We made to Tulsa!

Whew! The last 3 days have been jam packed!

Saturday, May 31st we arrived in Tulsa around 2:30 pm after 6 hours on the road from Amarillo. We were happy to pull into the driveway of our new home. Here is the photo of it from our property manager's website:

It has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath, so we will have a guest room (with a queen sized bed!) as well as our bedroom and an office/studio in addition to the main living areas. The house has been recently updated, including new appliances as well as refinished wood floors, new paint and the all important central air/heat.

We are very close to the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa which is 100% medical school. This is where J plans to transfer to complete his Bachelor of Science Degree. And just down the way we have a mall, called The Promenade as well as another one call Southroads Mall. So, L is a happy clam with all of the prospects of shopping! Saturday was hot and we were tired, but we managed to unload the trailer in record time, set-up the bed and unpack some boxes. J returned the trailer to U-Haul and L got the puppies settled into their new digs. They LOVE the big back yard! We fell into bed exhausted and relieved that we had made to Tulsa, all 1500 miles, with no complications or issues. Halleluja!

Sunday, we slept in, somewhat and Joseph ran off to Starbuck's to get us our "morning fix". The Sear's delivery man came and installed our new washer and dryer. Who knew we could be so excited about new appliances? I guess that means we're really adults now. No more quarters saved up to do 10 mega loads at the laundromat!

No sooner did the delivery man depart did the skies turn very dark and ominous. Within the hour we had thunder and then lightening. We had the radio on and all of the sudden that erie emergency warning sounded over the classical music station to which we had it tuned. As if cued by the radio warning a large thunder cloud clapped directly over our house and it released such a gush of rain and rush of wind it startled us. Through our big, picture window that looks out on the back yard it was like a scene from a movie.

The rain was gushing down as if it were being poured from dump truck sized buckets and the wind was whipping the trees so ferociously that they seemed to nearly double over and touch the ground with their upper limbs. According to the news, it was 70-80 mile an hour winds pummeling the city. The emergency sounds from the radio intensified and L panicked a bit and started crying. In Tulsa less than 24 hours, she thought her worst fear was coming true: a tornado that "never hits the city" was upon us.

After assembling clothing and dog supplies, extra water and preparing to bunker down in the interior most closet (supposedly the safest place in a home that doesn't have a storm cellar), the fury of the storm had passed. It lasted about 20 minutes total. Within hours, the skies had cleared and given way to bright blue with small, white puffy clouds. Apparently a similar episode had occured the day before, but since we didn't arrive in town until after 2 pm, all we saw were bright, clear skies. What weird weather!

After the storm, the streets in our neighborhood were littered with torn down tree limbs. One house had a tree fall directly on to the driveway, smashing the car that was parked there. Across the street, the tents that UO had erected for some sort of celebration were in a heap, piled up against a huge tree's trunk. Another tree had been completed ripped from the ground, roots and all! Many of our neighbors lost power (some were running generators), although we didn't at all (the lights flickered just briefly). The power was also out at the mall and on several major street intersections. We made our way to Target to stock up on batteries, flashlights, a hand-held radio and other emergency supplies. Joseph phoned a friend that he met while singing here last Spring and asked him if that was "normal". He assured us it was not and that this year, in general, the weather has been more severe than "normal". Welcome to Oklahoma!?!?

Later, in the evening, we ran some errands and drove around the neighborhood. Other than some big tree limbs piled on the curbs for pick-up, it was almost as if nothing had happened. Like there was some concious thought by each and every citizen of midtown Tulsa that they needed to trim their trees on Sunday. That was it. We even saw fireflies flitting about, which thrilled L. The dogs barked at them and then they were gone.