We didn’t do much while we were in Oklahoma City, thanks to me working all day, every day. But there are two things about Oklahoma City that are worthy of note: Braum’s Ice Cream shops and the National Cowboy Museum.
After our third straight day of travel, Jett was in no mood to cook dinner Monday night. So we went to Braum’s, just down the road from the Twin Fountain’s RV Park. Jett fell in love with the place. We both got hamburgers (delicious!) and she got a peppermint stick shake (even deliciouser). It is a first-rate burger and shake joint, with the added benefit of being a mini-mart offering very competitively-priced fresh fruits and vegetables, plus its own branded ice cream. We visited Braums once every day we were in Oklahoma City, either for dinner, to pick up milk or fruit or to get one of those great shakes.
I originally thought that this was a local institution, but we found Braum’s shops as far east as Missouri. Great place!
I also took a couple of hours out from my Saturday workday to take Jett to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum which was conveniently located less than two miles from our site. We went primarily because Jett was interested in seeing cowboy and Indian artifacts and we did see some of those. But the main attraction of the museum is its western art. It has numerous statues and galleries of paintings by western artists. There is an entire gallery devoted to Frederic Remington. I am not a big fan of his paintings – too much like Thomas Kincaide’s schlock to appeal to me – but I love his sculptures. The museum had some larger-than-life reproductions of some of his work that were very striking.
Museum lobby
Mountain lion
Cowboy
The artifacts included some authentic Indian clothing, furniture and jewelry, as well as some real cowboy clothing. I like the gallery of Western TV and movie stars. There was also a replica of a western town that was marginally interesting and a section devoted to rodeo heroes that I didn’t know.
Walter Brennan tribute
We also went to the Cimarron Steak House, a famous Oklahoma City steak joint. We had a decent meal there for a very fair price – $51 for the two of us, drinks and appetizer included – but I can’t rave about it. It was a bit like a mini version of the Hilltop Steakhouse.