It’s a bit nippy, the weather app shows -11 degrees centigrade. I know now why the pioneers who came out west had it tough, not only did they encounter Native Americans, but many of them froze to death in those first early winters. The car warned me about my tyre pressures when I started her up this morning. I’m pretty sure it’s the cold that has contracted the air and that the light will go off once I get going, which proved to be the case.
I drove through a couple of Indian reservations on the way, most notably Cherokee Nation. Obvious from the huge casinos you pass on the Interstate.
Hesitating where to stay and go, I picked a motel called the Classen Inn, that has recently been completely refurbished, but in a funky 1970’s style. Perhaps Graceland has rubbed off on me and I need another fix of the 70’s.
The attention to detail is brilliant, down to the door furniture and the little room fridge with the old style pull handle. 
The artwork in the loo and on the walls is interesting too. It’s lovely and all that is missing is a big orange Space Hopper in the corner and a Chopper bicycle parked outside.
Oklahoma has a series of tunnels running under a large part of the centre of the city and I’m not surprised. The sun is out, but the freezing wind is flaying me alive!
The entrances to these tunnels are not obvious and many are private. I suspect a lot of tourists never even know that they are there, but I always try to find the real places and culture wherever I am, if I possibly can.
The tunnels are colour coded white, green, orange, blue, pink and red, otherwise you would get lost. This is done by the different colour strip lights. There are little cafe’s down here and a lot of great artwork and information about the past and how Oklahoma was founded and how it has been regenerated over recent years.
Bricktown is supposed to be where it’s happening, but there isn’t much happening to be honest. I had some decent Nachos in a lovely underground bar and there is a nice river that, in the summer you can go along by boat. 
Otherwise is was pretty deserted and a bit run down in places.
In the bar was an old table top computer games machine. These often used to double as actual tables in pubs, when I was a teenager. I actually had one in my house in Kingston Upon Thames in the 80’s. After a couple of games of Pac-Man, Galaxians and 1942, I saw one of my favourite games from then, called Bomb Jack. 
Once upon a time I was the pub champion at this game, I’m afraid my ability to play it has completely gone down the drain in the 30 year interval since I last played it.
Rather than go back to the motel and freshen up before going out again, I decide to stay out and headed over to the Mojo Blues club, where the Blue Rays are playing tonight. Sadly there weren’t many people there. I guess any one with sense probably didn’t want to go out in the cold.
Yet again though I strike it lucky, the band are really excellent. The drummer is a Ginger Baker type character, an excellent drummer with character, who has been incorporated into the music hall of fame.
You can smoke here too, but again it wasn’t a problem. 
The drummer played a whole song with a fag hanging out of his mouth without choking once!
The two guitarists were both really good too, one old one young and they took it in turns to play lead. They came up to me afterwards and thanked me for coming, which was nice and I had a good chat with them. A couple of them had played quite a few gigs in the UK on tour.
That’s about it for Oklahoma City, not much going on and although I’m pleased to have seen the tunnels and Bricktown, that’s about it for me here.
Tomorrow I start heading south into Texas and fingers crossed, an improvement in Temperature.