My Summer Life at Bartlesville
Few towns are in the middle of nowhere as Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
It was a summer for business and the calm quiet countryside left me with nothing to do but introspect, which I did rather excessively.
It might have been just me: the small families, with whom I interacted with, seemed generally content with the activity level of the place.
Most of the people in the town of Bartlesville work for ConocoPhillips.
And prefer QuikTrip gas stations when it comes to filling their cars! The town begins and ends with a US 60 state highway, with speed limits changing from 65 to 55 to 35 to 25 mph every quarter of a mile.
However uneventful the town is, the people are much helpful and friendly.
I have got my car stuck in a ditch and had people from the nearby house volunteering to pull it out with their truck.
I have lost my wallet with cash and all major credit cards only to have it posted back to me intact.
Not to forget, the conversations with the morning joggers and the dog-owners and the social outings with my church group that made me tolerate the circumstances, which were thrust upon, better.
Washington mall is the one-stop for shopping/entertainment and it is not uncommon for the residents to make weekend trips to Tulsa and Oklahoma city.
The mall had a Camille's café and a tomato soup and veganini sandwich on a cozy corner table by the window was my Friday evening usual.
A single daisy on the every table with the summery green and yellow colored walls completed the setting.
Tulsa, the nearest city, is often parodied as the 'Paris of Oklahoma'.
It is also the airport that most people use to fly out of Bartlesville.
It would be unjust to compare its connectivity to Hartsfield-Jackson; but I can say it served the purpose MOST of the times.
The Midwestern US is also famous (or infamous) for its temperamental weather.
I have driven into a couple of blinding thunderstorms on my many trips between Kansas and Bartlesville; a heavy car might be able to stand stable in the winds but not my ford focus! My car rocked from side to side, not always inside the lane, as pails of water just poured from the sky.
And the '2011 Joplin' tornado left us scurrying to the tornado shelters at ten in the night, my first week there.
Except for a few shattered windowpanes in the local hospital, the houses and other buildings escaped unscathed in Bartlesville.
Bartlesville public library has a well-stocked collection of non-fiction and books of general interest like travel and cooking and knitting, which kept me engaged for few weekends.
I found the swimming pool and gym facilities at the outdoor center excellent too.
If you are still reading this post, I want to say that there is one part of the summer that I doubt I would never ever not want - my long nightly walks with Dunkin along the cul-de-sac adjoining the house.
Hush, Dogs are better at keeping secrets than men...
at least I think!
It was a summer for business and the calm quiet countryside left me with nothing to do but introspect, which I did rather excessively.
It might have been just me: the small families, with whom I interacted with, seemed generally content with the activity level of the place.
Most of the people in the town of Bartlesville work for ConocoPhillips.
And prefer QuikTrip gas stations when it comes to filling their cars! The town begins and ends with a US 60 state highway, with speed limits changing from 65 to 55 to 35 to 25 mph every quarter of a mile.
However uneventful the town is, the people are much helpful and friendly.
I have got my car stuck in a ditch and had people from the nearby house volunteering to pull it out with their truck.
I have lost my wallet with cash and all major credit cards only to have it posted back to me intact.
Not to forget, the conversations with the morning joggers and the dog-owners and the social outings with my church group that made me tolerate the circumstances, which were thrust upon, better.
Washington mall is the one-stop for shopping/entertainment and it is not uncommon for the residents to make weekend trips to Tulsa and Oklahoma city.
The mall had a Camille's café and a tomato soup and veganini sandwich on a cozy corner table by the window was my Friday evening usual.
A single daisy on the every table with the summery green and yellow colored walls completed the setting.
Tulsa, the nearest city, is often parodied as the 'Paris of Oklahoma'.
It is also the airport that most people use to fly out of Bartlesville.
It would be unjust to compare its connectivity to Hartsfield-Jackson; but I can say it served the purpose MOST of the times.
The Midwestern US is also famous (or infamous) for its temperamental weather.
I have driven into a couple of blinding thunderstorms on my many trips between Kansas and Bartlesville; a heavy car might be able to stand stable in the winds but not my ford focus! My car rocked from side to side, not always inside the lane, as pails of water just poured from the sky.
And the '2011 Joplin' tornado left us scurrying to the tornado shelters at ten in the night, my first week there.
Except for a few shattered windowpanes in the local hospital, the houses and other buildings escaped unscathed in Bartlesville.
Bartlesville public library has a well-stocked collection of non-fiction and books of general interest like travel and cooking and knitting, which kept me engaged for few weekends.
I found the swimming pool and gym facilities at the outdoor center excellent too.
If you are still reading this post, I want to say that there is one part of the summer that I doubt I would never ever not want - my long nightly walks with Dunkin along the cul-de-sac adjoining the house.
Hush, Dogs are better at keeping secrets than men...
at least I think!
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