States No. 25 & 26 - Oklahoma & Kansas

This was a 10-day trip spanning Oklahoma & Kansas.  I'm very late (for reasons I shall not discuss), so let's do this.

I went to Crossfit OKC on Friday afternoon.  Coach Ginny was very good, checked on the athletes as we were doing the strength & then the metcon.  Programming made sense, movements made sense, strength & metcon were pretty good.  Staff & other athletes made me feel welcome.  This place was so good I revisited on Monday with a different coach & got the same results.  If you are in the area, I suggest you drop in!

At the Jerry Spann Memorial, the Tournament Theme was opposite color Bishops.  Each of my last 3 rounds had opposite color Bishops featuring prominently into the decision of the game, & one of the other games that affected the distribution of the Top A prize also had opposite color bishops.

(Note: For some reason, I am having difficulty getting the code to work with my game on the same page.  It has something to do with my annotations where part of the game will publish on my page & then cut off.  Please use the links to view the game in its entirety.  If I get a chance to fix this for good, I will.)

Round 5 - Jerry Spann Memorial, Oklahoma City, OK
http://view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2019/8/11/Game639909343.html

Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum.  This museum has exhibits, pictures, & videos detailing the attack that happened on April 19, 1995.  There is a lot of information covering the days before, the day of, the recovery, & the time period after the event.  One of the criticisms I did have of the museum was that a majority of the videos were too long.  There were at least three videos that I thought circulated more than ten minutes, & that seemed too long if you wanted to watch the entire videos.  I did see the Survivor Tree, the tree that survived the attack, but there weren't many good pictures I could take because museum staff was fixing a display about the tree.

There were quite a few murals & other pieces of artwork in the Bricktown section of Oklahoma City, but I only captured 1 mural & one bridge on my phone.

I encourage you to visit & see these & more.  Miniature golf is nearby, & if you hit a hole in one on #18, you get a free game of laser tag.  If you can, however, please change out of a lime green shirt.  It stands out alot in the dark...

On the next day (Tuesday) I traveled a bit on US Route 66, visiting the Nut House & the Blue Whale of Catoosa.  I picked up a new, neutral hat so I can go back to places where Giants & Knicks hats are not welcome. 

Useful for visiting places like Cream Cheese City, which is decidedly not friendly to Giants & Knicks items.

I also picked up a piece or two of some really good fudge.  Pretty good selection there & plenty of other fun items centered around US Route 66, make sure you drop in. 

The Blue Whale is best to bring kids around to climb up into the structure.  The only thing that would interest adults is the multiple town mileposts.

I just realized I have been to three towns on this post.

I would have liked to continue farther northeast to Mickey Mantle's Childhood Home & the Dairy King as other items/places to visit along US Route 66, but I knew the driving would have been too long for me on that day (6 hours minimum total, not including stops for food & such) & I was battling remnants of an illness. 

On Wednesday, I visited the Sedgwick County Zoo, the Nifty Nut House, & Crossfit Wichita.  For the zoo, a private tour was arranged by an acquaintance.  I loved the Zoo - I thought the zoo staff was delightful in explaining things. 

The Nifty Nut House  had all the main nuts in the center of the shop.  Workers would let you sample one, & then if you liked it, they would measure out in weight how much of the particular nut you wanted.  Warning: Lots & lots of nuts.  I didn't think 3/4 of the combinations I saw were possible.

CrossFit Wichita had a strange warmup: Row once, trying to get the display to stop at 125 meters exactly.  If you are off, the difference is the number of wallballs you have to do (e.g. 113 - do 12 wallballs because you are 12 away from 125).  Row twice, but blind - try to stop exactly at 125 without looking at the screen while rowing.  I was 15 over while sighted & 13 under blind.  Shows how much more I need to know for rowing.

For Thursday, the next stop on the trip was the Museum of World Treasures in Wichita, KS.

So there were interesting dinosaur skeletons that were found within the midwest in the first part of the first floor.  First floor also happened to have a section of the Berlin Wall, artifacts from the Chinese, Hindu, Buddhist, African, Egyptian, & Greek Cultures.  The second floor contained mostly items from various wars, & the US Presidents.  The third floor had items from the old west, but the sports & pop culture sections were sadly not there.

I didn't feel like the organization of the groups that they had was great...the timeline skipped & jumped in quite a few places.  Also, the disappearance of the sports & pop culture sections really was a letdown when I reached the third floor.

I did see an early version of the Kansas State Seal, which was fascinating.

The Keeper of the Plains is a 44-Foot Tall steel sculpture where the Big & Little Arkansas Rivers join together in downtown Wichita.  Recent Renovations, including two new pedestrian foot bridges, help people come to see the daily Ring of Fire show.  The Keeper of the Plains manually lights up for about 15 minutes at night & the scene is beautiful.

If you watched The Lion King back in the 1990s, you should know that the song came to mind when I saw this.

Daytime view of the Keeper of the Plains

Nighttime view, before the lighting

What a sight!

Even from the pedestrian bridge, you can feel the heat!

I struggled quite a bit in the second tournament.  I lost a pawn in Round 1 & had to fight hard to win that game against the same opponent who drew against me in Round 4 in Oklahoma City. 

Round 1 - Kansas State Open, Wichita, KS
http://view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2019/8/11/Game639982343.html

I got thoroughly destroyed in Round 2, using the Petroff Defense, as my kingside was ripped asunder & I lost in 22 moves.  I hung a pawn in Round 3, eventually losing, & may have stolen a theoretical draw in Round 4 in a Rook ending.  I was so tired from the remnants of the illness & my extended play that I offered a draw in Round 5 when I may have had an advantage!

I'll try to remember to put my reviews on Yelp in the next few days.  While I thought Raising Cane's was a disappointment, it should not have surprised me as I think Carl's Jr. & Hardee's have the same parent company.  However, I really liked

Hideaway Pizza, Oklahoma City, within a mile of the Memorial.

An appropriate use of Comic Sans Font!

Maui Magic with Parmesan-Herb Shake Added

Ziggy's, College Hill, Wichita.  Ordered the Costanzwich & loved it.  Also finished a pizza from someone else.

A specific size & the best 'Za in 'Ta?  I think so.

This is a nice piece of art.

Braum's, South of the Tournament, Wichita.  The chocolate Milkshake was heaven.  This is the fast food restaurant that I believe is better than: Raising Cane's, Hardee's, Carl's Jr., In-N-Out, McDonald's, White Castle, Wendy's, & Whataburger.  

Since I have passed the 25th state mark (actually 26), I will conclude this post with my normal updated map & a new map.

Updated #fiftystatesofchess map

New Map - States by Win-Loss Differential

And now onto State No 27, which I would like to do before Southwest Airlines leaves Newark International Airport in November, but the list of new states I can visit is pretty low and the dates I can do it are tight...