After a lot of attempts to make a trip to Oklahoma City happen, I finally found a time that worked to be able to go and see one of my friends that I've known since the start of high school! I really wanted to make this trip a fun experience and one that was still affordable. I compared some numbers for flights from Austin to OKC and determined that driving would be faster and cheaper.
Previously, I wrote about a spring break road trip and a road trip that I took with one of my older sisters and nephew to Birmingham, Alabama. This post marks my third mention of a road trip and I wanted to find a way to recap the trip in a way that makes sense. Because I was taking a road trip from Austin to Oklahoma City, I only needed to stay on Interstate 35 for the entire drive. The total trip time would have been about 5.5 hours had I not stopped for breaks along the way. This was a solo road trip which meant I was not stopping too much during my journey for safety reasons. Here are the places where I did take time to stop and stretch my legs:
Czech Stop
Arguably home of the best kolaches in Texas! I got a sausage, jalapeño, and cheese puff along with an apricot kolache and apple kolache. I try to get something different each time I stop here.
Buc-ee's in Hillsboro
Sam's Club
In total, I spent about 50 consecutive hours in Oklahoma City from the time I arrived at my friend's apartment to the time I left. That means I wasn't there for long. However, I managed to explore a lot of what OKC has to offer. While I didn't get to see everything there, here are the places I visited and restaurants I ate at while in OKC:
Day 1 in OKC
Qdoba
The best way I can describe Qdoba is that it's like Chipotle but with more options and, in my opinion, better flavor. We used to have Qdoba in a couple locations in Austin up until a few years ago. When I saw that there were Qdoba locations in Oklahoma, I knew I had to go to one. Fortunately, there was one right around the corner from my friend's apartment and we went there for lunch. I got a bowl with chicken, cilantro rice, pinto beans, spicy queso, pico de gallo, cilantro, and lettuce.
Factory Obscura
If you love immersive art like I do, then Factory Obscura is the place for you! There are so many colors, textures, sounds, and lights that invite you into each space within Factory Obscura and make it feel like a gigantic 6,000 square foot playground. The artwork there is truly one-of-a-kind and Factory Obscura offers special glasses to help see everything in a rainbow or heart perspective as you view the displays from local artists. You can also purchase various items (such as stickers) from the gift shop that are designed by local artists. Factory Obscura was such a cool place to see the work of local artists and an excellent way to kick off seeing what OKC has to offer.
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Gorō
When you think of Oklahoma City, you probably don't think about it being a place with good ramen. That was my initial thought when my friend suggested we get ramen from a restaurant called Gorō. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how good everything on the menu looked and I was delighted to enjoy a generously filled bowl of chilled ramen! The chilled ramen was perfect since it was an extremely hot day and was so good that I instantly knew this is a dish I could eat over and over again without getting tired of it. I was excited to take some leftovers to save for a meal later on during my OKC visit!
Crest Foods
The last time I have truly shopped in a grocery store was December 2019 because I began doing my regular grocery shopping via curbside pickup in January 2020. My friend told me about Crest Foods which is a grocery store chain in Oklahoma and the location that we went to is open 24 hours. I wanted to check out some late night grocery store shopping because it's been years since I last stepped foot in a 24-hour grocery store. Crest Foods has some great prices and deals on their available products and I discovered products that you really only find when walking around in stores -- like Skittles beverages!
Day 2 in OKC
The Plaza
After eating breakfast and chatting about plans for the day, we went to the Plaza for some shopping. This is when I was able to confirm that some parts of Oklahoma City are similar to Austin. There is a strong interest in highlighting and supporting local artists. There's a theater group in this part of town, an improv group, and stores that sell various artwork by local artists! There are also several local restaurants in Plaza that offer a unique variety of options. While at the Plaza, we visited the following shops:
The Refillery by Local Lather
Out on a Limb
Folk.Life
Dig It Boutique
Pie Junkie
DNA Galleries
Bricktown
If you're looking for something to do in Oklahoma City that has something for everyone, I recommend checking out Bricktown! There is so much to do in this area from restaurants, to sports, to fun tourist attractions -- this place really has it all. We went to the following places in Bricktown:
Revolutions by HeyDay
Rendezvous Pizza
Bricktown Candy Co.
Brickopolis
We ended up at Revolutions by HeyDay on accident, but we decided to enjoy the bowling alley music while snacking on fried pickles before going to Rendezvous Pizza for dinner. We both ordered New York style pizza by the slice. I got a slice of pepperoni which is available every day and I chose the buffalo chicken pizza for my second slice which is one of their Tuesday specials. That was one of the best buffalo chicken pizza slices I've ever had! Once we finished eating out pizza, we went to browse Bricktown Candy Co. for a little bit and I quickly discovered that arcade games are a big thing in the Bricktown area. Revolutions by HeyDay had an arcade and so did the candy shop.
Brickopolis is also an arcade and we had the opportunity to play in their Tuesday night trivia as we waited to take our Bricktown Water Taxi. Trivia was announced over an outdoor PA system and we found an outdoor table by the mini golf place to work on answering the questions. This game of trivia was still going when we got on the Bricktown Water Taxi. However, we were able to continue playing because it was all being completed online!
The Bricktown Water Taxi is very similar to the River Walk boat tour I took when I did a day trip to San Antonio. You get to learn more about the history of OKC from a guide as you ride on a boat to see the different businesses, monuments, and art along with waterway. It only lasts about 45 minutes which means it's an activity that you can enjoy even if your time to visit Bricktown is limited. When our boat tour was complete, we went into Brickopolis to find out the results of trivia and found out that we got third place! Our prize was a $25 arcade card which we used to play a few games before rushing to one of the last Sonic locations open for the evening to get some snacks on the way home and avoid getting caught in a bad storm moving into the area.
Day 3: Returning to Austin, TX
My third day in Oklahoma City was just hanging out with my friend at her apartment and preparing to hit the road to return to Austin. I left around 2:00 PM and made a stop for a couple of hours in Fort Worth to see my sister and she took me to Heim Barbeque for dinner. This is one of the top five places in Fort Worth to get barbeque and I always use a brisket sandwich as my "control" to compare barbeque across different establishments. This sandwich was perfect and I can clearly see why Heim Barbeque is a top five spot!
Wrap-Up
Austin to Oklahoma City and back was a whirlwind of a road trip to say the least! I had no real expectations of OKC leading up to the trip. Everything about the city was a pleasant surprise and it was clear that in the last 20-30 year they made a lot of effort to enhance what the city had to offer to citizens and visitors. This is an excellent destination for a family-friendly road trip and vacation at a very affordable price. There are so many more things to do in OKC that I didn't even get a chance to see and I would have needed at least a week to get to most of the top places to check out in the city. I will definitely need to visit OKC again -- perhaps via plane though. The drive along I-35 is not very scenic once you get past Denton, TX with the exception of the Turner Falls Area in Oklahoma. Otherwise, there isn't much obvious civilization until you get to Norman, OK. If I do drive again, there are some other places where I would like to stop in Oklahoma while road tripping.
Until my drive up to OKC, it had been years since I took a road trip and this was the first time I did a solo road trip. Being from Texas, I only consider something a road trip once I have been on the road for 4+ hours. This was a relatively simple trip and perfect for me as a first time solo road tripper. I don't have any immediate plans for another road trip, but I'm looking forward to the next one whenever that happens and wherever it takes me!
Feel free to leave comments below, tweet/post (@KimiThoughts), or leave a post/message on Facebook (@KimisTravelThoughts) and share your experience taking a road trip to Oklahoma or visiting OKC!
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