Strolling around the University of Oklahoma…

We sure enjoyed our brief stay at the Winstar Casino RV Park but did not want to stay too long in this area known as Tornado Alley. Wednesday we stopped in for our free breakfast buffet for seniors at the casino and then took off for our next destination.

We traveled along boring Interstate 35 and headed north again until our arrival in Norman, Oklahoma. We pulled into the Cleveland County Fairgrounds and selected a site. We chose a site with 30 amp since it had a better view (of a community garden) through our dining side window.  However, if our A/C can’t keep up with the heat we will likely move to another 50 amp site. All sites have full hookups along the perimeter of the park but otherwise they are only electric and water. Twenty bucks a night is a good deal for being so close to Norman.  It is really just a large asphalt and gravel lot but this stay was selected in the hope it will keep us away from the severe weather forecasted all around us.

Since we are near the University of Oklahoma and love to tour campuses we drove over to the campus to the visitor center and obtained a visitor parking permit (free). We strolled around the quite scenic campus which has a lot of interesting architecture. It reminded us a bit of the Citadel with its castle-like architectural style on many of the buildings.

       

One thing that surprised us was the football stadium. With the stature of Oklahoma athletics we expected a more impressive stadium than they had. It is still nice but surely not as nice as we thought it would be. We did notice construction for what we assume was to close in the south side of the stadium.  Perhaps it will be more grand after the expansion.  Next to the field is a very nice walk through a park with statues of the university’s Heisman winners. 

Our last stop on campus was the Fred Jones Jr Art Museum. Wow! What a great find this turned out to be. The quality of art in this museum is unheard of for a campus museum and the admission is free! There is art from some of the great artists of all time such as Ansel Adams, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, Vincent van Gogh as well as a lot of Native American art. There was a few odd but interesting pieces but we feel this is a must see for visitors to Norman Oklahoma.

We also checked out a couple of local hangouts often frequented by OU students and faculty. First up was The Library which is a cool little hangout that brews some of its own beer. Alcohol laws in Oklahoma are on the strange side much like those in Utah. Next up was a really popular spot called The Garage which had we been hungry looked like it would have been a great spot for a tasty and inexpensive meal. Lots of people were there waiting for food and having a good time.

With more bad weather heading our way and with Memorial Day weekend looming we added another day here and will add more if we need to.