Mark 'Strider' Hedrick Home Page

Oklahoma
Home of National Champions
The OU Sooners!!

Missouri to Oklahoma (via Arkansas..huh??)
Tuesday Nov 7 - We left Salem around 6pm and decided to drive straight through to Oklahoma and arrive in the early hours of the morning. Mark had given me the awesome task of navigating from a US map (not a good idea!). I spotted Bentonville, AR tucked way up in the north-west corner of the map, very close to the OK border and thought it would be a nice idea to surprise Brandi with a visit while we were so close. Well it looks close on a map! I took Mark every which way and we finally ended up at Brandi's.

Mark’s perspective: Helen’s navigational skills are remarkable…if you learn to adjust to EVERYTHING being right and left. The concept of North, South, East and West are completely foreign to her. She holds the map on her lap with the top of the map being the direction we are headed and plots our course via right and left, while periodically changing the direction of the map to match our turns.
The following is a typical conversation:
Mark: “Honey, where do we turn for Oklahoma City.”
Helen: “Turn left.”
Mark: “Huh?”
Helen: “Turn left.”
Mark reading road signs, “We are going South on US #69, do I go East or West for Oklahoma City?”
Helen: “I don’t know - turn Left.”
Mark: “Helen, Please follow US #69 South until it crosses I-44 and tell me what direction I have to go in for Oklahoma City.”
Helen: “Oh, ok…Turn left on 44.”
Mark: “Huh? Are we East or West of Little Rock.”
Helen: I don’t know…Turn Right.”
Mark: “DAMMIT…the signs don’t say RIGHT and LEFT…to get onto I-44 all turns are to the right…the first goes West and the second goes East…now which one do I take?”
Helen: “The one that goes right!” Mark, “uuuuurrrrgggggggggg” I mentally flipped a coin and went West.

Ok..so midnight was a little late to be calling..but it's Brandi, and she's always awake! She was VERY surprised to say the least and although hero Mark claimed not to be tired, before we had even made a first cup of coffee, he was passed out on her sofa! I had a nice 4 hour visit with Brandi while HE slept and it was great to see her again. We took off around 4am and headed for Oklahoma City.
I had dozed off in the car during this sector, only to wake and find ourselves on Hell's Highway!! It was early morning traffic...but there was ICE!!!! I had never been on a road with ice before and I don't think I've ever been so frightened of being in a car in my life! There were cars in ditches to the left and the right, cars spinning in front of us. Tow trucks and rescue vehicles trying to help get them out. It was sleeting and snowing at the same time it seemed. We had to drive at a slow crawl for a couple of hours this way. We were never so glad to see a final destination as we were when we drove into OKC..now if we can just find our hotel..we can get some much needed warmth and rest!!
Now, the address said 3709 NW Expressway..funny..there was only a parking lot there..no Travelodge to be seen!! We drove up and down that expressway for over an hour, in those icy conditions, looking for this mysterious Travelodge (which I had booked online). I was starting to lose it big time! We gave up and were feeling desperate, so we pulled into the first hotel we saw..anywhere would do at this point! They were full..we drove on to the next one. They were a non-smoking hotel. We tried a 3rd hotel. Thank goodness they had 2 rooms left and there was us and another couple waiting to check-in. It was double the price of our original Travelodge...but we had no choice and had to take it. We finally got checked in after 10am! It had taken us just as long to drive around OKC finding a hotel as it did to come from AR! I had been waiting a long time to be able to indulge in a long, hot bath (no suds supplied by this expensive hotel though), a quick cup of instant coffee and then we slept most of the day.
We drove to Tinker AFB and did some shopping in the Base Exchange. It was here I found the item that allowed me to keep my sanity for the rest of the trip! I had been looking for the cigarette lighter adapter for the Toshiba laptop which would enable Helen to use the computer during our drive. I could not find the adapter but did find a 12 volt DC to 120 volt AC converter. Glory Be!! Helen could now spend the long hours in the car playing cards, downloading pics, and chatting with herself….she would be happy!
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner of real food at one of Mark’s favorite restaurants in Midwest City. MMMMMM..prime rib and seafood, it was GREAT! It also snowed that night and I thought it was wonderful to sit on the window ledge of the hotel looking at it (ignoring Mark's pleas to close the window because it was cold, of course!). Once the ice had melted, it was all very beautiful.
We were in Oklahoma for 2 days to take care of some personal business and register the car, but we also got to visit with Mark's daughter Susan and have dinner with his friend Steve and wife Peggy which we enjoyed very much!
Did we mention that the OU Sooners are the National Champions by beating Miami 13-2!!