Monday 4-1-24 The Gathering Place, Pinball & More

 

April Fools' Day!!!

Happy April Fools' Day. Did anyone play any jokes on you today? Larry didn't play any jokes on me. I didn't play any jokes on him either.

Last night once again we slept with the fan going. The only difference is Larry kept the fan going when he woke up. I crawled out of bed at 7:00 and Larry asked why are you up so early. I said I had to go to the bathroom. I didn't bother going back to bed instead I made pancakes using the Cinnamon Toast Crunch pancake mix. I made them in a cast iron skillet on the stove. After breakfast we put things away. We were going back to Tulsa.

Yesterday, when I was walking a few of the locals recommended that we go to The Gathering Place. Larry found it and plugged it in our GPS. We were on the road going towards Tulsa by 9:00. 

The Gathering Place is a 100 acre riverfront city park where everyone can come together and have fun. The dream of the park came true because of the George Kaiser Family Foundation and private donations.They broke ground in 2014 and opened the park to the first families in 2018. It keeps on growing. If you're ever in Tulsa, Oklahoma I highly recommend the Gathering Place. It is an amazing place for both children and adults.

We arrived about 9:30. It is an unbelievable place to be. They keep on expanding it. There are things for everyone to do. We walked paths throughout the park, there were lot of playing area and gardens. There were a lot of people there with their little ones. The park has a bike/walking trail, one lane for the walkers and another lane with two lanes for the bikes going both directions. They have ponds with Koi swimming in them. One area had a beach and dock along with a place to feed the fish. There was a huge cool area with towers, ships and climbing bridges to get from one side to the other. There was a rope climbing area, swing areas, a water park, BMX race track made of concrete, slide area and many more. The water park was closed. There were places to play some instruments. The a kayak area on the Arkansas River is under construction. There are gorgeous building to relax in. In one of the buildings we saw a mother schooling her kids. The walls were made with different size and shape of boards. The steps were made of rocks, that were cut to look like wood. One section you walk through had tall rock walls. There are walking bridges and one that goes across the river. We walked around for about two hours and had a lot of  fun watching families playing together. 

 

One of the Koi ponds

 

A slide section

 

Sliding down one of the slides

 

Beautiful man-made rock walls

 

Working on the rapids for kayaks

 

BMX bike track

 

Slide exit through elephant snout

 

Walking bridges from one tower to the next

 

A castle in one of the young children area

After walking around The Gathering Place we went back to the Minnie and Larry programmed our next destination into the GPS. Magoo's to play pinball and to have lunch. It's only 10 miles from The Gathering Place. 

Magoo's is sport bar and grill. It has 30 pool tables, a snooker table, arcade games, pinball machines, Foosball, 20 televisions, air hockey and a grill. It's located in a strip center. It has weekly pinball tournaments.

We arrived there about 11:30. The pinball machine games work with quarters. The cost range from $.75 to $1.00. There a charge machine located by the machines. We played for about an hour and a half and spent $10.00. We played an hour and then took a lunch break. We ordered from their grill. We had a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings. When ordering the burger you choose what cheese you wanted on it and mushrooms or bacon. The burger comes with a side there were a few to choose from so we decided on the onion rings. The service was excellent and the employee was very friendly. We played Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Toy Story 4, Dale Jr., Led Zeppelin, The Light That Brings, Spider Man, Elvira House of Horrors and Teenage Mutant Turtles. They had a cool statue of Marilyn Monroe above the door. The machines played very well and we got some free games by matching. The machines were in great condition. They were getting some of the machines ready for their weekly tournament on Wednesday. They had employees working on the machines all the time we were there. There were six or seven of the pool tables being used. Magoo's was clean and very well kept up. The food was delicious. The onion rings tasted like they were homemade and melted in your mouth. I would recommend Magoo's if you ever visit Tulsa, OK. Below are pictures of some of the games we played. We had a super time at Magoo's.

 

Magoo's entrance

 

Marilyn Monroe

 

 

Pinball machines from the bar

 

The Light That Brings

Larry playing pinball

 

Playing pinball with my virtual pinball tee shirt 

 

Dale Jr.

Led Zeppelin

 

Spider Man

 

Our lunch
 

After playing pinball we went back to Brush Creek Campground. We got back to our site by 1:30 and plugged back in. There was some rain in the area. While returning to the campground the Minnie had some sprinkles on it. Larry checked the weather and it said that the rain was going to be here between 6:00 and 7:00. So I decided to do my walk early. I ended up walking around the Wellness Trail four loops for a total of 4 miles. By the end of the day I had gotten 18,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group. Tomorrow I may not get too many steps, it depends on the weather.

They were projecting dangerous storms with large hail for today but fortunately that didn't happen. We did have some thunder and a bit of rain but nothing serious.

I did the Daily Challenge of Solitaire and the Event. The event was Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 11 minutes and 45 seconds, which put me in 24th place in my group. I don't have Angry Birds or Mahjong on my computer so I won't be playing them on my trip. I tried to download Mahjong but the internet connection is too slow.