I Been Everywhere - Oklahoma

This month's travel brought me to Oklahoma - Tulsa and Woodward, to be exact!

Sunday: Inspired by this post - I'm a Guest Blogger - on fellow blogger Hanna's blog... well, actually. It was more like reading this post alerted me to the fact that Hanna lives in Tulsa! Where I was going to be! Hanna and I met through the interwebs when we both agreed to write for the ill-fated Pretty Little YA Books. Though the website failed, the wonderful world of blogging and facebook kept us in contact. And so I got to meet her! Sunday, after I landed, I met Hanna for dinner. She's even more awesome than I'd imagined - we talked about books and writing and Harry Potter. We mostly talked about Harry Potter.

Monday: Two schools to visit - Oklahoma State Unversity in Tulsa, except this girl drove an HOUR out of her way to Stillwater, OK only to find out I was at the wrong OSU campus. Wonderful. Drove back, had my meeting and another before meeting Hanna again for lunch. Where we... can you guess? Talked about Harry Potter some more. I may have also gotten some pretty awesome gifts.

After leaving Hanna, I drove 3.5 hours to Woodward. It was probably one of the most amazing drives I've ever taken. Oklahoma is a beautiful state. I passed through the Painted Desert. I tried to take pictures with my Blackberry as I was driving, but that thing sucks. Here they are anyway. I recommend Googling the desert.

Somehow, the clearest shot was through the rear view mirror

Tuesday: Met with some amazing instructors at High Plains Technology Center. I met the Director and lead instructor on a flight last year on the way back from an Energy Conference. They invited me to come out to Oklahoma and climb their campus wind turbine. That's not something you say no to. Who, besides wind technicians, gets to climb a wind turbine? 

On the "small" side, their turbine stands 125ft tall. I got a safety lesson and then suited up in my harness and was hooked up to 30lbs worth of safety equipment. Then the climb. It was - terrifying and incredibly hard. With each step I thought - What the heck am I doing? But I did it and it was definitely worth it. 

 View from the top of the turbine

Me, terrified at the top of the turbine

Straight down the turbine. NOT taken by me

 Wednesday: Really, that was all the fun stuff. Except for the dinner that the instructor's cooked for me. It was a great time - and I got some business done too. Wednesday morning, I woke up incredibly early to make it back to Tulsa for a 9am appointment, which only last 30 minutes. Allowed me six wonderful hours at the airport! Yaaay....