberts didn’t look and sound as much like an enraged horse as usual, although her eyes have really sunk into the back of her head at this point.

Following the movie, we had planned to get dinner at Don Pablo’s, a well-reviewed Mexican restaurant near the theater. Much to our dismay, we discovered that the restaurant had gone out of business just a few months ago. A receptionist at a nearby hotel informed me that there were “pretty much no good local places in Tulsa” and proceeded to recommend On The Border and Johnny Carino’s, two chain restaurants. Instead, we just picked up some pizza and spaghetti from Sbarro, a fast and cheap option in a nearby mall.

After dinner, we hit the road for Arkansas, arriving in Fayetteville at 11:30 p.m. We are now holed up in a Quality Inn. Tomorrow, we will pick up a Christmas package from Julia’s parents at a nearby post office before visiting the Fayetteville National Cemetery and meeting with our friend Brianne.

Here is a typical view of downtown Tulsa. Click on the image below for a larger version.