Welcome back. President Trump didn’t show up at the Tulsa Fairgrounds where I was autographing books on Saturday but everyone else did and the well-advertised gun show drew one of the biggest crowds in years. The show was held on the lower level of the big Expo Center and the Spring Home and Outdoor Living Show was on the upper level which the organizers told me was a bit slow. Live horse racing was also going on at the Fair Meadows track on the fairgrounds and they have had a bit of a crowd but employees tell me it could be better.
All of this was going on Friday and Saturday but for you and me the real story this week starts early Sunday morning at the BOK Center where the night before thousands of people had been inside the Center and thousands more outside, all getting ready for the President’s campaign rally.
I wanted to see what it looked like after a big event like this so I showed up Sunday morning around 9AM and the ten-foot-high steel fences surrounding the BOK along with barricades blocking streets were still up. I saw dozens of volunteers picking up trash and outside the perimeter of the fences which encompassed a four-block area more people were dragging trash sacks to already full dumpsters. A third group of folks was dismantling the fences and stacking them up for pick-up by the city on Monday. When I investigated a little further, I learned that these people had just seen a need and gone to work on it. Some people were part of the Black Lives Matter group, some were local residents and others were just plain old do gooders. It was inspiring to see all these folks working together and they certainly saved the City of Tulsa thousands of dollars in labor.
As I drove around downtown, I found that all the Quik Trips in the area were still closed and boarded up and many other stores had also covered their windows and doors with plywood for safety’s sake. The blank plywood had attracted a lot of street artists so there were beautiful drawings all over the place from the BOK to the Greenwood district. It was all pretty cool and I am also happy to report that I didn’t see any vandalism at all. Although there were still a lot of people on the streets everything was peaceful. Except for the fences and the good Samaritans picking up trash it seemed like a normal Sunday morning.
I had arranged for a visit to the thirtieth floor of the Bank of America building because the view took in most of downtown Tulsa and no matter what direction I looked from there were no fire trucks, ambulances or even police cars. As far as I could tell this big pep rally that most experts were saying had the potential for trouble stayed calm which is a good thing and says a lot for Oklahomans.
As for me and my hopes for a sit down with the President so I could sell him a book, maybe next time. At least for now things are loosening up a bit so I’ll be doing some appearances around the four-state area including Lorec Ranch in downtown Pawhuska at noon this Friday and Saturday. Then over the weekend of July 10th-12th I’m looking forward to a trade show in Guthrie which as many of you know was Oklahoma’s first state capitol.
Thanks for reading and till next time I’ll see ya down the road………….
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